Author Archives: Jeff Clay

“Is That You?”

“Hey, we’re looking for people who love Jesus and want to share their faith with people on campus. Is that you?”

As we seek to build spiritual movements on every campus is the Sacramento area and beyond, we trust that the Lord is already working and raising up students who want to reach their campus with the gospel. Though it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack, the Lord has been faithful to help us find these students.

One day in March, our team was searching for students at Sacramento City College. One of our staff members, Lucas, stopped a student walking by and asked him the question above. Slightly stunned, the student said, “Yeah, that’s me. I’ve actually been praying that God would give me more opportunities to share my faith. My name is Slavik.”

Slavik moved from Ukraine to Sacramento when he was a young kid. He got involved in a church when he was in high school that encouraged him to share his faith. With this in mind, he decided that he would go to college with the purpose of reaching the lost.

Lucas taught Slavik to share his faith using the Knowing God Personally booklet through an app on his phone called GodTools. “This is so easy,” Slavik said. “It’s all laid out for you.” Now that he was equipped and encouraged, he took is friend out to Old Town Sacramento to share the gospel with people. Slavik was already passing on what he had learned.

Slavik hopes to train people in his church’s college ministry to share their faith using the GodTools app. Many of those students attend Sac City, Sierra College, and Sacramento State. “This is why we’re here: to share the gospel with people. I want to see more and more people sharing their faith on campus.”

Pray with us and Slavik that God would use him to fulfill his vision.

Thank you so much for being part of mobilizing students to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus on college campuses and beyond!

Prayer Requests

Thank the Lord for raising up Slavik at Sac City College.

Praise the Lord! This school year we’ve seen 13 students indicate decisions to trust the Lord!

Pray that the Lord would raise up exponentially more students to share the gospel at every campus in Sacramento and beyond.

Pray for students to walk with Jesus deeply over the summer and to continue sharing their faith.

Pray for the Lord to work in the lives of incoming freshmen and give them a burden to reach their campus.

Pray that the Lord would raise up student leaders at schools where we don’t currently have anyone sharing the gospel. Specifically, pray for University of Nevada – Reno, Sierra College, Woodland Community College and Yuba College.

The Campus & Beyond

Above: Hunter (middle right) and Katherine (right) with other Cru Folsom Lake College students

What happens on campus doesn’t stay on campus.

Hunter and Katherine, students at Folsom Lake College (FLC), are living examples of this.

Hunter (pictured on the right in the middle) was trained how to share the gospel last year by one of our staff members, Jill. This school year, he has shared the gospel with 9 of his friends, some from his campus and some from work. As a next step, he invited them to an investigative bible study he planned to lead. Since then, he has been regularly leading five of them through the book of John as a group. He’s loving sharing the gospel on a weekly basis with them!

Katherine (above: right) was trained by Jill and Hunter on how to have spiritual conversations and share the gospel with friends. She has taken her training to her church, where she helps leads middle-school students. She shared the gospel with eight of those middle-school students, and three of them decided to trust Jesus for the first time! 

We want to mobilize students all over the Sacramento area and beyond to reach the campus and beyond. How amazing would it be to see hundreds of Hunters and Katherines sharing the gospel clearly with their classmates, coworkers, and friends?!

Please pray that the Lord would raise up more leaders like Hunter and Katherine all over the Sacramento area!

Thanks for being part of this vast and worthy mission to students and the people they influence!  We are grateful for you! 

Prayer Requests

  • Praise the Lord for his work through Hunter and Katherine!
  • Pray that the Lord would raise up student leaders all over Sacramento, NorCal, and Nevada to share the gospel on their campuses.
  • Please pray for our family to fully recover from sickness and have strengthened immune systems. 
  • Pray for Jeff’s trip to Manila.  Pray for safety, for easy eating solutions with his gluten allergies, and blessing for both those going and those who are receiving our group.
  • Please pray for Cameron’s grandma who has been in the hospital for the last week with major pain.  Pray for a clear diagnosis and treatment plan. 

Strangers Become Disciples

From left to right: Cameron, Olivia, Elizabeth, Paulina, and Megan at Winter Conference

Megan and Paulina were total strangers to Cru. They had never been to a Cru event at Sac State, and had never met anyone involved. Yet, somehow they decided to go to Fall Retreat. How did that happen?

“My mom saw a Facebook post about the Cru Fall Retreat and told me about it,” Megan said. Not wanting to go if she didn’t know anyone beforehand, Megan was hesitant. But, her mom wanted her to go so badly that she made her an offer. “If I would go, she said she’d completely pay for me anda friend to go.” So, Megan invited Paulina, whom she had recently met in class. Surprisingly, Paulina said she would go.

