Category: Newsletter

Never Been Convinced

My (Naomi’s) main focus of ministry for the past two months has been taking an online graduate-level Apologetics class, offered through Cru. I have learned a lot and it has opened many doors for evangelism. One morning at Miah’s gymnastics class, God gave me a divine appointment with her coach, Adrian. As we discussed his spiritual background, he told me that he has nothing against Christianity, but he has never been “convinced” that the Bible is reliable. Adrian had learned in college that the New Testament was basically a legend.

Later that day, my lecture was on that exact topic! After the lecture, I was able to send Adrian a detailed email about the number of New Testament manuscripts and how the textual variants are insignificant. Later, I gave him a copy of The Reason for God by Tim Keller. The chapter on the reliability of the Bible begins with Keller recounting how he heard the same thing in college that Adrian had.

Coach Adrian is very open and willing to listen and ask questions. He has already read through Matthew and Mark! Zack and I have had several email exchanges with him. In one email he said, “I am enjoying reading the Bible again. Jesus has more bite than I remember!”

The Reason for God

We were blessed with a wonderful week in Houston over Spring Break. We got to introduce new people to the vision of our ministry, and catch up with old friends (love y’all!). One friend we hadn’t seen in years was Florian.

Florian is a beloved former international student from Germany who was very involved in Houston Bridges. At the time, he wasn’t very open spiritually. But now because of various circumstances in his life, he is doing a lot more searching. As we talked, he mentioned that he had a lot of questions, like about whether God was real or the Bible true. I showed him The Reason for God and he said, “I will definitely read this book.” 

Strong Faith all Summer

How do you stay strong in your faith when you’re alone? This is a question that eats away at Cru students as the summer approaches. For many of them, Cru has been a transformative experience of walking closely with God. The thought of leaving that behind for three months can be unnerving. 

For the second year, I (Zack) was part of a team in Cru that is putting together a program called Summer Connect. Its purpose is to help students make the most of their summer by giving them valuable content from engaging speakers. But more than simply watching videos, students will have several opportunities to connect with others through this program. It encourages them towards devotion to God, holiness and missional living.

The core audience of Summer Connect is high school seniors through college students who are followers of Jesus, most of whom are not yet engaged disciples.

Space Explorers

Thanks to a special friend of ours in Houston, we got to tour the inside of NASA’s Vehicle Mockup facility (pictured in the header). This is where they house full-size replicas of the International Space Station for training astronauts. The kids loved it!

UPCOMING

I (Zack) and working with our Creative Media team to develop a new video to portray the vision and mission of Bridges. My role is the screenwriter and editor. I’m excited to get to come up with a creative illustration to show people what our ministry is all about. We’ll release it in July.

PRAISE REPORTS

• Apologetics class was a great experience for Naomi.
• God has opened the doors for discussions with Adrian.
• Wonderful time connecting with old friends in Houston
• God softening Florian’s heart!

PRAYER REQUESTS

• God’s Word would not return void in Adrian’s life; that he would come to faith soon.
• Adrian and his family would attend our church small group.
• Florian to experience God’s reality and truth in a personal way.
• Summer Connect would strengthen Cru students.
• Provision for the new Bridges video: location, actors, set, props, editing, and for it to effectively mobilize others.

Thank you for your prayers and support that allowed our whole family to go to Vision Conference. It was a great experience for all. Annalei joined the prayer team, and I (Naomi) could see her growing more of a heart for prayer. She also got to meet students from all over the world as she hosted a craft table, where students could depict their spiritual journey through art (pictured below).

Miah connected deeply with new friends in childcare and loved all the Bible lessons she learned. Cassia and Paxton enjoyed the elevators, the escalators, and the snow. I have realized what a blessing it is to raise my children on Bridges staff. What better way for them to develop a heart for the nations than to interact with people from all over the world.

For me, this Vision conference renewed and refreshed my tired heart. It was wonderful to be on the prayer team with my mom (who also came to help with the kids). So much of what we do as Bridges is fought in the heavenlies.

One of the most powerful images of prayer was a huge map of the entire world that was set up in the Prayer Room (pictured below).

