It was 15 years ago and it was our very first day on campus at UC Davis. We were eager but new to the campus and nervous about how we would get a new group started. Armed with only a vision and a stack of questionnaires, we anxiously began approaching students who were there for various orientation activities.
We must have approached a couple of thousand students that first week and we spent most of the rest of the fall following up and meeting with students who expressed literally any kind of interest. It was both draining and rewarding at the same time.
The very first student Jen approached to fill out a spiritual interest questionnaire was a freshman named Tricia. Amazingly, Tricia was interested in getting involved in a campus ministry and after meeting with Jen and getting information about Cru, she ended up getting involved as one of our founding members.
Tricia was involved for 4 years and gave leadership not only to our Cru ministry, but helped us start Epic as well. Upon graduating, Tricia took the principles we had been talking about and became one of the first students from our ministry to go on STINT, a one year international mission. After returning from STINT in Central Asia, Tricia served as an intern with us at UC Davis and then joined the full-time staff of Cru, where she was assigned to give leadership to our ministry in Hawaii.
Tricia served several years in Hawaii, building into students and giving them a vision for the world, just as she had been taught. One of the students whom Tricia mentored was Skyy. After graduating, Skyy spent last year as an intern with Cru, just as Tricia had. This fall, Skyy is leading a team of recent grads to the Middle East on STINT, just as Tricia had done.
In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul gave this charge to Timothy:
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
From the beginning of our ministry, it’s been our desire to see students won to Christ, built up in their faith to follow Christ whole-heartedly so that they could be sent out all over the world to Win, Build and Send others.
Thank you for your partnership which has allowed us to do just that with countless students like Tricia and Skyy and now many others.
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The Lowedown 