The setting was strange — an old, unstaffed hotel in rural Chico built in 1903 that was turned into a YWAM retreat center. This place, however, was where students and staff from Sacramento campuses (pictured above) traveled to participate in this year’s Winter Conference. We saw God do amazing things!

Because of COVID, Cru hadn’t had an in-person conference for over two years, with conferences being virtual and students left to watch alone or with only those from their own college campus. This year, however, our group from Sacramento gathered together with Cru movements from the Bay Area and Chico. Though the teaching content for the weekend was still virtual, gathering with other campuses allowed us to watch the conference together and engage in real-life discussion groups, prayer, and other activities. The weekend connected our students more deeply to one another and to the greater mission of reaching people with the good news of Jesus! 

The synergy of students being together with great teaching and lots of informal time acted as a great catalyst to our ministry in Sacramento for the spring semester!  God used the conference reinforce truths that we have been studying all year, such as the importance of taking the gospel to those who don’t know Jesus, no matter where they are. These truths particularly clicked for Kaitlyn (pictured below).

Kaitlyn left the conference with a sense that God is calling her to take part in global missions. So, this summer, she will participate in a four-week Cru Summer mission to Central Asia where she’ll minister to local college students.  Additionally, Kaitlyn’s heart has grown for those who are far from Christ here in Sacramento. While meeting together with me (Cameron) this semester, Kaitlyn learned how to engage in spiritual discussions with her friends and share her the gospel. She wants to be a lifeline, connecting the lost to Jesus, using her time in college to make Jesus known. Furthermore, she wants to help others make Jesus known too; when she isn’t in Central Asia this summer, Kaitlyn is hoping to train her home church’s high school group to have spiritual conversations and share the gospel. 

Please pray for Kaitlyn and the other students in Sacramento as they continue to take steps of faith! Pray that God would use their summers, whether at home or abroad!

Thank you for your faithful and generous investment in students like Kaitlyn and others from start to finish of semester and beyond! We are grateful for your partnership and faithful prayers! 

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray for Kaitlyn and the team traveling to Central Asia in a few weeks. Pray for safety and health in their travels, and for God to use them to bless the local workers and draw others to Himself.  

Pray for Jeff and his team as they do the hard work necessary to make Cru’s apps, websites, and platforms function well.  

Please pray for our family’s health. We had a couple months of back to back sickness (colds, stomach bugs, etc). Pray for strengthened immune systems!

Every year, across the country, millions of college students graduate. Many have their sights set on what this world values most, and they make it their mission to pursue those values.

But what if these students were instead embarking on the mission of God? What if they were “on mission” to make the world more like how God intended it to be, helping people everywhere be restored to a relationship with Jesus?

That’s Cru’s vision: to see lifelong laborers for Christ raised up and sent to the world to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Winter Conference is one place where, time and again, we have seen students grasp a greater vision for their lives. 

In December, 2,536 students (like shown above)got to participate in 4 of the Winter Conferences facilitated by Cru across the US.  And this month, it’s our turn! 

February 4-6, our staff and students in Sacramento will get to participate in Cru’s national Winter Conference. We will get to worship Jesus together, learn from God’s Word together, and be equipped in sharing our faith.  

During December’s conferences, each student experienced Jesus in a personal and unique way.  Here are a few of the things they shared from their conferences:

I have a new passion for sharing the gospel and a reignited passion for God’s Word. I feel so encouraged going into the new year and ready to step out onto campus being a light for Christ.” -Anonymous

“Before coming I had felt very distant from God and felt like I was becoming a lukewarm Christian. This renewed my faith!”  -Faith, junior

“I literally became a Christian today.” -Nate, senior

“I was greatly challenged at the outreach and was so excited to see my team taking steps of faith together. While I was sharing what Jesus means to me, I realized I was doing what scared me so much, and it was actually very fun to just get to chat with people! It gave me a new perspective on evangelism!” -Bethany, senior

“I am eager to go out and do what God has called me to.”  -Ayana, sophomore

We rejoice for the awesome ways God is at work in students’ lives. He is changing hearts and raising up lifelong laborers for the Kingdom of God. Thank you so much for your partnership, your prayers, and your generosity that  help make that possible.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Pray for our students to grow in their love for Jesus and commitment to Him and His mission through the upcoming Winter Conference.  Pray for all the details to go smoothly for this event. 
• Praise God for the 2,536 students who already experienced Winter Conference! 
• Please pray that God would give our team wisdom and creativity as we continue to navigate ministry with COVID-restrictions. 
• Pray for our family and teams to remain healthy and abide in Jesus! 

One of the activities that we lead our Tuesday bible study (pictured above) to do is creating a relational network map.  They are given 5 minutes to diagram spheres of relationships where God has placed them (i.e. work, class, gym, neighborhood, etc).  After filling in names of people in each group, we ask them to circle 3-5 people that they want to commit to praying for and engaging with spiritually over the coming weeks.  

Zoe, a first year Sac City student (in the orange sweatshirt), filled in her map and tucked it away as we finished our study. She left with the task of starting to pray for her map of people before the following week, but Zoe saw a greater opportunity and took it.

Zoe is a caregiver for “Greg,” whose daily life has been greatly impacted by a stroke.  After going about some of her work duties, she sat down with Greg and told him about our Bible study and the activity she was led to do. She walked him through each step and how she created her map. Then, she showed him where she had circled his name.  She asked, “How would you feel if I prayed for you and shared more about Jesus with you?”

Greg was open to talking more with Zoe about God, and she has since begun reading the book of John to him. 

Please pray for Zoe and the rest of our students as they intentionally go about their days praying for and engaging with their spheres of influence!  Thank you for investing in these students’ lives and the eternities of those that they share life with.  We are so grateful for your partnership!

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Praise God for Zoe and others in our group taking steps to share the gospel! Pray for their dependence on the Holy Spirit and for God to draw people to himself.
• Pray for our Journey (Tuesday) and Explore (Wednesday) Groups to be growing and learning how to walk closely with Jesus. 
• Please pray for our staff team as we plan for the coming semester- for unity, wisdom, and creativity!
• Please pray for our family’s health as we enter into cold and flu season.

“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. 

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.

“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! 

“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! 

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.