Conference attendees could say a prayer for their home nation or a friend’s nation and light an electric candle and place it on the map. It was SO powerful to walk into this room at the end of the conference and see the whole world covered in prayer.

Our prayer team was in the room while the Chinese students shared the gospel at their outreach party. It was so fun! One gal, Arya (pictured above), caught my eye as she glowed with excitement about Jesus while sharing the gospel with the non-Christians at her table. I got a text later that during the outreach time, “at least 2 students accepted Christ, but I’m sure it’s more than that!”

Two young women from India did a powerful traditional Indian dance depicting Jesus’s death and resurrection (pictured above). At the end of the dance they said, “This is a dance form used to worship deities. This is the first time we have used this dance form to worship Jesus. We are His.” It brought many in the room to tears. It was such a beautiful picture of all Bridges hopes and prays to accomplish in the lives of internationals.

HEALING

I (along with Harriet, the prayer team leader) did an inner healing prayer session with a Japanese woman named Eriko. It was a powerful and transformative time, where the Lord spoke deep truth to His precious daughter. I’m so thankful that I could speak some Japanese to Eriko during the time!

PRAISE REPORTS

• 652 students from 71 nations attended the Vision 2018 Conference
• Hundreds of these students heard the gospel clearly.
• Believers were challenged to share their faith, commit their lives to the Lord, and some were challenged to go into full- time ministry.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For all students — believers and seekers — to take the next step on their journey of faith.
• Eriko would live out the truth God spoke to her at Vision.

Life Saver

“This book will save your life.” Mo looked at the Bible his friend had handed him, thinking about these words. It seemed counter-intuitive. In the Middle Eastern country they lived in, reading the Bible or believing in Jesus was dangerous. Less than 1% of their countrymen were Christian. Still, Mo was intrigued, so he tucked the Bible in his backpack, hopped on his motorcycle, and went on his way. He had no idea what God had in store for him.
Every day, Mo took out that Bible and tried to read it, but he had trouble understanding it. Every time, he returned the Bible to his backpack, not sure what to think about it.

One day, Mo was riding his motorcycle, and turned a corner into a horrible situation. Right in front of him, a man was robbed at gunpoint and then shot. Mo quickly turned around and sped away, but the robber had seen him. The man shot several times at Mo.

When he finally got to a safe spot, Mo discovered he was unharmed, to his great relief. He emptied out his backpack and then was stunned: the bullets that had been intended to kill him had lodged themselves into his Bible.

Several months later, Mo came to the United States as an international student. One day on his campus, he walked by a table and saw Bibles on display. He stopped and looked up at the people behind the table. They were Christians, representing a student ministry. He said to them, “I must talk to you. I was in a situation where the Bible literally saved my life. But can you explain about Jesus to me?”

These new friends were happy to meet with Mo and walk through the gospel with him. That day, he surrendered his life to Christ. Several months later, he had this to say:

“It’s the difference between night and day, between being in prison and being set free. My lifestyle in my home country was very bad. I had no hope. I only discovered Jesus’s power to set me free when I came here, and I was able to talk to real Christians on my campus. From them, I realized that God loves me, and wants to set me free from the prison of my sin through Jesus. Because of my faith in Jesus, my fear being punished by God is gone. Now I have hope and peace that comes only from a relationship with Jesus. I am a totally different person because of Christ.”

Launching Soon

The purpose of our training curriculum called Every International is to equip the church here in North America to reach international students like Mo for Christ. We have video lessons for reaching specific cultures and religious groups, as well as more general equipping for evangelism, discipleship and crossing cultures.

Recently, we finished up all the training videos for the website:

Very soon it will be open to the public. Currently we are testing out all the features to ensure a smooth and productive experience with the curriculum. Can you imagine the day when every international in North America knows someone who truly follows Jesus?

PRAISE REPORTS

• Mo’s new life in Christ!
• After five years of planning, and six months of hard work, Every International is done and nearly ready to launch.
• Jenny had this to say after we completed the first 6 lessons of Discovery Bible Study: “Hey Naomi, thank you for thinking of us. We are open mind and in the process as you know. We enjoyed the Bible study, and loved the discussion as well as sharing among the group.” Praise God that Jenny and Peter’s hearts are so open to the Lord.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Spiritual protection over Mo and other new Muslim background believers.
• A smooth process for the public launch of Every Int’l.
• Jenny and Peter to become Christians soon.
• Salvation of our neighbor, Ashley, and another friend, Alonzo, who also attended our Discovery Bible Study.

