From Depression to Breakthrough

Zach shares a story of how God worked on his summer mission

Fresh from four weeks of intensive evangelism and discipleship at North Myrtle Beach Summer Mission, Zach (St. Cloud student, left) is excited to help fellow students come to know Christ.  It’s an amazing shift from the Zach of a few months ago, crying himself to sleep at night … wondering what to do, where to start, and how to fix things.    

A weekend partier since high school, Zach’s drinking had started to become more of a “Monday through Sunday” thing. COVID restrictions hijacked the end of his sophomore year, leaving the same 30 or 40 students showing up at the same bars each night, all flush with stimulus cash.

Segueing into summer 2020, underage Zach, ended up in police custody, having blacked out on someone’s front lawn. Considering his major in Law Enforcement, the irony of the arrest sent Zach into deep depression. What had happened to that competitive, athletic, “decent grades” guy he used to be? Sobbing in his bed, feeling unfulfilled and without a future, Zach texted Trevor, his older brother, “I’m so sick of this lifestyle.” Trevor’s reply? “Go to Cru.” 

Trevor, also in Law Enforcement, had encountered God through Cru a few years earlier. At the time, 16-year old Zach couldn’t understand how Trevor had been able to change from the angry brother he’d known his whole life. 

“I’m jealous of your breakthrough. I don’t think it will work for me … but I’ll try,” Zach texted back.

So Zach walked into a church where students had gathered to experience Cru’s virtual Winter Conference. He felt emotionally drained and doubtful — conspicuous —until he heard the band playing a song tailored just for him: Breakthrough. Amazed, Zach felt relief, the weight lifting off of him. 

“Like a toddler in a new world,” is how Zach sums up his spring semester experience of salvation, discipleship, Bible study, and church.  After spring, he decided to go on a Cru summer mission, where God’s loving truth continued to penetrate: “My faults and mistakes no longer define me.” 

Now back at St. Cloud, Zach is leveraging some of his recent training in evangelism, helping Cru reach out to other students, initiating Christian community in the dorms, and emceeing Cru’s weekly meeting. “God has given me a big heart for others.”

Thank you for praying for and investing in the eternities of students like Zach in Sacramento, and the students (like his brother) who will reach the “Zachs” on each campus.  We are so grateful for your partnership and care!

PRAYER REQUESTS

  • Please pray for God’s grace and provision amidst unforeseen challenges that COVID-19 poses to our work with students. 
  • Pray that God would give students a desire to reach their friends with the good news of Jesus. 
  • Please pray for fresh vision and leading as we trust the Lord to move on several campuses.  And pray for God to establish new, sustainable ministries. 
  • Pray for the health of our team and family.

A Bible Study Grows at Emporia

Kansas staff look for students interested in growing in their faith at Emporia State University!

Joel transferred to Emporia State University in Kansas mid-year — and then got COVID. Quarantined, and knowing no one on campus, Joel began reading the Bible.

Around that same time, Cru staff from other campuses in Kansas decided to carpool to Emporia every other week, hoping to initiate gospel conversations with willing students.

After starting off with, “Hey can we ask you a quick question?,” they would follow up with, “Would you consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus?” This question helps surface uninvolved Christian students, and/or those ready to become Jesus followers.  

One day, fresh out of quarantine, Joel found himself walking through the student union, responding to a couple of Cru staff, “Yes, I’m a follower of Jesus.” Listening to Joel’s story, the staff rejoiced, feeling themselves part of God’s plan for Joel.

It’s not always that easy or smooth though. For some, these conversations can be nerve-racking. One staff guy named Colin describes one such encounter:

“Braydin and I were getting ready to initiate conversations at the union. Around the corner was a table of five guys. Braydin said we should go talk to them. My response: ”No, man, I don’t want to do that! That’s intimidating.” After all these years, my heart still jumps out of my chest, getting ready to approach someone new. After some coaxing, I agreed to go talk to them. I dropped and did some pushups to get the blood flowing, and we rounded the corner. (Yeah, I know…)”

When Braydin and Colin approached the table, they found that none of the five guys were fully following Jesus. Some had gone to church, while some had questions they thought Christians were unwilling to consider. The conversation continued as they traded jokes and laughed together. Before leaving, Colin and Braydin invited the guys to a Bible study later that day, not really expecting them to show up. But, four of them came!