So, Megan and Paulina got into a car with Elizabeth, one of the Cru student leaders at Sac State, and drove up the mountain to Fall Retreat. They quickly connected with Elizabeth and others at the retreat, and they found themselves understanding the gospel more deeply through the guest speaker’s talks from Romans 8, and the need to spread the gospel on campus. Once they got back from the weekend, Megan and Paulina became a fixture at Cru events like bible study and Cru community gatherings.

Shortly afterward, they were asked by Elizabeth, who was super nervous because she had never mentored or discipled anybody before, if they would like to be part of a discipleship group led by Elizabeth. Super excited, Megan and Paulina immediately said yes. They soon had their first meeting.

“The first meeting went really well,” said Elizabeth. “We talked about a lot of random things, but also how the Spirit has been working in each of us. I always love hearing them share because I can see how much God is working in their lives and just how passionately they speak of Him.”

They are excited not only to grow in their faith, but also to multiply their faith into others. “Each of them are also eager to go out and share their faith with other students. It’ll be a priority every week!” Elizabeth said.

Soon afterward, Olivia, another student new to Cru, joined Elizabeth’s group. Elizabeth’s hope is that each of the girls she is discipling would start their own discipleship group this semester with other girls who are looking to grow in their faith. This multiplication is something that we want to see happen on every campus in the Sacramento area and beyond. Please pray with us that it would happen.

We’re so grateful for partners like you that are part of making disciples on every campus!

Mobilizing Christian Colleges

Brendan met Clayton at the William Jessup University dining commons. “What do you think we as Christians need to do better in order to fulfill the Great Commission?” Clayton asked.

Brendan answered, “I think we don’t share the gospel enough. It’s too easy to become a Christian bubble.”

“I think you’re right,” Clayton said. “I’m meeting a guy who’s gonna teach me how to share the gospel better. Want to come with me?”

Our staff team had met Clayton through some a friend. Clayton had a passion to share the gospel, so one of our team members met with him and asked him if he’d like to start a movement of evangelism at his Christian college, William Jessup University. “Absolutely!” Clayton answered. 

The following week, Clayton brought Brendan, and told our staff member about their dinner conversation and their vision to grow a movement of students at Jessup who would be equipped to share the gospel with their friends, classmates, neighbors, and even strangers.

Clayton and Brendan learned about some of the tools Cru uses to help start spiritual conversations and share the gospel, such as the Knowing God Personally booklet, which explains the gospel in four simple points. They left feeling equipped to share their vision with others and passion for reaching the lost.

The group at Jessup has grown, and they have begun to bring other Jessup students to Sierra College, a public university just down the road from them, to gain experience in sharing the gospel with non-believers.

One of the students who has come is named Christian. Christian attended a Christian high school back home, and now attends a Christian university, but had never shared the gospel with anybody. I (Jeff) was able to take Christian out at Sierra to start a spiritual conversation with Landon, an agnostic who had very little spiritual background and had never heard the gospel. Though he didn’t entrust his life to Jesus that day, Landon did leave saying that if there was a personal God that existed, he would want to have a relationship with that God.

Every Jessup student who has come to Sierra to share their faith has had a great experience. On top of wanting to share the gospel at non-Christian colleges, they’ve left thinking about how they can share the gospel with students on their Christian campus who don’t know Jesus.

Pray that the group at Jessup would grow and be further mobilized to share the life-changing message of the gospel.

Thanks for partnering with us to mobilize students to share the gospel with those who have never heard!

Prayer Requests

Pray for the William Jessup group. Pray that they would get lots of experience in sharing the gospel and that they would see lots of fruit.

Praise the Lord that we have student leaders at 7 out of the 8 college campuses in the greater Sacramento area!

Pray for our team as we seek a student leader to start a movement of evangelism and discipleship at Sac City College.

Please pray for our family’s health.  We have had several colds and flu bugs.  Pray for health, quick healing, and encouragement.  

Implications of Grace

It’s been an exciting first few weeks on campuses in the Sacramento area!

At the end of the last school year, we had movements with student leaders on two campuses in the area. As I write this, the Lord has raised that number to six campuses with student leaders. These students are seeking to disciple students and share the gospel with those on their campus who don’t know Jesus. Praise the Lord!

As our staff team has been busy trying to surface leaders, we’ve also come across students who don’t yet know Jesus and are hungry to hear about him. One of these students is Ruben, a freshman at Cosumnes River College.