Discovering the Bible

We have been attending a church small group in our neighborhood focused on outreach and encouraging each other in evangelism. I (Naomi) really love face-to-face ministry and I’m so thankful that the bulk of the neighbors that our group has been developing relationships with are internationals! It’s so fun! We have built enough trust with these couples that we are starting a six-week Discovery Bible Study this month.

We’ll use the same materials that Bridges staff use on campus with students who have never studied the Bible before. So far, one couple, Peter and Jenny from Taiwan, have said yes. Please pray for three more couples to join us. Pictured below: Naomi has her arm around Jenny.

Welcome Parties

Bridges events are in full swing on campuses all across the country right now, as staff are busy welcoming new international students, befriending them, helping them to get settled into life in America, hosting welcome parties, and gauging spiritual interest. On the Houston campus ministry team, they are currently following up with new students they met on the City Tour and Welcome Party. Pray for the staff, student leaders, and volunteers, that they would find students who are spiritually interested. Pray for the team as they start Discovery Bible study groups on campus. Pray for the hearts of students to be open.

Lost in Space

I (Zack) have been writing a faith-based science-fiction novel. It’s a near-future story about three siblings who travel to deep space, and together go on a spiritual journey.

Why write this? If you’ve been following the news lately about space exploration, you know that we’re living in a new golden age of discovery. There are serious plans to build permanent human settlements on Mars. NASA has discovered over 3,000 planets around other stars. Within a few years, we will be able to detect whether or not there are signs of life out there. Are we, as Christians, ready to confront the theological issues inherent in these advancements?

Sci-fi is a “thought simulator” about the future, and the genre is largely devoid of a Christian voice. I believe there is a huge opportunity to engage students in spiritual discussions with a story about these topics.

My goal is to finish the first draft in the next six months and have revisions done by the end of 2019. Go to zackaryrussell.com for more info and updates. I am thankful Cru gave me its blessing to pursue this, although it’s a nights and weekends project (not my main role).

Sleepless in Austin

Our children (particularly Paxton and Cassia) have not been sleeping well lately. They wake up sporadically throughout the night and scream or cry. We are often exhausted, so need prayer that, as a family, we could all sleep through the night.

Upcoming

Have you ever met an international and thought, “I would love to reach out to them, but I don’t know where to begin or what to say?” Zack has been working hard on editing the training videos for Every International. It is our hope and prayer that this training curriculum will give Americans confidence in reaching internationals. We plan to launch in October. We hope that it will be a tool for you to use as well.

Praise Reports

• New international friends in our neighborhood and lives.

Prayer Requests

• Spiritual protection over the neighborhood Bible Study, and for 3 more couples to join.
• Peter and Jenny would accept Christ as their Savior soon.
• Bridges Discovery Bible Study groups that are being started on many campuses.

Aloha!

Last month we spent some time in Naomi’s hometown in Hawaii, to connect with our ministry partners, family and friends. We shared the vision of Bridges at churches, Bible studies and personal appointments. God provided several new people for our partnership team, and many others were encouraged and challenged by the stories of how God is moving in the lives of international students.

And of course, we had a few trips to the beach. It was the first time for Cassia and Paxton to be there. We had not been back to the islands for 6 years previous.

It was a delight to see those of you we had a chance to visit with, but we know there are many we sadly missed! Be sure to check out the Videos page to see some new stories we have been sharing.

Every International

Can you imagine a day when every international in North America knows someone who truly follows Jesus? Can you imagine the day when every student, refugee and immigrant has the chance to hear the gospel in a clear, loving, and culturally relevant way?

This is the vision of “Every International” — a long-term initiative we are joining with several other international student ministries (or ISM’s). We want to see every international in North America know one follower of Jesus, and we want every Christian to know and befriend one international.