Now, the students meet every other week to read and discuss the book of John, words written to guide the reader to “life in His name.”

God is at work on campuses across the country and world! Thank you for being a part of giving students like these an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. We are so grateful for your partnership in this work!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Praise God that he draws students like Joel and others to Himself and gives them life in His name!  

Pray that the Lord would raise up many incoming students this summer.  Pray they would be able to get connected to community and have spiritual conversations even before starting classes.

Pray for our team as we adjust to different summer assignments.  Please pray for refreshment, focus, and fruitfulness this summer.

The God of All Comfort

“We were shocked.”

Ansar (name changed for security reasons) lost his dad last year in a car accident. Losing such a close family member is something that would shake anyone. In times of both joy and sadness, like many in his country in Central Asia, he goes to the mosque and prays five times per day. “It’s my best way to help my mind in troubling situations,” says Ansar.

Allah, however, is far from humanity, a completely “other” god who is unknowable. To be with Allah, one must go through a lifetime of religious activities and rituals to get into paradise. Yet, even then, one can’t ultimately know whether they’ll be with Allah until he arbitrarily forgives or punishes people on judgment day. If I’m honest, this far-off god doesn’t seem very comforting and helpful in times of need, times that Ansar has experienced.

The Bible, however, provides hope. Yes, God is far above us, and his thoughts are not like our thoughts, but he is also close to his people, being the God of all comfort and comforting us in our affliction (2 Cor 1:3-4). Furthermore, Jesus left heaven and entered into suffering, experiencing suffering and death himself. This God wants to know us deeply. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

I (Jeff) have shared the message of Jesus with Ansar in conversations this semester. Pray that he would come to see Jesus as his God and savior.

Thanks for partnering with us to bring the message of comfort to the brokenhearted like Ansar, both locally and across the world!

PRAYER REQUESTS

  • Pray for Jesus to bring Ansar to himself.
  • The number of people that follow Jesus in Central Asia (excluding the tiny country of Armenia) is most likely less than .1%. Pray that Jesus would bring many of the roughly 300 million people there to know him.
  • Please pray for our staff team as we prepare for our various summer assignments.  Pray for refreshment and energy. 
  • Pray for our family’s health as we continue to recover from sickness. 

“Were You Sharing the Gospel with Those Students?”

Malik, a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, shares his vision for reaching his campus.

Carla, an intern with Cru in Central Florida, and her team walked onto campus at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach with a purpose. They hoped to find students who desired to tell their fellow students about Jesus and would actually take action to do so.

They asked student after student, “We’re here looking for students who love Jesus and would say that they’re passionate about telling others about him in a way that makes people want to listen. Does that describe you?”

Her first day on campus, Carla eventually approached a student named Malik (see picture above) with this question. Malik said that described him, and invited Carla and her teammate, Chris, into his dorm.

Carla and Chris shared more about their vision of finding a student who would share the gospel and make disciples through spiritual multiplication (Matthew 28:18-20 and 2 Timothy 2:2). In turn, Malik shared his vision graphically (see picture). To help him accomplish his vision, they guided Malik through a tool that explains the gospel called Knowing God Personally, which he could share with others.

Soon afterward, Carla was meeting with another student in the student union. She looked in the distance and saw Malik approaching a group of students. It looked like he was sharing the gospel.

“Were you sharing the gospel with those students?” Carla asked Malik afterward.

He was. In fact, Malik said he had gone from table to table of students in the student union with the hopes of sharing the gospel using the Knowing God Personally tool, a tool that he had just learned!

“I was blown away by his faithfulness and willingness to go and interact with strangers on campus to share the good news with them.”

Praise God that he has already raised up students like Malik who will be bold and share the gospel with anyone and everyone, friend and stranger alike!

Thank you for your partnership in raising up spiritual multipliers!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Praise God that he has raised up Malik to share the gospel with fellow students at his university!

