Category: Newsletter

Vision 2025

Annalei, Linda (my mom), and I (Naomi) were blessed to join about 1,000 people in Denver for this year’s Vision Conference (header, left). My mom joined the prayer team, which supported every track and aspect of the conference.

In answer to prayer, hundreds of Seekers heard a clear gospel presentation, and at least 24 students indicated a decision to place their faith in Christ! Hundreds of Christian students were trained in how to share their faith, and 73 indicated interested in interning or joining Bridges staff!

Annalei participated in Vision as a college student this year. She was encouraged to wholeheartedly follow Jesus in all aspects of her life. And she showcased her musical theater talent during the NYE talent show (header, right).

Children of Abraham

For the fourth year in a row, I was the Prayer Coordinator for the Children of Abraham Track (for Middle Eastern Students). It was incredible to watch God answer so many specific prayers for our COA track. “Tom” accepted Christ on the first night! After Vision, several staff hosted a retreat for Middle Eastern Believers. At that retreat Tom, alongside a Bridges staff couple, led his wife “Jennifer” to Christ! She was weeping as she prayed and said, “Now I know I will never be alone again.”

God allowed me to join a Q&A panel (pictured above). I was very unsettled going into it, but prayed and surrendered it to the Lord. As soon as I got on stage, I felt His peace. It went so well, as God gave us all wisdom to answer tough questions. COA students discussed our responses in their family groups. The panel’s answers really helped “Allison” to fully understood the gospel. Later that night, she accepted Christ!

While returning from sightseeing, a COA student “Mason” sat next to a new friend “Mike.” Mike is a Hindu Background Believer from Mason’s country who came to Christ at Vision last year.  Mike shared the gospel clearly and Mason prayed to receive Christ with him on the bus!

Our Friend, Reed

Last year at Vision Conference, our family connected with “Reed”. Zack and I have become close friends with him this year. Paxton has continued to faithfully pray for him.

My mom, Annalei, and I went out to lunch with him and gave him a present Paxton made for him (pictured above). It was a powerful time as my mom got to share her testimony with Reed. She told Reed about how there was an emptiness inside of her that only Jesus could fill. Reed said that he could relate to that feeling of emptiness. He said he is ready to jump in and become a Christian but is asking God for a sign. Another COA student “Karl” said almost the exact same thing.

UPCOMING

• Zack will travel to Orlando during the second week of February, to meet with his full Global Media team in Jesus Film. Please pray for safe and comfortable travels (Zack still has months to go to heal from his PCL injury).

PRAISE REPORTS

• 24 students came to Christ, including 4 from the COA track.
• A Hindu Background student led a COA student to Christ.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Spiritual growth for Tom, Jennifer, Allison, and Mason
• God would give a sign (dream or vision) to Reed, Karl, and other COA students. Pray they would accept Christ soon.
• Many of our COA students are very stressed because of the conflict in the Middle East. Pray that they would look to Jesus, come to know Him, and receive His peace.

Students of the world are reaching students of the world.

Chibuike is an international student from Nigeria involved with Bridges. He attends the University of Texas here in Austin and has gotten to know our family (pictured above, right). This summer, he went on a Bridges mission trip to the World Expo in Japan. He and his team (middle left picture) met people from the world over and shared the gospel with them.

Chibuike had a long conversation with Hitoshi one day (middle right picture). Hitoshi had just finished college and starting in the business world. Like most people in Japan, Hitoshi had never heard the gospel or even met a Christian. Chibuike patiently explained the entire gospel while Hitoshi listened attentively. Perhaps it was Hitoshi’s new stage of life, perhaps the natural curiosity stirred by attending the World Expo, but he absorbed every word Chibuike said. The two men exchanged contact info and have kept in touch ever since. Please pray for Hitoshi to continue engaging with Chibuike and come to faith in Christ!

Jesus propelled Chibuike from Nigeria to the U.S. to Japan. International students come here for an education, but God sovereignly transforms them into missionaries to the nations. In our own ministry roles, we help students like Chibuike minister to students like Hitoshi. Naomi develops prayer support networks. Zack creates evangelistic media resources for students to utilize. Your consistent prayers and support help make all this happen. Thank you!