We just wrapped up three video recording sessions of twenty different speakers. We will use these training videos to help mobilize the Body of Christ all across the U.S. in effective “trans-cultural” ministry. Topics include:

• God’s Heart for the Nations
• Meeting & Befriending Internationals
• Overcoming Common Barriers
• Understanding and Reaching Chinese / Indian / Middle Eastern Students

We had so many talented and well-spoken teachers and experts, it’s going to be an incredible training curriculum. Our hope and prayer is to equip thousands of believers across the country with this material.

Upcoming

The next two months will be largely devoted to the post-production of the Every International training videos. Zack will be working with a team of creatives and ministry leaders to get this curriculum ready for the Fall semester.

Praise Reports

• A productive and enjoyable trip to Naomi’s hometown.
• Many new people are excited about the vision of reaching international students.
• Filming all 20 ISM experts went incredibly well.

Prayer Requests

• For all the video editing and other post-production to be done with excellence and ease.
• For the development of the Every International website and mobile app.
• For our work to glorify God and effectively train many in trans-cultural ministry.

“This is Real!”

As 2017 came to a close, 1,286 students, Bridges staff, and volunteers from 83 nations gathered for a 5-day spiritual journey in Washington DC — the Vision Conference!

One of those students was Iris (pictured below), for whom this was her third time at Vision. Many things have changed in her life since she first got involved with Bridges, and she boldly spoke in front of the whole conference about what God has done.

“I came from a Buddhist family,” said Iris. “Twice a year, we would do a big service. I’m always asking Buddha for everything. But I didn’t feel a connection because it didn’t make me become a better person.”

Then two years ago, Iris came here to Austin, as Vision was held at a hotel downtown that year. Naomi  was her discussion group leader. Naomi could tell that her heart was very open and asked for prayer for Iris in her daily Vision emails. Iris shared about what happened then:

“I didn’t really know anything about Jesus, anything about the Bible. I met an amazing group of people that helped mentor me, coach me, and help me understand who Jesus is.

“I remember very clearly that I prayed on December 31st at two o’clock in the morning. I became a Christian because of the Vision Conference. This is real! This conference changed my life!”

There was a loud a cheer when Iris said this.   I (Zack) wished in that moment that Naomi had been there in DC. But as you know, my job is to capture these stories on video.

Watch the rest of Iris’s story below. And be encouraged: Iris came into the kingdom and is growing in her faith as an answer to your prayers!

(Due to the audio quality, please click the CC button for subtitles)

Annalei’s Outreach

Annalei (11) came home from school one day and told me (Naomi) that she decided to spend her recess sharing the gospel with kids in her class! She used “The Four Fantastic Facts” (a gospel tract/kids version of “The 4 Spiritual Laws”) and read it through with three of her classmates. Two of them: Colby and Mary Jane prayed to receive Christ!! And she left the booklet with Gabby, who said she would think about it. Annalei has been faithfully praying for Gabby to make the decision to follow Christ as well. As a missionary mom, nothing could make me prouder than to see my kids sharing the gospel and having a heart for the lost! Please pray Annalei (and all my kids!) would be active in sharing their faith their entire lives.

Neighborhood Outreach

I am very thankful for two ladies in my neighborhood: Sheryl (in the purple) and Marie (in the stripes). Both of them love Jesus and are eager to share Him with others. I’m really thankful that the women that God is brining into our path are mostly internationals! It’s so kind of God to give me international friends, even though I can’t be with international students on campus in this season of life.

This pic was taken at a baby shower for Marie and our friend from China, “Eileen”. Also in the pic is “Jenny” from China and Mariana from Mexico. Marie, Sheryl and I all were able to share about different aspects of the gospel and our walks with Christ by sharing about why we named our kids what we did. It was a really good and Spirit filled time. Please pray for the salvation of these three as well as some other international moms that I want to share the gospel with: Ana (from Yugoslavia), Ana Maria (from Costa Rica), Sonu (from India), Suzy (from Mexico) and a new neighbor Fadima (from Africa). I’m super excited about God bringing the nations to my neighborhood!!

Getting the Other 90%

“Students from everywhere are everywhere, but we’re only reaching 10%, so we’ve got 90% to go.” That was the rallying cry our national director, Trae Vacek, gave to our new Bridges staff and interns. We had gathered together in New York City for several days of training in reaching internationals (pic below).