Ruben was approached by two of our staff members asking if he’d like to start a Christian movement on campus. He said yes, but it became clear soon afterward that Ruben lacked an understanding of the gospel, relying on his church attendance and good works to secure a relationship with God. One of our staff members was able to share that good works aren’t enough to overcome our debt of sin, and that only Jesus can rescue sinners completely through his life, death, and resurrection. After talking about sin and grace for the better part of half an hour, Ruben began to understand, and was surprised by implications of grace!

Ruben was invited to trust in Christ’s work instead of his own and to begin a relationship with God. He said yes!

Ruben is continuing to grasp grace more deeply as we follow up with him weekly. He’s also seeing the need for the people on his campus to grasp grace, and has thought of at least five people he could share the gospel with. Pray that the Lord would continue to work in Ruben, deepening his relationship with the Lord, and that he would experience God using him to show the greatness of God’s grace to people on his campus.

Thank you for your generous gifts to the Lord and for partnering with us to reach students like Ruben on every campus!

Prayer Requests

  • Praise the Lord for his work in Ruben’s life.
  • Praise God for raising up student leaders on our local campuses.
  • Pray that our student leaders would walk deeply with the Lord, and be active in evangelism and discipleship, using them to reach their campuses with the gospel.
  • Pray that God would surface leaders at Sierra College and Sac City College
  • Please pray for God to lead and sustain our family during a busy season!  May he be glorified in all that we do. 

The Harvest is Plentiful

4 of 5 of this year’s leaders at American River College, from L to R: Bobby, Tammy, Abigail, and Regan.

Then [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”   — Matthew 9:37-38

A new school year is upon us, and with it, thousands of new students flooding campuses across the greater Sacramento area. There are about 165,000 college students on the 11 campuses in the region that our team has been entrusted with. A large portion cycles through each year, with a new batch entering college just after a departing batch enters the workforce after graduation. There is so much opportunity for the gospel to spread to these thousands of students and the people they will come across. How do we go about so grand of a task, however?

The Cru movement at American River College is a great example of what we want to see happen all over the Sacramento area.

Designed from the very beginning to be student-led and staff-coached, 3 student leaders (Jeshua, Brielle, Leo) were commissioned two years ago. They found 5 leaders (Leo, Carissa, Regan, Johnny, David) to succeed them the following year. These leaders led weekly meetings, bible studies, mentored younger students in basics of the faith, and trained them in evangelism to the campus. This year, ARC has 5 more student leaders (Bobby, Regan, Haley, Tammy, Abby) ready to lead the movement to reach the campus. We foresee the Lord using them to raise up more leaders and transform the lives of those who don’t know him on their campus of 31,000 students. Praise the Lord for his provision and his work at ARC, and pray for the fruitfulness of the Cru movement there.

Along with two campuses that already have Cru movements (American River College and Sac State), there are 6 campuses on which our staff team is seeking to surface key student leaders who will lead movements this year.

They are:  Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College, Sac City College, Sierra College, William Jessup University, Yuba College

We will be visiting these campuses throughout the year to see if the Lord would allow us to start student-led movements of evangelism and discipleship. Would you pray that God would raise up 2-3 student leaders at each campus who are ready to lead new movements of evangelism and discipleship? We cannot find these leaders unless he provides and leads us to them!

Thanks for being part of raising up leaders who can impact their generation on the college campus!

Prayer Requests

  • Praise the Lord for his work at American River College the past few years.
  • Pray that the Lord would raise up 2-3 student leaders at each college in our area this year, and even at ones beyond the Sacramento area. Pray that the Lord would allow us to find them.
  • Pray that the Lord would use these student leaders to share the gospel with hundreds of those who don’t know Jesus and bring many to know Him.
  • 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! 

Surfacing Leaders on Every Campus

Cru students from Salt Lake City engage with a student at Sacramento City College

God is on the move, and our job is to join him in the work that he is already doing. Our belief is that he has raised up or is raising up the people and resources within a five mile radius of each campus to reach that campus with the gospel.

With that vision in mind, our Sacramento staff team, a few UC Davis Cru students and staff, and ten Salt Lake City Cru students on spring break recently blitzed five campuses in our area (Sac State, Sac City College, Cosumnes River College, Lake Tahoe Community College, and Yuba College) over a two-week period seeking to find people whom the Lord has raised up. We personally initiated with 1,649 people individually on those campuses in order to share with them this vision:

“We’re with an international student missions organization called Cru. We’re seeking to start the group here today. We’re looking for people who love God and want to share Christ with their classmates. Is that you, or do you know someone who fits that description?”