We were blessed to involve our children in ministry conferences and retreats this year. Annalei (19), Miah (16), Cassia (11), and Paxton (9) have fellowshipped with believers from around the globe, caught a vision for missions, and shared Christ with students.

As 2025 ends, we are trusting God for new endeavors in 2026, like developing new ministry tools for Japan, India, and the Arab world. We look forward to telling you about all that God does in the coming year. Merry Christmas!

Hill Country Fall Retreat

Imagine 310 students from 39 countries packing out a room in rural Texas. That was the scene at our ministry’s Hill Country Fall Retreat. We had the highest number of students ever attend. This was largely due to a huge influx of students from South Asia––the majority of which were seekers.

(Pictured below: Students attending the evening main session where they clearly heard the gospel.)

We also had a greater amount of spiritual warfare than ever before. As I (Naomi) led the prayer team for HCFR, it was clear there is a spiritual battle for the souls of these students.

Family Effort

We are so thankful to have our kids involved in ministering to internationals. Cassia and Paxton enjoyed playing games and interacting with the students, and the students loved talking with them (righthand header picture). Students who I never got to meet said hello to Paxton.

Annalei joined the retreat as a student and brought her friend, Aida, with her. Aida had never experienced anything like a Bridges event and was so excited to meet students from all over the world. Both girls spoke truth into their discussion group, which was a mix of seekers and believers. Aida shared the gospel with a South Asian student, “Susie,” in the craft room (picture below, right). It was Aida’s first time to share the gospel cross-culturally.

Miah joined a discussion group led by a student from UT, who said, “It’s my great pleasure to know Miah, and she made great contributions to the table.” The final talk was on the topic of Jesus’ divinity. During discussion time, Miah shared the gospel with her group! One South Asian student, “Judy,” thought very deeply about what Miah shared. On the whole, our family made great connections with students from UT.

The Lord opened a door for me (Naomi) to have a spiritual conversation with a South Asian, “Debbie,” in the craft room (lefthand header picture, center). She is very open and said she was exploring Christianity. I also met her best friend, “Mary,” who is a new believer. The staff from her campus said “She’s on fire! She invites [South Asians] all the time to Bridges and loves praying for people.”

Knee Injury

Unfortunately, Zack couldn’t make it to the retreat. A week prior, he tore his PCL while coaching Paxton’s baseball team. We are praising God that his knee does not require surgery, but this injury has been painful and has limited his ability to drive and walk. Please pray for quick healing for Zack.

Praise Reports

• 148 Seekers and 162 Believers were engaged in spiritual discussions at the HCFR.
• The gospel was proclaimed clearly to the seekers by Bridges staff and Christian students like Aida and Miah.
• Mary is a new believer, and her friend Debbie is very open.

Prayer Requests

• God would bring South Asians like Susie, Judy, and Debbie into His kingdom
• We could build relationships with the UT students we met.
• Quick healing of Zack’s torn PCL, and an extra measure of strength for Naomi in this season.

Milwaukee Cru25 Conference

Naomi and I (Zack) took the kids to Milwaukee this summer to join thousands of other Cru staff. It was a time of worship (header, left), fellowship, and refueling for the mission God has given us. I got to meet all of my new coworkers in the Digital Strategies department of Jesus Film (header, right), Cru’s online media ministry. I’m so honored to work alongside these amazing missionaries! We were very encouraged by the emphasis on Cru’s historic calling…to help the body of Christ fulfill the Great Commission by winning people to Christ, building them in their faith, and sending them to the nations.

Pictured below: Cassia and Paxton try on VR headsets. One of my recent projects was to help launch Jesus Film’s ministry to VR worlds. We are sending missionaries to people who you would probably never even meet in person, because they live the majority of their lives online. The kids got to see a short video I wrote that explains how this digital ministry works.

I (Naomi) was especially encouraged by the Campus Ministry’s emphasis on prayer. We heard prayer testimonies, and surrendered ourselves and our ministry to Christ. It was powerful. The Campus Executive team decided to initiate a 40 day, 24-hour prayer chain. I have been participating daily, as well as joining with my Bridges Prayer Team to pray. Prayer always precedes revival.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence we are seeing an unprecedented spiritual openness among young people right now in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. I pray that Cru would make the most of every opportunity to proclaim the gospel in this season. We have watched so many testimonies of Gen Z’ers who went to church for the first time recently.