Pray that God would raise up many students like Malik in Northern California and Nevada and that our team would be to find them, even when campuses are all virtual.

Continue to pray for our digital missions to Central Asia and for the Lord to raise up a team to go in person this summer.

Please pray for our family and our team to remain healthy, to battle against COVID (and zoom) weariness, and stay connected with our respective communities.  

Please pray for continued joy as our family learns and grows together.  We are loving being a family of 5.  The house is rarely quiet!

Faith Meets Vocation

What if professors could be part of sharing the gospel to the whole campus?

This month, we wanted you to hear from Professor Laurie Kubicek (pictured above) at Sac State, who shares this vision, wanting students and faculty to know Jesus. What is below is in her own words.

I will never forget “Susan” poking her head into my office with a huge smile on her face. She said, “I wanted to tell you that I love Jesus too!” This caught me a little off-guard.

In fact, in over twenty years teaching, I don’t think I’ve ever had a student lead with that. I asked her to come in and tell me a little more – thankfully, she had time and stepped in. Susan had an incredible story. She had struggled with drug addiction, and as a result had a criminal record. Remarkably, she was in my department – Criminal Justice. I was intrigued. I asked her how she had overcome her addiction. She shared about her encounter with Jesus, His love for her had changed her life. She had completed a 12-step program and enrolled in Project Rebound, a program designed to help formerly incarcerated people earn a college degree. What a story! 

We shared this moment because I had changed. 

If I had encountered Susan just a semester earlier, I would have missed it. For years, I thought I had a professorial obligation to complete neutrality. I blame my background as an attorney at least in part. The law places great value on objectivity, and in teaching the law, I never revealed ‘my hand’ to my students. When pressed in class about the outcome of a difficult legal case I didn’t want to sway their opinions. I took great pride in making sure I was as neutral and objective as possible in everything I shared with them.

I didn’t ever share my own personal story, and I carefully stepped around sharing about my faith with colleagues or students unless there was a very explicit and welcome opportunity to do so. This very careful approach to sharing my faith on campus was challenged just before I met Susan.

God brought together a community of Christian faculty and staff here at Sacramento State University. Our group began meeting for prayer monthly and then decided to plan a Northern California conference for Christian Faculty & Staff to encourage others to live out the gospel with boldness on their campuses. Our first conference focused on the integration of faith and vocation. It was a game-changer for me! Immediately after hearing the speaker, Dr. Charles Lee from Stanford, I changed my “welcome” lecture. I added information about my family, our church, and my children’s local Christian school. It was that easy! By simply changing what I shared when I introduced myself to my students that semester, God had opened the door to Susan. I am so grateful! 

I am continuing to learn what it looks like to live out my faith at work. I want more than anything for people to see God’s love lived out in me – and the first step was being brave enough to tell my students a little more about myself.

We’re grateful for professors like Laurie who want to see Jesus glorified on the campus. Thanks for being a part of this grand vision!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Praise God for Laurie! Pray that the Lord would use professors to bring students and other faculty to know him.

Pray for our digital missions to Central Asia. The Lord has provided a way to reach out to countries digitally, when it typically has been hard to get the gospel there in person. We’ll share more in an upcoming letter.

12 of the 13 campuses we’ve been working on have gone virtual this semester. Pray for the Lord to work despite the unusual circumstances. Also pray for the endurance of students and professors.

God is Still At Work

“Thank you so much. I feel like a newborn child. It’s like something very heavy was removed from my shoulders already. Now I even feel the love of Jesus that I never experienced before. I just want to know everything about him.” – Patricia

How has COVID-19 affected overall interest spiritual matters? Short answer: it’s increased!

Just in May 2020 alone, 6.7 million people worldwide visited EveryStudent.com, a Cru website designed to virtually present the gospel to people seeking answers about life and God. When they visit the website, they can read articles and virtually correspond with a Christian. Over one million of the people who visited in May happened to be from Muslim or Communist countries, and of the 6.7 million people total, more than 106,000 people indicated that they made decisions to follow Jesus after visiting the site!

