Zack and Naomi Russell

Total Solar Eclipse

Did you see the eclipse in April? Austin was right in the path of totality, so our family had been praying non-stop for a clear view. We joined some friends on a ranch just outside of town for a watch party (pictured above), and were greeted with cloudy skies for most of the time. Cassia (9) was very upset.

But God, in a loving answer to our children’s prayers, swept aside the clouds just at the moment of totality. It was an unbelievable display of his mercy and creativity. We discussed with our kids and several others how an eclipse is a major sign of God’s intelligent design of our solar system. To learn more about this, check out The Privileged Planet, which you can rent on Amazon or find on YouTube.

One of my favorite moments of the eclipse was seeing the bright red prominences peeking out just below the Moon. Each of these plasma surges are larger than the entire Earth. Apparently it is rare to be able to see them with the naked eye.

The Four Laws…of Storytelling

Earlier this semester, the director of Cru’s creative media ministry asked me (Zack) to teach our videography team a series of webinars about storytelling. More than three-act structure or The Hero’s Journey, I wanted to weave together a robust theology of why and how to tell stories for God’s glory. Most of what we produce for Cru is non-fiction, yet there are many principles of fiction writing that apply to the documentary and testimony videos we produce.

I called this series “The Four Laws of Storytelling,” and filled each session with a look through the Scriptures. Since God is the ultimate creator, all of the fundamentals of creativity come from him. Storytelling is his idea (Genesis 4:7), which gives flesh to abstract concepts (Proverbs 8), convicts the conscience (2 Samuel 12), reveals open hearts (Matthew 13:10-17), and produces repentance (Acts 19:17).

Our first lesson examined how we should tell stories for the glory of God (Psalm 102:18), and to not allow other purposes––even noble ones––to take primacy. We create stories because that is God’s normative way of expressing truth in the Bible, which is 43% narrative, 33% poetic, and only 24% prose. Second, we create stories as an act of love, lest we become clanging gongs (1 Corinthians 13:1). Third, since “God is not a God of disorder” (1 Corinthians 14:33) our creativity needs to be balanced by structure. Finally, effective stories are filled with honesty and delivered with courage, since pointing people to God always challenges the idols of our culture, but fear of man is a snare (Proverbs 29:25).

Watch these seminars here.

Knowing God Personally

“How can I be saved?” In all my (Naomi’s) years of ministry, I have never been asked that question directly. But that’s exactly what a contractor named Alex asked me recently. While discussing some concrete work we needed in our yard, Alex told me how his life was miraculously spared during two separate jobs. In one, a giant piece of concrete fell on his work vehicle, and after another job the brakes went out on his truck. He walked away from both situations unharmed, and knew that God was trying to get his attention.

Zack and I were overjoyed to explain the gospel and recount how Jesus had redeemed our lives. We gave him Cru’s gospel booklet called, “Knowing God Personally.” A few days later, Alex attended an Easter service and received Christ. When he met us again in our backyard, he looked like an entirely different person. The joy of the Lord was plainly visible on his face. A member at the church Alex attends started discipling him, and he’s already talking about getting baptized.

PRAISE REPORTS

• Zack got the opportunity to train other Cru staff.
• Alex came to know Jesus and is growing in his faith.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Last month, Zack got some abnormal readings during a treadmill stress test. Thankfully, a heart catheter showed that Zack’s arteries are clear and everything else is functioning normally with his heart. Please pray he could get his blood pressure under control, mostly through lifestyle changes.
• Zack’s hospital stay was emotionally triggering for everyone else, especially as we continue to walk through grief.

Children of Abraham

This year at Vision Conference there were 106 students (90 seekers) in the Children of Abraham Track (students from the Middle East). This is the largest COA group we have ever had at Vision! You might remember last year that six students gave their life to Christ at Vision. Five of those six were back this year. Another previous attendee, “Kai,” became a believer after Vision last year. He has been baptized and wanted to come to back to Vision just to hear more about joining Bridges staff.

Pictured above: the COA Track discussion tables

Two COA students, “Kamuela” and “Kalani,” became believers right before Vision. “Kekoa” agrees with the beliefs of Christianity but is afraid to label himself a Christian and get baptized. Ten other students are very close to becoming Christians. They are currently counting the costs. Please pray that Kekoa and the other COA students would know and believe that Jesus is worth it! (Names changed for security.)

