Hello friends,
Greetings in the Lord! We hope that you enjoyed a special Easter celebration and took extra time to consider the awesome reality of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. The reality of the Easter story is a big part of what we communicate to students every day. I pray that I never tire of telling that “old story”.
Telling “movement stories”
One of the purposes of this newsletter is to share some stories of what God is doing to build student movements around our area. It always thrills my heart to hear how God is moving in different parts of the world. I know that what He is doing in another country may not be what He is doing in my country – but it is still worthy of praise and rejoicing. As we hear these stories – let’s take time to thank God for what He has done there and what He WILL do, even among each of us.
Albania
From March 22-29, the Albania Campus Ministry sent four different teams of staff and students on mission projects to reach out to Muslim peoples outside Albania with the gospel. For the first time, they sent a group to Bosnia, where the team helped to follow-up contacts from an outreach there. There were also two teams sent to Macedonia; one to Skopja and one to Tetovo. The fourth team went to Ankara, Turkey.
What is especially encouraging is that more people applied (70 students) than they had places for. Altogether 35 students and 10 staff ended up going. Through these projects, students and staff were able to build friendships with students from Muslim backgrounds, as well as share the gospel with many of them.
After the project was over in Bosnia, a group of young men wanted to continue to meet with the American STINTers serving there, to learn more about the Christian faith.
It is exciting to see God answering the prayers of the Albanian leadership to see students with a growing vision for the nations of the world, saying “Here am I, send me!”
Another interesting piece of information coming from Nikolin Dodaj (the new Albania NCD and the current Tirana CD) is that the statistics this year have shown that about 10% of students who hear the gospel from staff are indicating decisions for Christ, while over 33% of those who are hearing the gospel from fellow students are indicating decisions to receive Christ! This is very powerful for Albania as they seek to have "student-led" movements.
Russia
In Yekaterinburg, the pairing of students who were envisioned and equipped as leaders of spiritual movements and the implementation of an effective broad-based sowing strategy has been very successful. Students coming off of the Black Sea summer project had the vision and motivation to share their faith and a tool (Student Survival Kits) that made it very easy. As a result of this strategy, 33 students in Yekaterinburg trusted Christ last semester.
The excitement is that students are playing a role in every part of the process. Students are leading a prayer movement and they have been a huge part of distributing Student Survival Kits. Students have called back contacts and met with them and have seen fellow students trust Christ. Students are now discipling these new student believers.
Bosnia and Croatia
Bosnia and Croatia are both at the beginning stages of movement building. They are trying some very interesting strategies to connect with students – and are beginning to see their prayer and faith begin to result in some identifiable fruitfulness. Here’s a report from one of their most recent outreaches…
Porn Nation - the Naked Truth is a multimedia-based presentation that tells the stories of several people’s lives in a compelling way. Michael Leahy, speaker, author and former sex addict, shares his story of addiction, healing and encounter with God.
The staff in Croatia/Bosnia saw the Lord do some amazing things during their Porn Nation outreach week, March 10-14 with venues in 4 cities—Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Sarajevo. This was the largest student outreach they have ever held in terms of having students attend an event and hear the Gospel. Here is a brief overview of what happened that week:
March 10—Sarajevo
At 7:20 PM, the campus team nervously stood at the door wondering if anyone would come… what would happen? At 7:30 PM, students began showing up in groups of 5 and 10 until all 280 seats were filled. Amazingly 180 students stayed after a 4-minute break, even though the speaker said he would talk about spiritual issues afterwards. Also amazing is that there are 90 students to follow-up and 90% of them are Muslims!
March 12—Zagreb
At 4:20 PM, the students again began to wonder if anyone would come. And once again, students began to troop in. Over 250 students showed and 50 requested some type of follow-up.
March 13—Rijeka
In Rijeka over 400 students showed up to fill a 340-seat theatre. After the lecture, a student named Petra patiently waited to personally talk with Michael. When it was her turn, she said, “You have really touched my heart tonight. How can I know God personally?” Michael sat down with her, verbally shared the Four Laws and asked her if she wanted to pray to receive Jesus. She said, “yes, definitely.” Michael introduced her to Brooke Butler and he explained a bit more about how to grow and gave her a Svakistudent Pita booklet. As she left, she was beaming. One of our staff women, also named Petra, will be following her up.
March 14—Split
In Split, which has been a notoriously difficult place to minister, 200 students came to the meeting on a Friday night which was at the exact same time as a huge celebration held by the city on the Riva, for Blanka Vlasic, the Croatian high jumper who had just won the gold medal at the world indoor track and field championships.
In all 1145 students attended the talks, 925 stayed until the end (a break was given to allow students to leave before the spiritual presentation) and 279 requested some type of follow-up (more info, spiritual conversation, article).
A final thought…
A Cat Heaven
One day a cat dies of natural causes and goes to Heaven. There he meets the Lord himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life and if there is any way I can make your stay in Heaven more comfortable, please let Me know."
The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more," and a wonderful fluffy pillow appears.
A few days later six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident and go to Heaven. Again the Lord is there to greet them with the same offer. The mice answer, "All of our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs, and even women with brooms. Running, running, running; we're tired of running. Do you think we could have roller skates so we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "Say no more," and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.
About a week later the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him in a deep sleep on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, "How are things since you arrived?" The
cat stretches and yawns and replies, "It is wonderful here. Better than I could have
ever expected. And those Meals on Wheels you've been sending by are theeeeeeee
best!!!"
