Dear Family and Friends:

Cindy and I recently had a great visit with ministry partners from out of town who were in Orlando for business and a family visit. The discussion that resulted was a great reminder that I haven't given a clear overview of our ministry in a while.

What does Campus Crusade for Christ do?

Campus Crusade for Christ was started in 1951 by Bill and Vonette Bright as a ministry to college students on the UCLA campus. In the last 58 years, it has exploded into the world's largest evangelical outreach ministry. There are over 25,000 full-time staff members in dozens of ministry organizations like ours worldwide.

What does Global Media Outreach do?

GMO is a digital media ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. We want to give everyone on earth multiple opportunities to know Jesus. We want to disciple them, and we want to get them in churches. With only about 26 staff members and about 2,000 volunteers worldwide, modern technological advancements allow us to reach increasing multitudes of people each year.

Every day, 24 hours per day, in every country in the world, thousands visit our 71 websites from computers or networked cellular telephones.

• Through the following God-given combination of...
• good search engine optimization practices
• cost-effective targeted advertising
• the network of links endorsing our sites as reliable destinations for seekers
  

...we put the authentic teachings of Jesus out there for the estimated 9 million searches which are initiated each day to answer people's spiritual questions.
Perhaps even more importantly, we connect each one who registers with an e-mail address to one of our Christian volunteers who are trained and eager to answer their questions and provide follow-up and ongoing discipleship for them.
We are constantly trying new things to optimize our process for financial and evangelistic effectiveness. Reaching people through computer-assisted means is a wonderful way to track the effect of small changes over time and population. The result of this is that we believe we have the most cost-effective and measurable means of doing evangelism ever developed. Our ministry registered 3,097,355 indicated decisions for Christ last year, with 669,449 e-mailing us for follow-up.

What does Mike do?

As a digital media specialist, I wear a number of different hats.

• I help create and produce messages in video for the Internet. As sites like YouTube.com demonstrate, it's become an incredibly popular way to communicate online.
• I help make the interactive websites themselves and applications for them using HTML, Javascript and Flash.
• I write content for online courses or discipleship sites.
• I work with others to make our follow-up more effective.
• Like my other team members, I serve as one of those "Online Missionary" volunteers. We each answer questions from seekers, confirming decisions from those who have received Christ advising and praying with those who have recommitted their lives to Jesus.
• I also lead live online Bible studies over chat each week. Our plan for seekers is that they understand the Gospel on one of our targeted websites, then receive faithful follow-up contact from one of our volunteers, who will direct them to discipleship resources. Simultaneously, they will go through a 30-day devotional study exposing them to the basics of Christianity. Their counselor will be available to answer their questions. At the end of the 30 days, they are invited to join a Bible study group like mine. My goal is to teach them to obey all the things Jesus commanded them. (Matthew 28:20)
  

Last week brought a wonderful example of that ideal process, in fact. Back in August, a lady from Japan came to one of our websites saying she was not yet a Christian and she still had questions. In September, she first attended one of our Bible studies. I welcomed her to the study, and asked her if we could talk by e-mail afterwards.

Here's what she wrote:

Hi, Mike:

I hope this finds you well and in good health. It was great to participate in the Bible chat for the first time. Too bad i couldn't stay the session. I will this Monday. Mike, I'm still wondering. Not yet settled. My wish is to accept Jesus as my Savior. But to accept you have to believe. Believing is accepting without question or doubt. To be certain. To feel him in your life. How does that happen/come about? By grace? God given? Personal effort? or......its strange. I have no doubt that God exists. How come I don't get this 100% certainty about Jesus Christ? I hope you understand my position.

Take care,
"Mary" (not her real name)

I started out by explaining the reasons to believe in Jesus, including our "Who Is Jesus--Really?" site, but adding that according to the Bible, faith is not belief in a fact, but complete trust in a Person--Jesus. She admitted it was the trust part she had trouble with. "There is a wall that keeps me out of that settled trust....it's complicated. Pray for me," she wrote. (Note: it was only last week that the full story came out. Mary had been living with another woman's husband for six years. He was trying to get her involved in an illegal immigration scam.)

She continued to come to our meetings online and continued to e-mail me as she struggled with this dilemma. In one of my e-mails I urged her not to give up:
"You're living with many risks, among which is the biggest risk: that you will reach a point where you no longer feel God's convicting Spirit working with you. Jesus says, "the one who comes to me, I will by no means turn away" (John 6:37) "My sheep hear my voice, and the follow Me," He says (John 10:27) If you can hear His voice today, do not harden your heart. (Hebrews 4:7) I added that she was always welcome in the study.

The day before yesterday she e-mailed me: "I hope this finds you well and in good health. Please pray for me that i shouldn't turn back. NO MATTER WHAT. Im moving forward now. Since last night. But its really tough. May GOD bless you, "Mary"

The time difference can be confusing for people from remote countries who attend our studies. My 9:30PM Sunday study begins at 10:30AM Mondays in Tokyo. But she was so anxious to receive Christ, she set her alarm for 3:00AM her time so she could attend my 2:00PM open chat last week.

She had ended her relationship with the man the night before and made up her mind not to let anything stand in her way. She prayed to receive Jesus with me and then we stared talking about the next steps for her. It is complicated and it's going to be messy and painful for her. But she knows Who to lean on.

And that is believing on Jesus.

What makes it all possible?

God does. But He does it through faithful ministry partners like you. When you think about our work, don't think the nuts-and-bolts of computers, lines of code, computer networks and frames of video. That is the daily work that you pray and give to make possible. But it's all just a way to reach people like Mary, to see their hearts and lives change as they embrace the Lord so that we can one day rejoice with them in His presence.

Mike and Cindy Skinner
"One day closer!" (Romans 13:11)