Here are some more quotes from people who have visited the website:

“I prayed and prayed and prayed…but was not able to get out of this addiction. I have read many other popular books. Thank you for your emails. I got my eyes open and power from our Heavenly Father. Now I can control everything with the Holy Spirit’s power.”– Anselm

“I’ve been receiving your spiritual starter kit messages and I just would like to say I really, really appreciate them. As a stressed out student, they are encouraging. I’m learning so much and I really feel like they are helping me develop my relationship with God. I cannot thank you enough for this.” – Dee

“I’m beginning to know about God and Jesus in a way I’d not known before. I am enjoying so much your pouring out the words of God with some very good examples. I always grin whenever I open the mail. Thanks.” – Charles

Thanks so much for your partnership that helps bring the gospel to so many people globally!

Prayer Requests

  • The school year will start up this month, but it will look very different than normal. Pray for wisdom and for the Lord to move mightily, even if it looks different than if might have been in previous years.
  • Pray for our students as they take classes virtually. Pray that the Lord would sustain them and also use them to share the gospel with others.
  • Pray that we would be able to connect with many churches to help them grow in evangelism so that their church (and students) would be more equipped to reach the people around them.
  • Please pray for energy, health, and grace for our family and staff team as we get into our fall routines.  Pray that we would love God and each other well! 

Connecting Halfway Across the World Through Instagram

“Hello, I have a question for you,” wrote Anil to our Cru Sacramento Instagram account.

In early May, our Cru staff team received a message from Anil (name changed for security purposes), who had some questions about Jesus and Christianity. It turns out that he is from a Muslim family in a predominantly Hindu country, but started reading the bible when he was 15 years old. When his family found out, they scolded him, and he stopped reading the bible.

Two years ago, however, he started searching again and now is a follower of Jesus. He is still living with his Muslim family, but they don’t know that he is a Christian. In lockdown during this pandemic, and without Christian community in general, by God’s grace Anil connected with us through Instagram from halfway across the world. Ben, one of our staff members, has been answering questions and acting somewhat like a long-distance mentor to him. They’ve even been able to connect over video.

“You should see his expression and excitement when we talk about the Bible and Jesus!” says Ben. “It’s like something life-changing is happening inside of him.” Ben and Anil have even begun to talk about Jesus’ calling to his followers to share the gospel with others and make disciples.

That very same day that Anil first messaged us over Instagram, someone else named Kareena (name also changed for security purposes) responded to one of our Instagram posts. Providentially, Kareena just happened to be from the same country as Anil. Though Anil and Ben are still connecting, Ben was able to connect Anil with a Cru staff member in his city through Kareena. Praise the Lord!

Thank you for helping to enable our ministry to connect with and mobilize people from across the world to follow Jesus and share the gospel with others that don’t know him!

Prayer Requests

Thank the Lord that he is working in Anil’s life! Pray that he would continue to grow, and that the Lord would give him wisdom and boldness with his family.

Thank the Lord that he is still reaching the nations through this pandemic that has affected so many people.

Pray that our students in the Sacramento Metro area would develop a greater heart to reach the nations!

Please pray for our family to love the Lord and each other well as we continue to shelter-in-place with 3 kiddos! 

Arif’s Story

As “Arif” (name changed for security reasons) was returning home one day, a man approached him and put his hand on his shoulder, saying, “Trust in Jesus and surrender yourself to him.”

“Who are you?” Arif asked. “Wait while I put my things on the doorstep and come back to you. I want to talk with you.” Arif set his things down and came back, but the man had vanished. That night, Arif went online and searched for information about Jesus. But after a while, he gave up. 

Over the next few years, Arif’s marriage fell apart. He felt hopeless and began seeking Jesus again. This time, he found one of our websites that explains the gospel. Through that website, he got in touch with a Cru staff member, and after several months of conversation, Arif gave his life to Christ. He is now involved with a church, reading the Bible, and forgiving those who have hurt him in the past.

Arif lives in a country in the Middle East that is 99% unreached. Praise the Lord that he is bringing the unreached to himself!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray that the Lord would grow Arif in his new faith and help him share with others.

Pray that the Lord would continue to work to bring many to himself in unreached countries.

