On a Thursday night a few weeks ago, I gave a talk at our UCI Cru weekly meeting about Jesus being Lord and what that means for our lives.  Apparently, God used it as a tool in the life of a freshmen girl who was listening.  Below is the story in the words of Erin (top row, second from right in picture above), who came to South Africa with me this past summer.

“Jackie (top row on the left in picture) has been coming to our Bible study since last quarter. She is super sweet, kind of shy, and asks really good questions.  On Monday after Bible study, she mentioned that she was going through a hard time and was having trouble sleeping.  Shawnda [Campus Crusade staff]and I prayed with her and gave her some suggested reading.  On Thursday night after our weekly Campus Crusade meeting, I followed up with that conversation and checked in to see how her week was going.  She said that she was doing better and sleeping well.  Then she told me about how she related to the talk that evening when the speaker shared that all he cared about in college was academics and getting good grades.  She confessed that she was the same way.  She asked about doing good works for ourselves versus doing good works for God and how God uses us.  I remembered then that Jackie wasn’t there for our very first Bible study when we talked about the Gospel.  I grabbed a ‘Knowing God Personally’ booklet [a tract that presents the Gospel], sat down with her, and started going through it.

“She was really engaged and I could just see God working.  She was getting it—concepts were clicking and lights were going off.  It was beautiful!  After going through the 3rd point in the booklet I asked her, “Why do you think Jesus had to die?  Why couldn’t He just be a good teacher and tell us that we were bad, and then forgive us?” She admitted that she didn’t know.  But after explaining that the wages of our sin is death (Romans 6:23), she fully understood.  She said that even though she had been going to church for quite some time, she had never heard the Gospel presented in this way.

“After discussing the last point and reading the prayer of response to her, she decided to give her life to Christ!  Jackie has been coming to our Bible study faithfully for almost four months and I just assumed that she already knew the true Gospel and assumed that she already knew God personally.  I was wrong to assume but praise God that He knew what was up the entire time!  I am super excited that God chose to use me even though I didn’t really feel like I was fully prepared to share the Gospel with her!”

I’m thankful for Erin pouring into her fellow students in such significant ways.  Thank you for your prayers and giving that allow stories like this to happen!

It’s a tradition.  Every year, students come from all over California, Arizona, and Hawaii to San Diego for 4.5 days of teaching, fellowship, worship, and evangelism.  So many college students are deeply affected each year.

Also tradition is that my favorite part is world missions night.  Students are told stories of how God is working throughout the world, presented with the current needs, and challenged to consider going themselves to help meet the need.

The need was very well illustrated this year through a student choir, which sang “This Little Light of Mine”.  On the screen in the background, stats of the number of followers of Christ in different parts of the world flashed across the screen.  The whole choir sang vibrantly and joyfully as countries such as the United States were shown with its relatively large number of Christians.  Members of the choir began to walk off stage, however, as countries with smaller amounts of Christians were shown on screen.  The choir kept getting smaller and quieter.  Sadly, as Middle Eastern countries were being shown, there was only one choir member left.  She sung slowly and alone as countries with millions and millions of people only had a few thousand followers.  Then, mid sentence, her singing stopped, and it was dark.  Cities and provinces that had millions of people but had no followers of Christ were shown.  They kept coming one after another.  It was shocking.  And sad!

Students sing “This Little Light of Mine”.

Chris Ward, a sophomore from UC Santa Barbara, then shared about his experience last year in the Middle East.  He took a full year off of school to devote himself to helping reach Muslim students.  He then challenged students to go to the places of the world that need to hear about Jesus.

Chris Ward, UCSB student, challenges students to go to the world.

The next night, students were given a chance to indicate decisions that they had made at the conference, some of which were to go to the world for a summer or a year.  There were boards all across auditorium that were filled with responses.

Boards across the room are filled with students indicating how they are responding to God.

It’s so exciting to think that God is raising up laborers to go the world directly from the college students currently involved in our campus movements.  Thank you for being part of this process of reaching the world with the Gospel.