Dreams and Visions of Jesus

For three years I (Zack) have been quietly working on a media project for Cru, and it just crossed a major threshold. The big idea is to portray the true stories of people who came to Christ after having a supernatural dream about him. It’s set in a fictional story world where dreams, technology, and the spiritual world collide. We’re calling it Dream Master.

My leadership within Jesus Film just approved the next phase of development, so we’re moving fast now. I will be spending this week with an expert on Middle Eastern culture to work on the scripts. Originally planned as an audio drama, we will be developing this story into an animated series.

UPCOMING

Our family with join Bridges staff and hundreds of international students for the Hill Country Fall Retreat (HCFR) from October 10-12.

PRAISE REPORTS

• Cru25 was an incredibly encouraging conference.
• Zack received approval to move forward with Dream Master.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Incredible fruit on campus from the 40 days of prayer.
• God would bring revival to campuses across America.
• Spiritual protection over the Dream Master project.
• God’s blessing over Zack’s focused week of script writing.
• Every Seeker who attends HCFR would leave with a clear understanding of the gospel, and many would come to Christ.
• Every Believer at HCFR would share their faith.

Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

Cru routinely asks a simple question: how can we empower students to lead and shape our ministry? There are always new opportunities and challenges with each new generation of students, and Gen Z is no different. So, Cru conducted some large-scale research to figure out the conditions and greatest needs of this cohort of students.

Globally, only 8% of teenagers are Bible-engaged. A high view of Scripture and regular Bible-reading are both rare. On the flip side, students thrive when they study the Bible and discover things on their own. They prefer large swaths of Scripture to dig into, rather than just memorizing verses out of context. And contrary to stereotypes, they actually have long attention spans for engaging, long-form content. That’s where my (Zack’s) new ministry role in Jesus Film comes in. I recently met with my writers’ team (pictured below) at our Cru headquarters in Orlando to see how we can meet the needs of Gen Z Christians for Biblical, engaging video content.

Our team spent a week together brainstorming, outlining, and drafting a series of five videos to teach students the basics of the Spirit-filled life. This material has been the bread and butter of Cru, but it’s never been filmed. It was exciting to take these first steps with such a talented group of people.

Seeking Rewards

As the majority of people from the Middle East just finished their holy month of fasting, our family finished a month of focused prayers for them. We prayed for dreams and visions of Jesus and opportunities to share the gospel. 

God gave me (Naomi) the chance to talk to a mom-friend from our school who I call “Leilani.” She is from Southwest Asia. We were able to discuss our differing beliefs of Jesus. Leilani was fasting in hopes of earning extra rewards from her god, but she told me that her husband “Kai” no longer fasts or believes in the religion of their home country. He a Deist now. Please pray God would be working in both of their hearts.

Jesus in Every Language

One of our coworkers recently traveled abroad. While walking down the street, he noticed several guys playing guitar and walked up to them. Through broken English they told him the region they came from, and he surprised them by naming the language they spoke: Kurmanji. He then opened the Jesus Film app and played the film about Jesus’s life in their language. They were mesmerized for several minutes, and wanted to watch the whole thing later.

Another day, our coworker met with a man in a cafe who said, “I have a hot stock tip to give you.” He listened politely and then said, “Let me tell you about an even greater gift.” He then showed the Jesus Film in the native language of the stock trader, who later gave his life to Christ.

Family Update

Annalei and Miah performed as nuns in a musical theater production of Sound of Music (header, left). Cassia and Paxton raced pinewood derby cars at AWANA (header, right). All four kids will audition for an upcoming production of Little Mermaid, which will be Annalei’s last show this summer before heading to college.

UPCOMING

Zack travels to Japan April 7-15 for the Damah Film Festival in Tokyo. Jesus Film sponsors this event, which showcases short films about meaning and hope. We will network with Christian filmmakers and build gospel bridges with others. 

PRAYER REQUESTS

• God would open the door for further conversation with Leilani and Kai, and they would come to believe in Jesus.
• God’s wisdom in our pre-production process for the video series about the Holy Spirit’s role in our life. Zack will focus on how the Spirit gives us power to witness (Acts 1:8).
• Safe travels for Zack and God’s nearness to Naomi and the kids while he is away.

