The Rest of the Story

In a few short months these six recent New England graduates will embark on the adventure of a lifetime.  For a year, they will plant themselves in a university city in the Middle East, begin to learn the culture and some language, and look for ways to acquaint students there with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What can we expect from such an undertaking?  Well, if recent history is any indication, we just might find one of those currently unsuspecting, Middle Eastern  students joining Cru staff in a few years.  Unbelievable?  Sit back and let me tell you a story . . .

Once upon a time in a faraway land lived a girl named Ming.  The only child of her mother, a professional business woman and father, an electrician, Ming typified the youth of her culture.  By 8th grade she’d set a course for admission to her city’s top university.

Unfortunately Ming’s long hours and intense regimen of study failed to garner her the necessary score on her college entrance exam, a one-shot chance to achieve your university of choice.  This sparked an identity crisis in the disciplined, high-aiming teenager.  For quite some time Ming had pictured herself succeeding at this particular institution, catapulted from there into the world of high finance.  Now that her dreams were abruptly rearranged,  Ming did her best to accept the fact that her credentials would be associated with a “second-tiered university.” 

 Disoriented, Ming also was feeling afraid, plagued by those looming, overarching questions of life.  Brought up Buddhist, Ming sincerely worshipped in the Temple with her mother until she was 16:  “We went to Thailand on a special pilgrimage.  When I saw all those necklaces of jade, supposedly prayed over by monks, bought and sold to the thousands of tourists there, I knew it just had to be fake.”  

For four years, Ming didn’t believe in anything.  Then in English class, her sophomore year, Ming heard the name of Jesus for the first time.  Soon afterward, she watched a documentary on the history of Jerusalem and its religions:  “When they mentioned Jesus, something about Him struck me - that He was real, that He had really lived, and that He loved us.  Still, I wondered, ‘How does this man become God?’ “  It was about a week later that Ming met Kaye.

Kaye and her team of six, all recent graduates, all having prepped for a year-long Stint with Cru in East Asia, had just gotten situated at this “second-tiered university.”  Ming says, “My roommate and I were leaving our dorm for dinner when Kaye introduced herself and her teammate, saying, ‘We’re new here and we want to make friends and learn the language.’  This was the first time I had ever met a foreigner.  I wrote my info in character form, not thinking that Kaye wouldn’t be able to understand it.  So when I didn’t hear back from Kaye, I called her and the four of us met.”

It only took a few meetings for Ming to find what she’d been searching for in Jesus.  “To know that God would guide my future was such a relief to me.  I realized that fulfillment didn’t come from the ‘right school or job’ but rather in Jesus, who came to give us an abundant, meaningful life.”  Once her faith was firmly established, Kaye brought Ming to a campus fellowship.  “I was so excited, nervous, wondering ‘what will it look like?’ “  What it looked like was 6 Stinters and 6 students, singing, praying, Bible lessons . . . such new experiences for Ming.  The group  grew to 30 students by the end of Ming’s senior year, and she estimates involvement now to be over 100 (though they meet separately as smaller groups all over campus), with some students even traveling to far-flung provinces on short-term missions!

In 2008, this 23-year old who’d met her first foreigner at age 18,  traveled to the USA to begin a 2-year finance program at Brandeis University in Boston, a component of her graduate studies.    Meanwhile, Kaye, having finished her Stint, was joining Cru staff.  Kaye met Ming at Logan airport, helped her settle in a bit, then took Ming home with her to Philadelphia for a few days.  The trip held a couple of surprises for Ming: “Kaye told me she hadn’t been “just a student” when I met her - that she came as a missionary!  I had never heard of people doing this.  I remember how hard it was for Kaye in my country and now I saw the comfortable life she had here.  I thought, ‘Wow, she came so far just to share the Gospel.  Because of Kaye, I heard the Gospel.'"  

Then at the Philadelphia church, Kaye let Ming in on another secret.  Due to potential government backlash, students’ actual names are not used in communications.  “Ming, people here know you and have prayed for you - but to them you’re not Ming.  You’re Jenny!”

Kaye’s example helped create within Ming a drive to evangelize, to bring the Gospel to others.  Joining Cru’s ministry at Brandeis, Ming’s discipler helped her leverage her enthusiasm.  Ming began a campus Bible Study there with others from her country.  She brought others to Christ, helped them grow and saw lives change.  She participated in Boston’s Summer Project.  She even returned to her home country, with two Cru staff women, for a 10-day evangelism infusion at a university there.

So what did Ming’s parents think about all of this?  “My mother said, ‘Two religions in one house is bad luck.’  They thought I was being deceived and warned me not to go to church, but still I went.  Still, I read my Bible.  During the 10 day trip, I had an assignment to tell my parents more specifically about my life in Christ.  The Cru women were praying for me and I stood firm and eventually my parents relented.  Now my mother has become a Christian and is part of a house church!”

After finishing at Brandeis, somehow the world of high finance paled in comparison to what Ming had experienced as God’s ambassador.  Ming decided to intern with Cru, which meant raising her financial support, only knowing 20 people here in America.  By her due date she only had 40% raised; but God spoke to Ming through Psalm 84, that the Valley of Baca would bring forth springs of blessing.  Within 3 weeks the remaining 60% came in through contacts and references of a single couple at her church.   

Ming finished her 2-year internship and decided to join Cru’s full-time staff, specifically our Bridges ministry which reaches out to international students.  Amazingly her support is now raised, and she is going full speed ahead, leaving our interview to meet with students at Boston University.  

Cru holds a commissioning service at our Orlando HQ for each wave of new staff and Kaye was able to be present for Ming’s commissioning.  Before the ceremony, Kaye confided to Ming, “You know, before I left to come to your country, I asked God to use me to bring forth a missionary from this place where I was going, one from whom the Gospel would go forth to the ends of the Earth.  Now I am witnessing the fulfillment of that prayer.”  Stunned by still another revelation from Kaye, Ming whispered back, “Kaye, maybe you should just tell me right now if you are holding any other secrets about me!”

Can anything be more compelling than this prayer of faith, lifted up by Kaye in the midst of her reckless pursuit of God to this country whose millions He loves and this immediate, observable, undeniable answer to that prayer in Ming . . . 

This is the story of one Stinter on one Team and the way God met her there on the other side of the world.  Dozens more teams from all over the U.S., are now fully focusing on the task at hand - gathering their support team, their ministry partners who will share in the mission with them, enabling them to take the Gospel to the far reaches of the world.