Ambassadors for Christ

Annalei and Miah were blessed to participate at Vision in the Ambassadors Track, which equips Christian students for ministry. They befriended Christians from around the world (pictured above in the header, left) and enjoyed multi-lingual worship. After one of the lessons, Miah said, “I was reminded of the life-changing fact that the joy and love you receive from Jesus outweigh the costs of following Him.” Annalei said this was the most impactful thing for her as well.

Pictured above: Annalei joins international students for worship

Prayer at Vision

Before Vision, I (Naomi) was able to train a handful of fellow Bridges staff to serve as Prayer Coordinators for their respective Tracks. As a result, there was more organized staff prayer at this Vision than ever before. One staff woman told us what a good and stretching experience this was for her. Through it, she realized how much the Lord wanted her to embrace the priority of prayer.

A New Sister in Christ

During Vision, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have the margin to hang out with Japanese students, but God reminded me that He is “the God who sees me” (Gen. 16:13). On the last morning before we left for the airport, He gave me the opportunity to lead a Japanese gal named Hana to Christ! (Pictured above in the header, right.) Her campus leader “Kawika” was in COA with me and connected us.

Kawika wanted to me to talk to Hana because she kept telling people she wasn’t ready to become a Christian but didn’t know why. We talked through her barriers to belief, and then she prayed to receive Christ as her Savior. The next day, Hana sent me this sweet text:

“Thanks Naomi! I’m happy to meet you in last couple of hours. That’s a gift. I’ve been thinking about what is [a] Christian for a long time but you told me that it’s a simple thing than I thought. I felt kinda relieved thanks to you. I really appreciate you. Thank you. ありがとう,Naomi😊” 

PRAISE REPORTS

Largest COA Track ever
Kamuela and Kalani came to Christ
God used Vision in Annalei and Miah’s lives
More organized staff prayer at Vision than ever before
Hana came to Christ
Another Japanese student, Kohta, received Christ

PRAYER REQUESTS

God would open doors for Kai to join Bridges staff
Kekoa would not fear calling himself a Christian
Ten other COA students would come to Christ soon
Ambassadors students to become Christ-centered laborers
New believers would grow strong in their faith

(Pic. above: Annalei (L) and Miah (R) in CYT’s production of Frozen Jr. Annalei played the Queen and Miah played Sven)

Whole Campus Whole World

Thank you for your prayers for Zack, as he completed the screenplay for the video commissioned by the leadership of Cru’s Campus Ministry. I (Naomi) got to help by casting the voice over actor. The video debuted on an All-Campus staff livestream to introduce Cru’s new vision statement: “The whole campus to the whole world in this generation.”

Fellow Cru staff have told us this new vision as seen in the video energized and reminded them why they joined staff in the first place. “I was glued and sooo inspired watching this,” a Bridges staff friend told Zack.

Decorating the Tree

Our family enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree with UT students from Nigeria, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Spending time with them was a blessing to us, and I got this text from one of the students…

“I’m glad you all had us over. Spending time with your family really brought us joy and comfort as we’re getting ready for [studying for finals].”

Vision Conference

This year, I (Naomi) will again serve as the Prayer Coordinator for the Children of Abraham Track at Vision Conference. I praise God for the privilege of designing this role for COA. With the support of the conference leadership team, I was also able to train a handful of staff to duplicate, in their respective Tracks, this same role. Vision is our most strategic ministry event of the year so we need prayer!

(Below: students discuss a gospel tract)

Annalei and Miah will be coming to Vision with me. They will be attending the Ambassadors Track to join Christian students from all over the world. They will receive ministry training and be challenged to take steps of faith in their own lives. We are so thankful they will be given this opportunity.

Year-End Giving

If you would like to make an end of year donation to our ministry, you can do so here. All gifts are tax-deductible.

UPCOMING

Naomi, Annalei, and Miah will attend the Vision Conference 12/27-1/1 in Baltimore/DC

PRAISE REPORTS

God enabled Zack and his team to capture Cru’s new compelling vision in a video
Each Track at Vision now has a Prayer Coordinator

PRAYER REQUESTS

The Lord would comfort and help us in this continued season of grief

Safe travels for all attending Vision Conference
Spiritual protection over all conference details
God’s hand upon the many evangelistic conversations that will happen in structured and unstructured times at Vision
Many students would come to know Jesus as their Savior
Christian students would learn how to share their faith and be transformed into life long laborers for Christ
Zack and the Littles would do well at home without Naomi

Hill Country Fall Retreat

Our whole family enjoyed a chance to join students from 47 nations at the Hill Country Fall Retreat in Burnet, TX.

(Pictured above: the main session and Paxton enjoying games with students. Pictured below: Paxton and Cassia playing games with international students.)

