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Our own Abbie Bryant has joined CRU (formally Campus Crusade for Christ) in full-time ministry. Mountain Christian Church is partnering with her through our Missions strategies. 

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My earliest memories of knowing Jesus all revolve around Mountain Christian Church. As a little kid I remember singing as loud as I could to VBS songs, reading my Bible in the playground with my friends, and Mr. Mike teaching us Jesus is the only fix for sin. In youth group Sami discipled me and Marv challenged me to leadership. Sunday mornings I dug through theology with Luke and Frank, and long summer nights in the youth hall gave me a love for ministry.

Our little community… our little family… has created a solid foundation for knowing who Jesus is and His heart. 

Twenty-three years later and I am so excited to be entering ministry full-time. Everything I learned in our mountain church has bled into this desire that God has planted in my heart to share the gospel with the world. 

Last year I took my first position with the mission organization CRU and served on their Walt Disney World team where I got to share the gospel with cast members from every livable continent! And now I have just completed training for my full-time ministry position on the CRU digital strategies team. 

The average person spends seven hours a day on the internet. At CRU we think it’s very important to be where people are, so if people are on the internet we want to be there as a source of light and truth in a space that is traditionally dark and false. Our mission is to use the internet and technology as a tool to give every person in the world a chance to hear about Jesus.

My job is to make sure our digital presence invites people, and not only connects with them in a digital space but also finds local churches and CRU movements to get them plugged into a community. We’ve had an influx of people reaching out asking gospel questions - which is where I come in. With the Holy Spirit working through me, I personally respond to these people with responses that best inform and connect them with the gospel- not some AI generated response, but one from a real person sharing Jesus with them.

I am so excited to start this new journey God has set me on and as I build my ministry partner list and fundraise to be able to carry out this mission, it has been a joy to share with people what our church has poured into me and the big ways God moves over and over again.

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To learn a little bit more about what Abbie is doing, or if you're interesting in supporting her directly, check out her video here.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. - 1 John 3:18

It’s an odd feeling, that first time in your life when you experience true loneliness. For me, and I suspect many others, that first experience of true loneliness came during college. A couple of weeks after my parents dropped me off, the newness and excitement wore off. I settled into a routine of classes and homework, only to be struck with the realization that I knew no one and my community was a long 8-hour drive from me. 

College is a time of learning, growing, and changing. The further one goes from home, the more pronounced that change can be. In 2024, international students made up 6% of college students here in America; this equates to roughly 1.1 million students. International Students Inc. (ISI) is a religious non-profit that seeks to reach these students with the love of Christ by meeting their needs while they are in college. Their mission is “to share Christ’s love with international students and to equip them for effective service in cooperation with the local church and others.” MCC partners with their branch at UNM campuses, where ISI offers a range of services that provide these students with community and other practical resources. Their welcome center is located just off the UNM campus, and is where students can have free lunches, get help locating housing, and sign-up for other services. Ultimately, these services are used to show the love of Christ.

One of the services ISI offers is to help students find community through joining a Home Group. These Home Groups consist of 20-30 international college students meeting weekly at a volunteer’s home for food, games, and discussion. Students can choose from a discussion about culture or the Bible. ISI will also pair students with volunteers who sign up to be Friendship Partners. These friendship partners are individuals or families who offer to share their lives and form a genuine friendship with a student. 

Beyond Home Groups and Friendship Partners, ISI volunteers pick up students from the airport, open their homes for temporary housing till a student can move into an apartment, donate furnishings for apartments, help with English language classes, and set up group activities like Bible studies. Through meeting the physical and emotional needs of students, ISI can build relationships with students from all over the world and open doors to share Christ. Their impact is felt not only in our local UNM community, but in communities around the world as these students return home bringing the Gospel with them. 

If you would like to volunteer with ISI, you can talk to a member of our Mission team or contact ISI ABQ directly through their website. Be praying for:

• Volunteers to set up a third home study group
• Students from the Middle East, as the current conflict intensifies 
• Current volunteers have opportunities for gospel conversations with students. 

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Recent news headlines reveal the next generation is confused, lonely, anxious, and spiritually hungry. This is why Gideons and Auxiliary are committed to sharing the hope of the Gospel with young people.

A 2023 report by Barna Research titled The Open Generation revealed that 75% of USA teens feel motivated to learn more about Jesus. Among committed Christian teens, nominal Christian teens, and all other teens, the Bible was the top trusted resource for learning about Jesus (with only “the family” tying as a top trusted source among nominal Christian teens).

While there are challenges with the ever-changing landscape of today’s cultural issues, God is still opening doors for members of The Gideons to share the Gospel. Gideons and Auxiliary aim to make God's Word available to students in fifth grade and above. This past year, we were able to reach over 65 million people worldwide with the hope of Jesus Christ, and nearly 70% of them were students in middle school, high school, or college. Youth receiving Testaments in the USA has now surpassed pre-pandemic totals (4.8 million in 2019 versus 5 million in 2024).

We know from the testimonies received over the years that an encouraging word of witness or a single Testament placed in a student’s hand can make an eternal difference. Here are a couple of examples:

A Gideon handed Gary a brand-new Testament one day and said, “This is for you.” Gary felt so proud to have that Testament.

Instead of reading it right away, he tucked it away in the top drawer of his bedroom chest. As a teen, Gary began skipping school and getting into trouble. “I needed something to help me with all the guilt and shame that weighed so heavy on me,” he remembers.

“Because of that Gideon who gave me a copy of God’s Word, I ultimately had somewhere to turn during a very dark time in my teenage life,” says Gary. He ended up on his knees beside his bed asking Christ to be the Lord of his life. Today, Gary is a pastor in Florida.