I (Zack) was there to film the training to leverage for wider use. It’s the first step in our “Every International” campaign. Our vision is provide training videos to American students and laypeople, who will work alongside us in reaching the other 90% of the 1.3 million international students in the U.S.

One fun part was about “Peach vs. Coconut Cultures.” Can you guess what it means? Which fruit represents the West? The East?

PRAISE REPORTS

• Annalei is sharing her faith and led two of her classmates to Christ!
• Naomi is joining with Marie and Sheryl in neighborhood outreach to other moms.
• More than 20 new laborers with Bridges!

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Annalei’s friend, Gabby, to come to know the Lord.
• All four of our kids would become life-long laborers for Christ.
• Eileen, Jenny, and Mariana would desire a relationship with Jesus and think deeply about what we shared at the baby shower.
• Opportunities for Naomi to share the gospel with her international mom friends.
• Wisdom as we develop the Every International training curriculum for churches and Christian students.

Cru17 Conference

We gathered with 5,000 other Cru staff for our biennial conference in July (pic: header, left). There’s nothing like fellowship and worship with all these other campus missionaries. Whether spoken or unspoken, so many of our colleagues offered us lots of encouragement to continue our efforts for the Great Commission.

One speaker truly encouraged Naomi and I: Jennie Allen. She’s the leader of the If Gathering, which gathers, equips and unleashes women to disciple a generation. Her 10-year involvement in this movement began as a college student in Arkansas. A Cru staff woman took Jennie on a “Sonic run” and invested in her spiritual growth. The rest is history. Watch her talk here.

Marshall in the Spotlight

You may remember how our ATX student interns produced a short film about a Bridges student named Marshall. Well, his story was shown on the big screen at Cru17! It was a great moment to see the hard work of my interns pay off, and to see Bridges’ ministry be celebrated. Marshall’s story will be online soon.

Harvey Relief

Hurricane Harvey not only flooded or destroyed 136,000 homes, it affected the lives of friends dear to us. I’ve counted at least a dozen people we know personally who have had to throw out their flooring, walls, furniture, possessions and whole cabinets full of things. Our hearts have broken again and again. Having gone through our own home disaster in 2015, the pain is very familiar to us.
Recently, Annalei and I did relief work with Crosspoint, our church in Houston. We helped Mrs. Darby (pictured below), alongside Rice students, others from our church and her friends and family. It was gut-wrenching to throw away most of what she owned.

Cru is in the process of mobilizing students from across the country to come help, so others like Mrs. Darby can rebuild

Roof Damage

We had a minor disaster of our own: a large tree branch crashed into our house (pic: header, right). We had to get a whole new roof. Three major appliances also broke. We usually like to spread these things out a bit.

Upcoming

As part of the Harvey Relief effort being mobilized by Cru, I will be producing videos to challenge students to come volunteer in relief work. We will tell not only the story of how people have suffered loss, but how God has been working mightily, and how students involved with Cru and Bridges are playing a part.

Praise Reports

•The ministry of Cru has had long-lasting fruit on leaders like Jennie Allen.

•Our faithful ATX interns, Zoe and Nikki, who did great work alongside us this summer. The videos they helped produce will expand the reach of Cru, Bridges and Destino.

Prayer Requests

•Massive mobilization of the Body of Christ to help Texans rebuild from the vast damage inflicted by Harvey.

•The production process of Harvey videos to be anointed and for our new Media team to work well together.

ATX Summer Mission

Currently within the world of Cru, many of our fellow staff are headed to another city, state or country to participate in or lead a summer mission trip. In fact, short mission trips to Asia are how Naomi and I (Zack) originally got involved with Cru 15 years ago.

This year, our Summer Mission comes in the form of hosting 13 college students in Austin. They’re working with us on national priorities for our ministry operations: Video, Graphic Design, Finance, Digital Marketing, and Conferences/Events. We just kicked off!

On Tuesdays and weekends, these students are also going out on the UT campus or around the city to engage other students in spiritual conversations. They’ve already met several international students and received training on evangelism with different cultures.

The students I’m working with are Zoe (L) and Nikki (R). The three of us will be creating several videos: promos for Destino (the ministry of Cru to Latinos); testimonies of Bridges students from Malaysia and South Africa; and teaching & evangelistic videos about work, marriage, church, and overcoming habitual sin.