I (Naomi) facilitated the staff prayer times (pictured below). These largely happened during the student discussion groups. Annalei and Miah joined us, which was a huge blessing.

At the first staff prayer meeting, we prayed that God would give Bridges staff “divine appointments” during the retreat. And He did! A couple who ministered in China met a Chinese student who was a student at the exact same campus where they ministered! Another couple that ministered in Thailand connected with a Thai student. (Thai students are rarity within Bridges.)

When I was in the craft room, God brought me a Japanese student named Yuna. We had a great conversation in Japanese and English. We discussed Japanese cultural barriers to the gospel and I was able to to show her the Kanji (Chinese character) for “righteousness,” which is a great cultural segue to the gospel. She gave up on the craft she was making because she was so focused on the conversation. At the end of our time Yuna said, “I think God brought me here.”

Then an American (former student leader/recent graduate from Yuna’s campus) named DeJason heard our conversation. He had recently begun studying Japanese and has a heart to do ministry in Japan. I was able to talk with him at length about Japanese culture and their spiritual views. I encouraged him to apply for a summer mission to Japan and connected him with a former teammate of mine who is still in Japan. What is so crazy is that DeJason was only in the craft room because he got a soccer ball to the face that broke his glasses! He knew he could find some hot glue in the craft room, and I never would have met him otherwise. So God can even use soccer ball injuries for His glory. 🙂

(Pictured below: DeJason, Yuna, a Japanese Believer name Lulu, Naomi, and Miah)

Whole Campus Whole World

Zack will be the primary script writer for a new video commissioned by the leadership of the Cru Campus Ministry. The purpose of the video is to capture Cru’s new vision statement: “The whole campus to the whole world in this generation.” His team will visually portray Cru’s desire to see the gospel shared to every student and faculty through movements on every campus that raise up multiplying disciples in and for every nation, by the power of the Holy Spirit and much prayer. We want this video to empower our staff, partners, and student leaders to take the next step.

Family Update

As expected, we are all still walking through grief. We know the holiday season will be especially hard this year without Nicole and would appreciate prayer.

Praise Reports

Our family had a great time connecting with internationals at the retreat.
Divine appointments!
Yuna’s heart was open and receptive to the gospel.

Prayer Requests

God would strengthen our marriage and give us wisdom while parenting through grief.
The Lord would comfort and help us in this difficult season.
Spiritual protection over our family (there have been a number of attacks recently).
Yuna, and every other student who heard the gospel at the retreat, would come to know Jesus very soon.
God would guide Zack as he writes the script for this video.
The new video to encourage and strengthen people.

Hungry for God

“Would you be interested in reading the Bible?” Brianne asked.

“Maybe,” said Juan (pictured above, left).

Brianne, a Bridges staff member in the Bay Area had just met Juan, a student from El Salvador. The Bridges team had set up a large world map on campus. When students passed by, Brianne and her teammate would ask them to place a sticker on their country of origin, and then ask them about their hometown. Through these conversations, Brianne would ask students like Juan if they wanted to join a Bible Study.

Juan told Brianne that his grandmother was a Christian, but he considered himself an atheist. He never had learned that much about the Bible, though, so a seed of curiosity was planted. A few months later, the Bridges team started up a Bible Study. Brianne remembered Juan’s “maybe,” and invited him to that first meeting. He attended every week after that (pictured above, right).
“He asks the deepest questions as we read God’s Word and is always hungry for more knowledge about God,” Brianne says. Juan has also attended church with Brianne and her husband, David. Please pray that the seed being planted in Juan’s heart find good soil.

Welcoming New Students

Thousands of new students are arriving in the U.S. right now; many have never left their home countries before. Our fellow Bridges staff are working hard to welcome these students, serve them in practical ways, and invite them to weekly events like Bible studies and socials. These next few weeks are a critical time for Bridges teams to build momentum. It is also typically an exhausting time. Pray for significant connections and stamina for our staff.

Here is a list of some Bridges welcome events. Please pray that God would lead our staff to spiritually open internationals (just like Juan):

8/18: U. of Texas Sunset Dinner Cruise
8/19: Houston City Tour and Welcome Party
8/19: Kansas State Welcome Picnic
8/26: Kansas State Kayaking Event
9/1: Philadelphia Welcome Party
9/1: Washington DC Metro Welcome Party

Back to School

Our kids just had their first day of school! We are building up the Christian community that was formed last year through the Cru High School club and Moms In Prayer group at their school. God has already given us divine appointments connecting us with Christian families. Please pray for more.