During a Scripture distribution at a large Texas university, a group of Gideons had memorable conversations with several students. One student shared that he had started heavily drinking with his newfound freedom as a freshman. Before the end of the semester, he realized that he had become an alcoholic. He had attended church with his family growing up but had only head knowledge of God. After one drunken binge, he cried out to God to deliver him. God answered, and he was born again. A Gideon prayed with him and asked Jesus to give him boldness to share his powerful testimony with other students.

This student was one of 9,000 others who received a Testament from Gideons that day. “We planted seeds and pray that it will bear fruit,” said one of the Gideons.

Gideons and Auxiliary worldwide play a significant part in giving students the lasting hope of Jesus Christ. Join us in praying for the Lord to continue moving in the hearts and lives of the next generation. Pray also for today’s youth to openly receive the only remedy that can change their life—the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gideons. Reaching the Next Generation. September 20, 2024. David P. Kinkade and Kevin McIntosh. 

https://www.gideons.org/blog/reaching_next_generation

We are blessed to support four missionary church planters in different outlying regions of Ethiopia. Each of these is working among largely-unreached people groups, or among groups very hostile to the gospel.  The true gospel that we might take for granted is not readily-available in these places. And in some cases, it has little chance to gain a hearing.

In addition to these works, MCC also has a connection with a godly and seasoned church leader in Ethiopia. Pastor Dr. Tesfaye came to Christ as a child through Finnish missionaries. His father was a spiritist and medicine man, and his mother was just one of his father’s wives.

Today, Pastor Tesfaye trains and mentors many other younger leaders. He often travels to outlying regions, and is one of the mentors to our four church planters.

Last December, we were blessed to support a Training Conference led by Pastor Tesfaye in Hawassa. This area has evangelical churches, but the leaders are still in need of discipleship and teaching. ”Planting Effective Disciple-Making Churches That Are Sustainable, Resilient, Missional, and Multiplying” was the title of the event that brought together nearly 100 young pastors from diverse denominations for three days.

Its aim was to equip leaders with the knowledge, skills, and spiritual foundation needed to lead effective disciple-making churches. In Ethiopia, many who come to Christ find little Bible training. Their discipleship is rich in prayer and fellowship; but since the leaders lack training, they have few tools to deeply ground believers in the Word. These pastors were trained to navigate and counteract the pressing challenges of rising consumerism, the spread of prosperity gospel teachings, the constant threat of tribalism, and the unstable socio-political climate in the country.

Please pray for Pastor Tesfaye, our four missionary church-planters (Epheson, Alebachew, Tesfaye and Henoke) and the attendees at this training. May the Lord continue to grant them courage, hope and every kind of provision for His purposes.

On several occasions Jesus instructs, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35; see similar Matt 19:30, Mark 10:31 and Luke 13:30). Jesus also lives out this principle by washing the disciples’ feet (John 13). Since we do not customarily wash feet today, what does this “first being last” look like in the twenty-first century? During our recent mission trip to Bolivia, I saw firsthand this principle in action—I caught a glimpse of Jesus at work.

This spirit of servanthood was quietly evidenced in the everyday practices of the Food for the Hungry (FH) staff that we came to work alongside. It was nothing that they celebrated; rather, it is just the way they work. I am not even sure that they think much about it as it’s the Spirit at work in them.

One example relates to the life choices of one of the staff. As I rode on the bus, I had the opportunity to talk about life (e.g., family, careers, faith) with him. I learned that he was trained as an engineer and had originally followed that job path as an operator of a hydropower facility. But after volunteering with FH he decided that he wanted to make it his full time vocation. Rather than pursuing a career that would bring more wealth and status he chose to serve the needy. He told me it was the best decision he ever made and has found deep joy in the work he is doing.

But serving the most vulnerable is just what FH is all about. While improving access to needed resources like food, water, education and jobs is part of what they do, their engagement with the community is much more personal. FH views poverty through the lens of broken relationships with God, others (spouse, family, community), their environment (housing, clean water) and themselves (their view of themselves). So, they build relationships with the struggling child, overwhelmed mother, and jobless father, one at a time. The work of FH is not measured in projects completed, but relationships established. It looks like “washing feet” to me.

I also observed this servant-heartedness spilling over to others outside their target community.  Every driver, food vendor and server that they contracted was always rewarded with a generous tip, plate of food, and word of appreciation. I was also impressed to see the effort made to serve those donating to FH. In particular we had several MCC families that sent gifts with the team for their sponsored children. In each case FH staff tracked down the sponsored child and their family and transported them to the FH offices so that pictures and videos could be taken showing the family receiving the gift. All was done to simply bless the donor.

The MCC team was also very fortunate to be the object of service by the FH staff. It should be noted that MCC is not particularly special in that FH receives teams just like MCC almost every month from all over the U.S. Nevertheless, they made us feel special. They addressed our needs, making sure we were well fed, comfortable, entertained and most importantly included in the work they are doing. But the service went beyond the physical aspects of our stay; they worked to establish a relationship with each of us. They made us feel valued in their eyes and God’s. This was clearly evidenced on the last night of our stay during our final dinner together. Food, stories, pictures, gifts and contacts were shared, mixed with a lot of tears. Although we were only together for four days, often challenged by a language divide, deep relationships were forged through the work of the Spirit.

The FH staff provides a great example of what it means to “become last”. We would do well to learn from their example. In fact, we have numerous opportunities to serve our FH brothers and sisters in Bolivia. We can start by praying for them regularly (as a start see today’s prayer points). We can serve through financial support in the form of a designated gift or the monthly support of a child. We can also support with our time by participating in the next MCC mission trip to Bolivia and see firsthand how God is working in this community.

For more information contact Elisa Trullinger or Vince Tidwell.