“The Nations Long for a Better Story”

That’s been the driving vision for me (Zack) for many years now. Each individual has a story they play internally and model their lives after in order to find peace and fulfillment. Every nation has a story that it holds up as its main organizing principle. And while the (true!) story of Jesus’ birth, sacrificial death, and resurrection is the greatest story every told, many people throughout the world have never heard it even once.

Yet deep down the gospel is the story their souls long for.

Since we became Cru staff over twenty years ago, Naomi and I have helped take the gospel to the nations. We’ve served with Bridges International, Cru’s ministry to international students. My main focus was developing video resources for our fellow Bridges staff. Now, I’m stepping up to a new role with the Jesus Film Project––another ministry of Cru––to develop evangelism and discipleship media. I’ll equip not only our Bridges staff and other missionaries around the world with original stories that portray God’s story. Naomi will remain on the National Bridges Prayer Team. We are thankful that Cru allows us to serve with different teams within the ministry.

Jesus Film Project believes in the power of sharing the gospel story through film. Just as Jesus told parables to capture the hearts of his audience, we believe film offers a dynamic way to hear and see the greatest story ever lived. In 1978, Campus Crusade for Christ helped produce a biblically faithful and historically accurate adaptation of Luke’s gospel. This film, JESUS, is offered in 2,200 languages and helped 665 million people put their faith in Christ.

A New Shirt

This feature-length movie is only one of many evangelistic resources from Jesus Film Project. The prevalence of smartphones and tablets has popularized the short film format. Our smartphone app contains a treasure trove of short-form content to help illustrate the gospel.

For example, Cabernet is a story which I actually wrote in collaboration with Jesus Film Project back in 2011. This seven-minute short film portrays Christ’s substitutionary atonement for us. Cabernet follows Brett, a young man who finds an embarrassing wine stain while waiting for his date to arrive. Every way he tries to fix the stain only makes his shirt look worse. Finally, Brett is out of options. That’s when the waiter steps in and exchanges shirts with Brett, which gets him in trouble with his boss. Brett is able to meet his date with confidence, but then realizes what the waiter sacrificed.

Cabernet has been used in evangelistic settings all over the world. One such place was in southeastern Africa, where pastors were sharing the gospel in a rural area, to little success. Then they approached “Munesu,” the town drunk. The pastors used the Jesus Film app to show Cabernet to Munesu, explaining how Jesus sacrificed himself for our sin and takes it away, just as the waiter sacrificially took away Brett’s wine-stained shirt. Soon, tears ran down Munesu’s face as he realized he cannot save or cleanse himself from sin. He then decided to follow Jesus.

The story of Munesu’s changed life circulated. In the days that followed, more people came to the JESUS film screenings. In all, 923 people indicated decisions to follow Christ as a result of the pastors’ rural outreach, starting with God’s transformation of just one person.

For my role as screenwriter with Jesus Film Project, I will produce more stories like Cabernet to help people like Munesu know their lives can have a better story through the saving power of Jesus Christ.

UPCOMING

• March 3-6: Zack travels to Cru headquarters in Orlando to work on a discipleship video series about the Spirit-filled life.

PRAISE REPORTS

• Munesu and 900 others received Christ through missionaries equipped with Jesus Film resources.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• God’s wisdom for Zack as he and his team develop new evangelistic media for a Middle Eastern audience.
• God’s nearness with our family as Zack will be traveling more

Knocking At The Door Of An Empty House

Our family of six recently attended the Vision 2024 Conference (pictured above, left), and each of us saw the Lord work in powerful ways. Annalei (pictured above, right) and Miah took part in the Ambassador Track. Annalei loved getting to meet students and staff from around the world, and learning more about how and why to share her faith.

Paxton and Cassia had a special moment with a Middle Eastern student named “Reed.” He attended Vision 2023 and was added to a list of students Naomi was praying for. Reed had suffered his whole life from persistent nightmares. Naomi shared this with Paxton, who prayed every night for God to protect Reed’s sleep. Paxton also got Cassia to pray nightly.

Reed finally got to meet Paxton and Cassia this year at Vision (pictured below) and tell them how God had answered their prayers: his nightmares have stopped! There were tears in Reed’s eyes as he told us how he was finally free. He was so thankful and touched that a boy he hadn’t even met would pray for him so faithfully.