Honestly, this is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Once you find the needle, however, or the leader that the Lord has raised up, a gospel movement of evangelism and discipleship can really take off quickly.

One person that was surfaced at Yuba College was Joseph. Joseph is one of about a dozen students we found during our one-day visit to the campus who wanted to help start a spiritual movement at Yuba.

“I want there to be a space for people to come and ask questions and talk about God,” Joseph said.

Lucas, one of our staff members, shared with Joseph about the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20, and the principle of spiritual multiplication found in 2 Timothy 2:2. They talked about how God might start a movement at Yuba College through Joseph. Joseph wrote down five Christians he could involve in his vision, and five non-Christians he could begin to share the gospel with.

Pray for Joseph and students like him at Yuba College and around the Sacramento area. Our vision of student-led movements everywhere is dependent on them! Pray that God would ignite a passion in them to reach their fellow students with the gospel. And also pray that God would graciously give them what they need, whether that’s training, resources, or simply encouragement.

Thanks for being part of reaching every campus in the Sacramento area and beyond with the gospel!

Prayer Requests

Pray that the Lord would raise up students and volunteers to reach local college and high school campuses with the gospel.

Pray that our established student leaders would walk closely with Jesus and boldly share the gospel with those around them.

Pray for our upcoming staff planning in August. Pray that our staff team would have wisdom, renewed vision, and love each other well.

Entrust to Faithful Men

Lucas (right), with his wife, Katy, and 1 year old daughter, Elise.

“And the things you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” — 2 Timothy 2:2

I (Jeff) first met Lucas (left) in May of 2011 when he was a freshman at UC Davis in 2011. He had grown up in a Christian home, but never really understood the gospel and what it meant to give his whole life to Jesus. In the prior few months, the message of the gospel clicked and he decided to seek to live his whole life in submission to Jesus, which included ending an unhealthy dating relationship.

When I met Lucas that May, in just a few short weeks, he would be leaving for a 10-week summer mission with Cru to Ocean City, New Jersey. I was excited to know that in his upcoming sophomore year I would get to disciple him and lead a bible study with him to reach out to freshmen in the dorms.

Lucas came back from Ocean City having experienced a life-changing summer through training and experience in evangelism and discipleship. He eagerly desired to give his whole life to the type of spiritual multiplication we see in 2 Timothy 2:2. While the freshman bible study that year had its ups and downs with attendance, it was a joy to lead with Lucas and another student-leader, and we saw three freshmen men decide to give their lives to Jesus!

Lucas decided to go to Port Elizabeth, South Africa that summer on another Cru summer mission with a purpose of helping to launch student-led gospel movements on college campuses in the city. It was yet another transformative summer, this time in helping spread the gospel cross-culturally.

After graduating with a degree in philosophy from UC Davis in three short years, Lucas interned full-time with Cru at UC Davis for a year, and then joined staff with Cru for the long-term. I was so grateful to find out that his first staff assignment would be on my staff team in Sacramento!

It has been such a blessing to have Lucas on our team! He is faithful, steady, and brings an innovative spirit and mind in reaching college students. This year, he is active in helping launch and coach Cru movements at Sac State University, American River College, William Jessup University, and Yuba College. As a team leader, I know that whatever tasks I entrust to Lucas will be done well and faithfully.

Thank you for being part of raising up spiritual multipliers like Lucas!

Prayer Requests

Thank the Lord for Lucas. Pray for him and his wife, Katy, to continue to walk deeply with Jesus in the midst of adjusting to life with a young child and some family health issues. Pray also for the Lord to continue to use him in Sacramento and in San Diego this summer, where he’ll help lead a Cru Summer Mission that starts in a few short weeks.

Pray students heading out on summer mission this summer (San Diego and East Asia). Pray that they would experience a similar transformation that Lucas and many others have experienced while on mission, and also see much fruit.

Pray for a bonding and refreshing summer for our family.

Multiplying Faith at American River College

Cru Sac Metro students at Winter Conference

“So proud of Bobby!!  The Lord is working!” said Leo, a student leader at American River College, after a student-led outreach on their campus.

ARC Cru regularly meets to share their faith by initiating individual conversations with other students on campus.  This particular day, the group sent out six pairs of students to share their faith.  Five of the attendees had never shared their faith before going out!  In order for all the new people to pair up with someone more experienced, Bobby (above, back row, tilted head) had to take the lead for the first time.