Michelle

On a flight that Paxton and I (Naomi) had taken a few months ago, a sweet gal named Michelle sat next to us. I found out that Michelle was Jewish and had recently moved to Austin. We had a great conversation about spiritual topics, and I invited her to join us for church sometime. To our delight, she joined us on Easter Sunday!

During our lunch afterwards, Michelle told us her observations of a Christian worship service from a complete cultural outsider. It was fascinating. What really stood out to her was the strangeness of our focus on a violent act (Jesus’ crucifixion). Zack and I then had a wonderful, gospel-centered discussion with her, reading passages together from Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. It was a rich and pleasant time. Even though she is not an international, the whole experience of discussing Christianity and Judaism was very cross-cultural.

Angel

Last month we were joined by Angel, our dear friend and former international student from Malawi. Angel is at several crossroads in her life, and we were able to impart some wisdom and guidance.

UPCOMING

We’ll be in Colorado for the Cru Staff Conference and to connect with our ministry partners. If you’ll be in Colorado we would love to see you there!

PRAISE REPORTS

• Annalei & Miah and friends were extras in a short film for Cru (pictured in header, left).
• God brought 13 students to join us in Austin for our a jam-packed Summer Mission.
• Spirit-filled conversations with Michelle and Angel.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Michelle to take the next steps in investigating who Jesus is and how he fulfills Scripture.
• God to open doors for Angel to pursue vocational ministry.
• Students from ATX Summer Mission to get a vision for life-long ministry, and for several of them to join us full-time.

The Defining Moment

“I was a pretty aimless guy,” said Alex, a student from India. “I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I wanted to do something significant in life. I thought I’d join the army, dying for the country. I thought of becoming a movie star, musician, sports star.”

Alex shared with me (Zack) how he came from a Christian background; in fact, his ancestors trace back to the ministry of Thomas the disciple, who traveled to India after Jesus’ resurrection. But even with a rich spiritual heritage, to Alex, religion had become routine. As an undergraduate, he began searching.

“I was curious about what my life was meant to be? I was afraid that I would die and what would happen after that. All this brought me to a position of reading the Bible. I never knew that so many things were there in the Bible about life and how to live. It’s been there all along. I realized that Jesus Christ was the way, the truth, and the life. That was the defining moment. It was like I found a treasure.”

Parenting for the Kingdom

The kids and I (Naomi) have recently started attending a weekly playdate. It’s been great for Cassia (2) to make friends her own age, and for me to make some new mom friends. One of those friends is a Chinese gal who I call “Eileen.” Her daughter is pictured below with our three girls.

Right away, Eileen struck me as an easy person to talk to, and a kind mother. She also gave the other moms in our group a great tip on how to re-use a pasta jar (use a hairdryer to remove the label). We’ve swapped all kinds of advice and wisdom together.

Like most people from China, Eileen was not exposed to Christianity before she came to America. The other moms in the group are all believers, so Eileen is seeing firsthand how our faith affects how we live and parent.

I was able to have a spiritual discussion with her, and she is open to learning about the Christian faith. It was very natural and comfortable to talk with her. I gave her a copy of the Chinese book, Song of a Wanderer, by Li Cheng. This book is similar to Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, but it is written by a Chinese author. Cheng shares his story of how he came to faith in Jesus during his time as an academic in the U.S. It is an excellent resource for sharing the gospel with Chinese students and adults, and gives many reasons to believe.

Eileen has started reading Song of a Wanderer, but has told me as a busy young mom she doesn’t have much time to read. Please pray that she would make time, and for God to open the door to further discussions.

Praise Reports

•We recently celebrated “Four Decades of Naomi” (pictured above, top right).

•Alex is a growing disciple with a passion to share the gospel with fellow Indian and international students.

•God has opened door for me to talk about Him with Eileen.

Prayer Requests

•Pray for Alex to grow in becoming a leader and multiplier on campus, and to be encouraged by the Lord. It can be very isolating to be one of only a few Indian believers in a Master’s program.

•God would use Song of a Wanderer in Eileen’s life to bring her to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

•For our family to stay healthy during the oak pollen season