East Asia
Summer MISSION
2015 Dates: 19 May - 1 July (6 weeks)
Directors: Sang Yun
Contact: sang.yun@cru.org, kurt.richardson@cru.org
Share life and the gospel with university students in East Asia though personal relationships, and take language classes at the same time! You will be trained and stretched in evangelism, and we expect to grow deeper in our discipleship, both individually and as a team.
Directors: Sang Yun
Contact: sang.yun@cru.org, kurt.richardson@cru.org
Share life and the gospel with university students in East Asia though personal relationships, and take language classes at the same time! You will be trained and stretched in evangelism, and we expect to grow deeper in our discipleship, both individually and as a team.
STINT
Dates: 19 August 2014 - 10 July 2015
Directors: Kurt Richardson
Contact: kurt.richardson@cru.org
In East Asia, history is now. Right now, there is revival happening in East Asia unlike any we have seen before. Thousands of people are coming to know the Lord every day. The Gospel is changing lives, and God is moving on campuses across the nation. But, there is still so much work to be done. Come, dive into the rich and storied culture of East Asia and open doors for the Gospel to change lives. God will change your life as He uses you to change East Asian students’ eternities.
Directors: Kurt Richardson
Contact: kurt.richardson@cru.org
In East Asia, history is now. Right now, there is revival happening in East Asia unlike any we have seen before. Thousands of people are coming to know the Lord every day. The Gospel is changing lives, and God is moving on campuses across the nation. But, there is still so much work to be done. Come, dive into the rich and storied culture of East Asia and open doors for the Gospel to change lives. God will change your life as He uses you to change East Asian students’ eternities.
Stories
The names of the following students have been changed, and their photos are not posted, in order to protect their identities.
Brandon
Having to share my faith with others, I was forced to think hard about what it is that I really believe. This is especially true because all the friends I met were ones who grew up in a culture directly and indirectly teaching that God is a man-made fallacy and Christianity just another erroneous Western philosophy. Most of my friends were shocked to know that I, a college student, genuinely believe in God. With that, I realized how sad life could be apart from God. I say that because I was put in so many situations where, in order to understand my friends more, I had to imagine a life where God doesn’t exist. Such simulations always left me so hopeless and depressed. The next step was realizing, well, I certainly do not want to believe in Christianity just because it makes me feel inside but because it is the truth…So in reading more Scripture, such as the book of Acts, I realized that either the whole story of Jesus is a scam—and so we’re tragically mistaken and our faith rendered pathetic—OR it’s real and Christ is indeed alive and our life should appropriately reflect that dramatic truth…
On another note, the readiness people have for Jesus was joyfully shocking. So many people are just waiting for someone to tell them something to believe in—to hope for. My friend Tony, for example, immediately after I shared with him my faith told me how, “grateful [he is] for the God to die for him”. After several meetings, I gave him a Bible as a gift, and before I left, connected him with a national Christian community there.
All in all, our team was able to engage 151 students in spiritual conversations. I am more than confident that, “as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to Me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
Having to share my faith with others, I was forced to think hard about what it is that I really believe. This is especially true because all the friends I met were ones who grew up in a culture directly and indirectly teaching that God is a man-made fallacy and Christianity just another erroneous Western philosophy. Most of my friends were shocked to know that I, a college student, genuinely believe in God. With that, I realized how sad life could be apart from God. I say that because I was put in so many situations where, in order to understand my friends more, I had to imagine a life where God doesn’t exist. Such simulations always left me so hopeless and depressed. The next step was realizing, well, I certainly do not want to believe in Christianity just because it makes me feel inside but because it is the truth…So in reading more Scripture, such as the book of Acts, I realized that either the whole story of Jesus is a scam—and so we’re tragically mistaken and our faith rendered pathetic—OR it’s real and Christ is indeed alive and our life should appropriately reflect that dramatic truth…
On another note, the readiness people have for Jesus was joyfully shocking. So many people are just waiting for someone to tell them something to believe in—to hope for. My friend Tony, for example, immediately after I shared with him my faith told me how, “grateful [he is] for the God to die for him”. After several meetings, I gave him a Bible as a gift, and before I left, connected him with a national Christian community there.
All in all, our team was able to engage 151 students in spiritual conversations. I am more than confident that, “as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to Me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
Julia
Hello, I am a sophomore at Yale University and I would love to share how God amazingly showed His grace by letting me witness a part of the great work He is doing in East Asia through the Cru’s East Asia summer project. I was originally looking through many other summer programs with some frustration, but somehow God led me to participate in this trip which ended up changing my entire purpose of life and perspective of everything.
