City College is a NYC school with over 12,000 students. The diversity that exists in this school represents the diversity of the city as a whole. This spring, Kelsey and Sabrina (Cru staff) met with a group of girls over lunch in the City College cafeteria. Katerina is Greek, Fatima: Lebanese, Neyda: Salvadorian, Lissette: Dominican, Taynara: Brazilian, and Margareth is part Dominican part Costa Rican.
The girls were interested in spiritual things as Sabrina and Kelsey shared the gospel through their personal testimonies. At another meeting, they went through Cru’s Perspective cards (photo). Perspective is a deck of cards that allows people to share what they believe, explore the Christian worldview, and take the next step on their spiritual journey. Visit ExploreMyPerspective.com to learn more about Perspective cards.
The girls began to share more about their spiritual beliefs until they reached the question, which hits to the heart of the gospel, “Who is Jesus?” It was here that the usually talkative girls were at a loss for words. Neyda spoke up saying she believes Jesus is God and identifies herself as a Christian. Margareth and Lissette also said that they believe a lot of the Christian teaching, but keep their beliefs to themselves for the fear of being labeled radical or judgmental.
Katerina simply refused to answer the question out of fear of offending her friends, “I know that some of my views are opposite of others at the table, and I don’t want to offend anyone. There’s stuff happening in the world that I hate, and religion is the cause of it.” Fatima, a Muslim, began to share some of her experiences with religion and spirituality.
All through their time together the Cru staff were able to share the gospel and even more so specific aspects of God, such as forgiveness and grace. Kelsey and Sabrina walked away from these meetings in awe of how deep the girls went and how powerful the time was.
Please pray for these girls—that those who know Christ would live lives devoted to Him and those who don’t will be impacted by the gospel through their friends’ lives and more conversations like these. Robin and I are eager to report to NYC to join the Cru ministry team who shares the good news of Jesus’ love and forgiveness to a lost generation of college students in NYC.
We are currently in Ft. Collins, Colorado serving on the conference team for Cru's US Staff Conference and School of Theology. There are approximately 200 people out here who are joining the staff of Cru, and will be missionaries all over the world. Another 600 are out here taking seminary-level classes that will help them be more effective in their ministries with Cru.
Later in July, the rest of our 5,000+ US Cru staff will join us in Ft. Collins for our US Staff Conference, where we will hear from a variety of speakers who will encourage and refresh us to return to our mission fields. After the conference, Robin and I will move to NYC.
Knowing that you are praying for us comforts and strengthens us to persevere through all of our challenges to transition to our new ministry assignment in NYC. Thank you.
Yours in Christ,
Steve & Robin
