“Karisa, I feel an emptiness and isolation in my life. I know my family cannot fill that hole I have in my heart.”
These were the exact words that Jane, a UC Irvine graduate student from China, confessed to me as we sat down at the campus Starbucks. It was my first international student follow-up meeting for UC Irvine’s (UCI) Bridges International, and to be completely honest, I was quite taken aback.
In the fall of 2019, UCI’s Bridges team surveyed 400 international students at the school’s welcome fair in September. Of those 400 surveyed, 300 checked “Yes” to being interested in learning about a relationship with God and Christianity. Starting in October, we had the privilege of getting to meet one on one with every single student who filled out a survey, building friendships and sharing the Gospel with each student who indicated interest.
Jane was one of those students. While thoughts of God had never crossed her mind prior to our meeting, she peppered me with complex questions and was amazed by God’s love as described in the Biblical story of Hosea.
As we read a little booklet together on the isolation humans experience apart from God, Jane admitted that she did feel that emptiness described. Previously, she had never considered giving God control, but recently, she felt that emptiness in her heart and wanted God to fill it. Jane wanted to take more time to learn about Jesus before surrendering her life and has since been reading John. Though schoolwork kept her too busy to meet again, please join me in continuing to pray that she would make time to know Him, that His Holy Spirit would pursue her, and that she would surrender control to Him as Lord and Savior. He can reach her.
A Priceless Bible
That September, ten international students signed up to join Cru’s (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) annual retreat in the San Bernardino mountains. Lena (from China) was one student who had decided to come.
It was a seemingly ordinary night, and yet, cloaked by the scent of fresh pine needles and singing voices, Lena’s eyes filled with tears as she listened to Cru students worshiping God and thanking Him for His love. After that first night’s service, she approached me with an eagerness to learn about this God who she had never known before tonight.
“In China,” she confessed, “we are not allowed to buy Bibles. I cannot find one anywhere online. When I arrived in America, I made up my mind that I would find one and try to understand it. Please share with me the Bible stories!”
Sinking into a rugged couch, we flipped through Psalm 139 and all the other Sunday School stories I had taken for granted, being raised in an American church. She gasped in amazement upon discovering that the Father ran to the Prodigal Son with bear hugs of warmth and acceptance even after he had run away and betrayed him (Luke 15).
“I understand much better now my relationship with God,” she thanked me sincerely. “Your words, life, and experience allow me to better understand Him. You help me better understand how He sees me. This is so precious.”
Earlier that week, I had packed two Bibles in my duffle bag: my personal, pink one (a gift from my mother) and an extra paper copy in case any students wanted one. In my heart, I planned on lending Lena the extra paper copy, but anyone could see how drawn she was to my personal (much prettier) one. I didn’t seem to have much of a choice in which to lend, and by that next day, she’d already read all the stories I marked for her in my personal Bible.
When God called me to permanently give her my personal Bible before we left, I felt every fiber reluctant to relinquish it. But God showed me what an honor it was for me, out of all people, to give Lena her first copy of His precious truth. I thought about all the other pretty Bibles sitting on my shelf at home and realized this young lady wasn’t allowed to own a single one. Yet even in her lack, she treasured the words of Truth in her hands more than I often did.
Lena cried when I told her the book was from my mother. “One day I can learn about the same love you learned about through this,” she told me, her eyes shining, “and then I can give it to someone who can learn too. I think perhaps I came to America to study so that I can learn these wonderful things and know Him. He is beautiful.” She shook her head as if words couldn’t express the majesty of our Savior. “More than that. This is wonderful and gorgeous.”
We spent the last few minutes of the retreat outside at a picnic bench as I drew out a summary of the Bible on paper for her to keep. We prayed together. Though the first night of retreat she was unwilling to receive prayer, by the end, she prayed, unprompted, with me:
“God, though I am not ready to fully open my heart to You, I want to learn You. And though there are many things in my life, like school, thank you that You know the words in me before I say them” (referencing Psalm 139:4).
Though she wanted to take more time to learn about God before giving Him her life, she already seemed to understand a great deal about the Holy Spirit. When another Christian international student was nervous about sharing her testimony with Lena out of concern that it wasn’t “dramatic” enough, Lena reassured her:
“You are so worried about sharing because you think you have to convince me. But it’s not you—it’s the Holy Spirit who will show me.”
The next time I saw Lena, she couldn’t wait to show me the new lamination over her Bible—an added layer for protection so that she could carry it with her to class daily. She jumped at the first opportunity to attend church, telling me after the first service that: “It was fantastic. I love this church and prefer to go there every week.”
It wasn’t long before she joined two more Bible Studies, and by the time she was set to return to China to become a professor (and a highly influential one, I might add), she had given her life to Christ. She would face high persecution if her new faith was discovered. But she was committed to this amazing God that had enraptured her heart. But before she left UC Irvine, she brought her fiancé along to meet me as well, eager that he would, too, know Jesus.
“Karisa,” she told me, “he is beginning to be interested too and is starting to ask questions.”
Jesus loves these students, and He indeed knows the words in their hearts, even when they don’t know how to address Him because they don’t yet know Him. And Lena isn’t the only student who senses there’s a God out there who loves her. During the 2019-2020 school year, the United States had approximately 1,075,496 international students1. A significant majority of these students are from closed countries that Christian missionaries themselves struggle to enter. Almost 300 current and former leaders participated in American academic programs2, and many heads of state studied in the U.S. at some point in their careers. Imagine the infinite ways these students could reach their hometowns and countries with the Gospel if they were to return from the U.S. after meeting Jesus here.
Unfortunately, 80% of international students will never be invited into an American home, and over 60% report not having close friendships. Jesus invites us—no matter who we are—to partner with Him in building friendships with these students, being His hands and feet to children separated from their families and worlds. He invites us to disciple people who are aching to know Him from every part of the globe, right here in our backyard. And we don’t have to use fancy words or receive elite theological training—all we have to do is open our mouths and share the simple truths many of us have taken for granted our whole lives: there’s a God, and He’s real. And He loves you. And He wants to know you. And nothing—even our darkest sins, inner shames, or embarrassing secrets—can push Him away. He cherishes us not for what we do but simply because we are His.
And the truth that changed Lena’s world forever—He knows every word on our tongue because He created us. Pray for Lena and the many others He’s working in the hearts of through Bridges International and other international student ministries. Pray that God would be faithful in discipling them in His word, building their faith through community, protecting them from the enemy, and using them for His glory in their home countries. And know that God will always use our “yes”—yes to being their friends, yes to giving our time, yes to opening our mouths, and yes to prayer, which alone can move mountains.
For more information on volunteering or supporting Bridges International, please contact Karisa You at karisayou@ucla.edu.