One of our fellow Bridges staff relayed to us that, before the conference, Reed decided that he no longer wanted to follow the majority religion of his country. His parents were fine with this and even gave their approval for him to learn about Christianity. He was much more engaged in discussions about Jesus this year compared to the last Vision conference. Reed said that he now wants to read the Bible in his own language.

When I (Zack) spoke to Reed about all of this, he told me how he’s drawn to a peaceful feeling he gets when he learns about Jesus. I shared and explained two passages in the Bible to him: Matthew 12:43-45 and Revelation 3:20. Jesus has driven out the demons causing his nightmares, but Reed’s “house” is still empty. And an empty house is vulnerable to more demons coming back to invade his dreams again. Yet, Jesus is standing outside of his house, knocking at the door. “So, are you ready to let Jesus in?” I asked him.

Reed is still working through all of these things, so please pray for him to open the door of his heart to the Lord.

Reed and our family celebrated New Year’s Eve together on the last night of Vision.

I (Naomi) was also able to engage in conversation with another Middle Eastern student named “Shay.” She told me that she was 80% ready to become a Christian and that the Holy Spirit would have to bring her to 100%. She told me that she feared what the holy book for the majority religion of her country said about what would happen if she left that religion. Please pray Jesus would remove this fear.

Prayer Seminar

I (Naomi) was also blessed with the opportunity to co-lead a prayer seminar at Vision (pictured below). We shared the gospel and how, in Christ, we have a personal God who is faithful to hear and answer prayers.

Reed gave me this feedback, “I found your seminar very engaging. However, what stood out was how believable and relatable both of your presentations were…You brought up some really interesting points. You mentioned that God responds to our requests in three ways: yes, no, or wait. I thought that was a fascinating perspective…Especially when you were about to share your personal experience about the times when God says ‘no’ to our requests, we could sense that you were about to talk about something painful. When you spoke about the great sorrow of losing your friend, I realized that sometimes God puts us through difficult trials to test our faith. What’s remarkable, though, is that the way to emerge from these trials with strength is also through faith in God. It’s truly profound and thought-provoking.”

After the seminar, I spoke with a Japanese student, Yuna (pictured below), who I had met at Fall Retreat. She brought a South Asian friend who is also a seeker. I was able to pray over both of them. Yuna told me that she now believes in a loving God because of the conversations that we have had.

PRAISE REPORTS

• Reed’s nightmares stopped, in answer to Paxton’s prayers
• Reed is drawn to Jesus and wants to read the Bible
• Seekers came to Christ at Vision, and Christians were challenged to get involved in fulfilling the Great Commission

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Reed, Yuna, “Shay,” and other seekers would open the door of their hearts to Jesus
• Believers who attended Vision would share their faith

Like many Nigerians, Aanu grew up in a Christian household. His family went to church regularly and he had a personal relationship with God. But when Aanu moved to the U.S. seven years ago for college, he faced a fork in the road. He told us recently how he had to decide whether Christianity was “the faith of my parents and I walk away, or now it’s my faith.”

Thankfully Aanu found a strong fellowship that discipled him and helped him grow. And when he came here to Austin for his graduate program, he got involved with our Bridges ministry. This was where God put a fire in his heart for evangelism.

“I knew what Christ had commanded us Christians to do, to proclaim the gospel,” he said. “But it was more like a personal and private relationship for me. One of the main gifts I got from being a part of Bridges is taking that knowledge of I need to be a witness on campus in everything I do. And the past three years, Bridges staff have been instrumental to provide me with tools to engage in those conversations.”

This past May, Aanu went with fellow Bridges students on a ten-day mission trip to Vancouver. Their team had 500 spiritual conversations with other internationals. One person Aanu spoke was “Ryan” from Kazakhstan. Ryan asked Aanu how knowing Jesus affected his mental health, which opened the door to a lengthy discussion about the gospel.

“Even though we were strangers, there was a real connection. That’s probably my most powerful experience. So much joy came out of that. I belong in this group doing God’s mission.”

From Nigeria to America to Canada, international students are part of a global movement of the gospel. Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry. We are helping equip and send students like Aanu into the spiritual harvest field.

If you would like to make a year-end gift to our ministry, click the button below to give a tax-deductible donation.