Bobby’s first experience with evangelism was last semester.  Leo had started discipling Bobby and they shared their faith together a few times.  Bobby was astonished at how easy it was to have a conversation with someone, but seemed intimidated at the thought of doing it without the help of someone more experienced. Bobby was faithful to continue to meet with ARC Cru to initiate spiritual conversations with other students on campus, which gave him lots of practice.

Bobby went to Winter Conference with Cru Sac Metro (see picture above), and there he continued to be challenged to share his faith.  During the “Day of Faith”, 1200 students took to the streets to share their faith through evangelism and serving the community in partnership with local churches.

Cru Sac Metro’s assignment for the Day of Faith was to initiate spiritual conversations over social media with people we already knew.  For our students, this proved to be a much greater day of faith than initiating conversations with strangers.  Bobby and the others posted, tweeted, snapped, and insta’d their way into spiritual conversations with friends and family.  Bobby took a step of faith to initiate with his father, who he talks to only a few times a year.

Bobby’s dad was antagonistic.  It wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for.  Yet, Bobby was hopeful.  Lucas, a Cru Sac Metro staff member, reminded him that sharing the gospel with friends and family is a lifelong journey.  This was only the first step in pursuing his dad.

In only one semester, Bobby has gone from sharing his faith for the first time, initiating with his father, to now helping lead others in sharing their faith.  Praise God for Bobby’s faith, and that he is multiplying it in others!

Thanks for being part of helping students share and multiply their faith!

Prayer Requests

Praise the Lord for his work in and through Bobby and other students at American River College. Pray for them to continue to grow and share their faith on ARC campus!

Pray for God to surface more students who are excited to reach their campuses for Christ in the Sac area.

Continue to pray for Paul, a former staff member and the husband of one of our current staff members, Carrie. Paul was recently diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. Pray for his complete healing and for Carrie as she cares for their family.

Pray for Cameron and our family as we grieve the loss of her grandfather.

Praise God for the health and joy of our daughters! Hattie is almost 3 months and sleeping like a champ. Abby is 2 years old and so fun to do life with.

Evangelism to the Churched

“You’ve given me more answers in the past half hour than any of my professors have in the last year and a half.”

Alan, a sophomore, attends William Jessup University, a Christian college in Rocklin. Through a series of connections, our staff team has been given the opportunity to lead a small discussion-oriented class that students take for elective credit. Hoping to eventually start a Cru movement at Jessup, but not quite knowing what to expect, we decided to center the group around the basics of evangelism. What we didn’t expect was that the class would become a mission field itself.

On the first day of our group meeting, Cameron and another staff member named Lucas asked the class, “How would you describe your spiritual journey?” Many of the students were hesitant because, though they universally group up in Christian families and going to church, a majority of them were struggling in their faith, and many of them admitted to simply going through the motions.

Cameron and Lucas were at a loss. How could they both help the students that were walking with Jesus and really did want to grow in evangelism, while hopefully reaching the ones who were just there for credit? Late last month, the opportunity arose.

Being the middle of midterm season, attendance was low. The only students who were there were three roommates. Lucas saw an opportunity. “Since it’s just us today, we can just hang out for a bit and then you guys can leave early and go study.” He asked them about their struggles with Christianity. Alan spoke first, “Why is the Bible so complicated? If I had written it, it would be one line, ‘love each other’.” They talked for the rest of the class time. Lucas explained how the Bible was not about Alan as an individual, and not primarily a list of things to do, but about Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection.

They continued talking. At the end of their conversation, Alan told Lucas that none of his professors at this Christian school had answered his questions like this. This is somewhat understandable, since the other classes aren’t necessarily structured to answer the deep questions of individual students. Spiritual formation groups like this, however, are designed to provide opportunities for these deeper conversations. We’re so excited to be a part of it!

Thanks for being part of bringing the gospel to both students who grew up in the church and those who didn’t, so that every student on every campus knows someone who truly follows Jesus!

Prayer Requests

  • Pray for Alan and other students in the class at Jessup who are either questioning their faith or aren’t yet walking with Jesus. Pray that the Lord would draw them to himself.
  • Pray that a Cru movement would be started at William Jessup University that helps students learn to walk with Jesus for a lifetime and introduce others to him.
  • Pray also for the Lord to raise up laborers (Matthew 9:38) to start movements at Sac City and Sierra colleges.
  • Please also pray for Cameron and our family as we prepare for the arrival of our baby girl.  Pray for a healthy end to her pregnancy and joy during the last couple months as a family of 3!