Publishing Progress

During July, I (Zack) traveled to St. Louis for Realm Makers, the annual conference for Christian writers of fantasy and science fiction (pictured below). I pitched my sci-fi novel to three publishers at the conference, and two have shown interest. The story is about a detective and scientist who battle a research lab that’s experimenting on a captured angel.

Upcoming

The National Bridges prayer team will be supporting our campus staff in prayer. We will have 21 Days of Prayer from 8/21 – 9/19, over Zoom. Naomi will get to lead a few of these prayer times, which she greatly enjoys.

Praise Reports

•Juan is seeing truth in God’s Word.
•God has raised up hundreds of Bridges staff and volunteers to reach out to International Students here in the U.S.
•Two publishers have shown interest in Zack’s novel.

Prayer Requests

•Juan would place his faith in Jesus very soon.
•Stamina for Bridges campus staff in this busy season.
•God would give divine appointments at every campus that Bridges has a presence.
•Spiritually-open students would attend Bridges events.
•Zack’s book to get published.

The True Dao

Zisong is a Chinese student involved with Bridges at UC Irvine. I (Zack) met him at our Vision conference and had the honor of filming the story of how he went from a lost student to a passionate laborer for Christ. There are quotes from the video below, and you can watch the whole thing below:

“I grew up atheist. I don’t know anyone who actually believe any kind of God. Within communism taking over China, all the religion is considered superstition. People worship science, money, or themselves.

“I grew up never thinking about this until age 19. My mom at that time got chronic cancer. I began to think, what is life really about? Is there even meaning behind this?

“In college, we have a professor there studying Daoism, and he seems to be convinced about that. And I really dig into that. There’s some part really make sense, but as a whole, it’s very blurred picture. It’s bringing me a new picture of human being and this whole world. It’s not substance alone, it’s not material alone. There’s something beyond that. But I never got to the point to confirm there’s God.

“The first time I came to America, and there’s a lot of culture shock. I was like, ‘Why have I come here?’ That time I met Bridges staff and she said many thing about Bridges, I only remember two words, ‘free food.’ I found these people so nice to me. They so love me, so care about me. And they invited me to Bible study and I was like, ‘no, I’m not going to do that.’

“Spiritually, I was never satisfied. I got lost. I just got more anxious. And when I go to [Bridges], they really listen to you and physically care about you. I feel peace among them. I was always pushed to be number one. But here a bunch of people, they don’t care which number you are.

“That impressed me. I was like, this is not just a religion. These people have something they deeply believe. Something deep inside as a power to support them to do this. That’s something I never found in this world.

“I began to read Bible by myself. That’s very hard. I don’t even know which book should I begin with. But fortunately I registered for Vision Conference. And then they bring me to the gospel of John. I was a very naughty sheep, and I was lost. I never knew I have a shepherd. And that moment, the love of Christ made sense to me.

“The moment I follow Lord I got a conviction: I have to share this to my countrymen. The Lord brought me through a lot of training. Bridges staff helped me go through evangelism. I got an invitation to teach in a seminary for the rural area of China. Missionaries who go to China, usually they go to urban area. The rural area is poor, it’s harder, transportation is not good, but the majority of church is there and they need the same God, same teaching as we do. They don’t know English, but I know. So I’m translating all the things I have learned.”

Reaching Beyond China

Zisong’s story has so encouraged us, because he perfectly embodies our vision of lost international students being transformed into laborers for Christ. I talked to him recently and he said he recently led a Middle-Eastern student to Christ and baptized him. This student works as an Uber driver and now shares the gospel with his passengers, most of them American, and all of them stunned!

Steps of Faith

Miah did an evangelism training with two of her peers from school (pictured in the header) These middle school gals were unable to attend the training that Naomi conducted. We are so proud of Miah as she has stepped out in faith this year, sharing the gospel with her peers. Then for the first time, she taught others how to do the same!

FAMILY UPDATE

This summer, Annalei and Miah will be attending a national theater conference.
Zack will attend a Christian Fiction Writer’s conference to pitch his novel to a literary agent for publication.

PRAISE REPORTS

God brought Zisong from Atheist to seminary teacher.
Zisong led a Middle-Eastern friend to Christ, who is sharing Jesus with others.
Miah did her first evangelism training with friends!

PRAYER REQUESTS

God would protect Zisong’s virtual training of rural pastors in China and protect the churches led by these pastors.
The Lord would continue to use the Middle-Eastern friend to boldly proclaim the gospel.
God would open doors for Annalei, Miah and their peers from school to share their faith.