Praise the Lord for his work in the Sacramento area. In the past year, 19 students have indicated that they have begun relationships with Jesus.

We’re grateful for our staff team in Sacramento. Praise the Lord that he has provided good coworkers to labor with.

Praise the Lord for our growing baby boy, Jack, two months old.

(Modified) Ministry Goes On

A church’s young adults group learns how to have spiritual conversations and share the gospel with their friends every Sunday night, and then puts into practice what they’ve learned with their friends over text and FaceTime!

Nearly everyone is feeling the effects of COVID-19. One of the lifestyle changes has been the cancellation of events. Ministry to college students and young adults, however, hasn’t stopped. Just as classes have moved online, so has our ministry.

In February, a church in a Sacramento suburb (Elk Grove) asked us to train their young adults in evangelism. When the governor mandated that California shelter-in-place, it was clear that we would have to modify our training to be “Zoom friendly”.

Each Sunday night, our team teaches these young adults a new skill to point people to Jesus. During the week, each of these 16 students put what they’ve learned into practice primarily through texts and FaceTime with their friends. Ministry is happening through students and young adults who don’t have to leave their homes!

This pandemic has surfaced major fears and anxiety about life and death, and the quarantine has provided space to address the questions students have. Our involved students and young adults are enjoying meaningful conversations with others who happen to be all along the spiritual spectrum.

We’re excited to see the fruit that God brings that may not have happened without the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you so much for being part of bringing people hope and peace in the midst of such unprecedented times!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray for fruitfulness for students and young adults as they reach out virtually to their non-believing friends. Pray that believing students would lean into the peace that the Lord brings in the midst of uncertainty, and that non-believers would place their hope in Jesus.

Pray for us as we continue to adjust to being a family of five. The kids are doing well overall, but life is currently so far from normal for them. It’s hard for 4-year olds and 2-year olds to understand why they can’t see their friends or even do the normal things they do throughout the week. Abby, while persistently joyful even the midst of lots of recent changes, has felt the loss emotionally.

All of us (you as well) are experiencing loss in some ways. Pray that the Lord would use this time to refine our character and deepen our dependence on him.

Igniting the Church in Evangelism

Scott, a student at University of Nevada Reno, has trained his college group at church to share the gospel at UNR.

“You should talk to Scott,” said Pastor Jason said to Lucas. Little did Pastor Jason know that Scott would soon be training 12 other students from his church’s college group on how to share their faith.

Our Cru staff team traveled to Reno at the beginning of the fall semester to find students at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) who had a heart to reach their campus. One of our staff members, Lucas, met with Pastor Jason at his church, who connected him with Scott.

Scott had previously been involved with Cru at San Jose State before transferring to UNR. He had been frustrated by the lack of evangelism happening on campus and was excited that Cru was seeking to reach UNR with the gospel. The same day they met up, Lucas trained Scott to have meaningful conversations about faith with his friends and classmates.

Scott’s vision is to work with his already-existing college group at church in order to mobilize them to reach students at UNR who don’t know Jesus. A few months after meeting Lucas, Scott had gotten the green light from his pastor to share his vision for campus evangelism at an upcoming college group meeting. 

“It would be great to have you come up and do a training,” Scott told Lucas.

“What if you did the training?” Lucas suggested.

“Well, I guess, yeah I could do it,” responded Scott.

Immediately, Lucas took some time to walk Scott through training curriculum that Scott could use to teach his college group on how to have evangelistic conversations on campus. Within a few weeks, Scott had trained his college group. The students are now pairing up to practice sharing their faith on campus with other students.

Please pray that the Lord would use Scott and his college group to bring the gospel to many at UNR!

Thank you so much for partnering with us to train students to share the gospel who will then train others to share the gospel!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray that UNR would be reached with the gospel through many more students like Scott.

Pray that churches all over California and Nevada would be equipped to reach out to high school and college students around them.

Pray that our team would be able to train 10 churches this semester on how to have personal ministries of evangelism.

Pray for our family as we soon welcome our son into our family. Please pray for a healthy delivery, sweet time together, and a smooth transition.