As we close out summer and turn the corner to the fall semester, we are grateful to God for so many ways we have seen Him move. The first we want to share about is our annual 14-hour beach day. Every year, our staff and volunteers from many different churches work together to bring around two dozen international students to the Jersey Shore! We start on the beach in Seaside Park thanks to the hospitality of Union Church of SP, and then we end our day on the Seaside Heights Boardwalk. We praise God that all things came together for a truly uplifting time where our students were able to see the Kingdom working together through churches from different backgrounds serving side by side and feel Christ’s love through it.

We also praise God for the summer small groups. One special moment was gathering with my Christian group of students on an apartment rooftop in Jersey City, opening God’s Word together with a view of the Manhattan skyline behind us. One student lives in the building, so he gave us access! It’s been a joy getting to know this bunch and digging into the Scriptures together.

A cool thing that happened is that one of our students named Ebenezer shared that he is in an informal soccer league with only international students from Stevens. With the energy from the World Cup, a few dozen of them have been meeting every week! To bless them and promote the coming semester, we were able to provide dinner for all of them one of the nights. They were so thankful; pray they come out to our ministry dinners!

The biggest praise is that one of our non-Christian students came to faith and was baptized, in large part because of the faithfulness of a staff member (my director, Doug) hosting a non-Christian Bible study every week! Praise God!

Kicking off the new semester is always such an energetic rush! We truly love it. Team planning, designing and distributing flyers, preparing our 40-Day Prayer Calendar, creating registrations, choosing Bible passages for discussions, meeting new people, and so much more. It’s such a blessing. Praise God that on Sunday, August 16, our team of staff and volunteers from seven churches, plus our student leaders, got together to pray, dream, plan, assign, and prepare well for the new semester!

Please pray that all the effort we put in on the front end will reap fruit as we move forward. Please also pray with us as we navigate some uncertainties ahead, including new policy changes and the rapid growth of AI that may affect international student numbers. We are trusting the Lord, as we always do. Our ministry is in His hands.

From the bottom of our hearts, Jenn and I want to thank you for locking arms with us in this missionary work. Christ is in all and above all, and we are eager to see more and more students come to know Him and join us in His Kingdom. May we all dwell and excel in the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father!

Also — our prayer calendar is out! Please join us in prayer for 40 Days! Click here to view.