During the project, our team of eight students and three staff members was mostly reaching out to college students on campus and trying to share the gospel through the relationships built. Although I was a little afraid of initiating conversations with unfamiliar faces, many students were very kind and open-minded. Gradually I got to learn how to just trust the Holy Spirit to guide my footsteps, literally, and to speak to my friends through my mouth. Even if the friends sometimes did not seem to be too receptive, I came to trust God as the farmer who will grow the seeds planted. I became more and more desperate to introduce Jesus as the truth and life to my friends who grew up in environments where religion and God are rarely talked about. It has been a great joy to just witness God’s work in their hearts.
It was especially hard to believe when one of my friends accepted Jesus as her Savior and Lord right in front of my eyes. We had become great friends because we shared very similar personalities. I was so thankful that I was able to share my testimonies about how God has taken away my fears and how I experience Him as my Father. I could only be amazed at how God can move hearts when she decided to believe in Jesus so willingly and gladly. She even told me that she has already been praying about her everyday life before she goes to bed. I am praying that this will only be a beginning of her new life in Jesus.
However, sharing the gospel has not been always as smooth with some friends. One friend had a hard time understanding me when I told her how I became free from my sins through Jesus. She believed there is nothing wrong with simply working hard everyday to reach higher goals, and thus saw no need to think about sins or any spiritual things. Despite my impatience with her in the beginning, God allowed me to see that I myself was the same sinner as her, as I also had been pursuing my selfish goals while neglecting God. Once I could sympathize with her, I could genuinely share how I got to find the reason for my life only in Jesus. The Holy Spirit moved the hearts of both my friend and me.
God has done amazing things with many others of my friends as well. He is so worthy of praise because He continues to work even through my weaknesses and even when I cannot be there with my friends. Before, I used to be afraid of giving my life to God, but now I really want only Jesus to be on the throne of my life. I know that God’s plans are higher than mine and that His work is so beautiful and full of love. I hope that Jesus will seep into every part of my life so that everything in my life will have the trace of Jesus and will be a testimony. I long to be used more by God for His good work. Now, as I am back on campus, everything is so different—the way I spend time, how interact with friends, my heart for the school—and I am overwhelmed so many times to realize how much better it is to walk with Jesus everyday than to live on my own.
I am so thankful that God has shown Himself so much through this ministry and that He let me become a part of the witnesses.
Hello, I am a sophomore at Yale University and I would love to share how God amazingly showed His grace by letting me witness a part of the great work He is doing in East Asia through the Cru’s East Asia summer project. I was originally looking through many other summer programs with some frustration, but somehow God led me to participate in this trip which ended up changing my entire purpose of life and perspective of everything.
During the project, our team of eight students and three staff members was mostly reaching out to college students on campus and trying to share the gospel through the relationships built. Although I was a little afraid of initiating conversations with unfamiliar faces, many students were very kind and open-minded. Gradually I got to learn how to just trust the Holy Spirit to guide my footsteps, literally, and to speak to my friends through my mouth. Even if the friends sometimes did not seem to be too receptive, I came to trust God as the farmer who will grow the seeds planted. I became more and more desperate to introduce Jesus as the truth and life to my friends who grew up in environments where religion and God are rarely talked about. It has been a great joy to just witness God’s work in their hearts.
It was especially hard to believe when one of my friends accepted Jesus as her Savior and Lord right in front of my eyes. We had become great friends because we shared very similar personalities. I was so thankful that I was able to share my testimonies about how God has taken away my fears and how I experience Him as my Father. I could only be amazed at how God can move hearts when she decided to believe in Jesus so willingly and gladly. She even told me that she has already been praying about her everyday life before she goes to bed. I am praying that this will only be a beginning of her new life in Jesus.
However, sharing the gospel has not been always as smooth with some friends. One friend had a hard time understanding me when I told her how I became free from my sins through Jesus. She believed there is nothing wrong with simply working hard everyday to reach higher goals, and thus saw no need to think about sins or any spiritual things. Despite my impatience with her in the beginning, God allowed me to see that I myself was the same sinner as her, as I also had been pursuing my selfish goals while neglecting God. Once I could sympathize with her, I could genuinely share how I got to find the reason for my life only in Jesus. The Holy Spirit moved the hearts of both my friend and me.
God has done amazing things with many others of my friends as well. He is so worthy of praise because He continues to work even through my weaknesses and even when I cannot be there with my friends. Before, I used to be afraid of giving my life to God, but now I really want only Jesus to be on the throne of my life. I know that God’s plans are higher than mine and that His work is so beautiful and full of love. I hope that Jesus will seep into every part of my life so that everything in my life will have the trace of Jesus and will be a testimony. I long to be used more by God for His good work. Now, as I am back on campus, everything is so different—the way I spend time, how interact with friends, my heart for the school—and I am overwhelmed so many times to realize how much better it is to walk with Jesus everyday than to live on my own.
I am so thankful that God has shown Himself so much through this ministry and that He let me become a part of the witnesses.
