Rich leading a working group of Arabic staff and students creating an everystudent website
Rich and Kourtney are members of the Global Campus Team. The goal of this team is to help build student led spiritual movements for Jesus Christ everywhere. Serving as the Director of Online Strategies, Rich’s goal is to develop worldwide virtual student movements on the internet. Part of that role is to help countries around the world develop a campus internet strategy. That is, to win, build, train and send students on the web. With students spending an average of 25 hours a week on the internet, engaging students virtually is now more important than ever. The fundamental site that Campus Crusade uses for the win portion of the internet strategy is a web site called everystudent.com. For a more detailed explanation of the strategy, please click here.
As of this writing, the website is available in 23 different languages with more in production. Last school year (2006-2007) over 6.4 million students came to one of these websites with 93,800 indicating a decision to accept Jesus Christ in their life! View a student’s testimony about how she became a Believer through the everystudent.com strategy.
While coordinating the campus ministry in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, Rich was able to pioneer the launch of various websites to engage the hearts of students in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. These sites (we can’t name them here for security reasons) are leading over 1500 students a month to the Lord. They are active in Arabic, Turkish and Russian. A Farsi site, for countries like Iran and Afghanistan, will be launched soon.
Students are asking spiritual questions and looking for answers on the internet. They are usually introduced to our site through a Google search. When they type in phrases like, “Who is Jesus?” or, “What is the Bible?” or, “How do I find peace in my life?” they are directed to one of these sites. Once there, they email local Campus Crusade staff and students and ask questions like: (these are actual translated emails):
“I want to receive Jesus Christ and obey him for the rest of my life.” (Kuwait)
“I would love to be a Christian and to follow Jesus but there are a lot of things which I also do have a lot of problems and I know that my problems will never be solves as long as I am a Muslim. I am sure that all the problems will be gone when I become a Christian because Christianity is the religion which teaches love, forgiveness, and peace. So will you help me and let me in?”
Thanks, recently Jesus entered my life and He has been changing it. And today in the morning I asked Him for an answer to a decision that I took and I didn’t know if I had done right or if I had made a mistake. Surfing the web, looking for drawings, nothing to do with this, and I found your webpage, and He gave me the answer through you with this article. And I just want to say, what you guys say; Jesus is alive and is in each one of us. It is just necessary to believe in the promises that He has for our lives. Thanks. God bless you (Mexico)
“Thank you for replying to the email I sent to you. I want to ask you a question… I didn’t ask Jesus Christ to change my life because how can I ask someone I don’t know very well to change my life , I know that Jesus is an extraordinary person , I believe in his miraculous birth and his hard and tough life to help and save peoples lives , we as Muslims believe in that but I don’t understand Jesus’ message , I know that I am asking many questions but I need to know the answers , I wanted to enter a church to search for answers to all the questions I have but unfortunately Muslims are not allowed to enter churches , I love your religion , and I feel that there is something in Christianity attracts me but I’m sure you know that how risky it is in our countries when it comes to such issues.”
“Now that you replied to my email, I would like to know more about Christianity and about Jesus Christ and all the Christian thoughts and beliefs. I live with a Muslim family, but I don’t feel same or comfort. I am ready to follow Christianity. I don’t have a phone in the time being, so please tell me how can I arrange a meeting with you and I will come crawling. I will come to meet you regardless of the distance between us. Thank you from the deep of my heart.”
“This site was decisive for my conversion to Christianity and to accept Jesus Christ as my only Savior. I think it is so important what you guys are doing, showing people that life is full of purpose when we start to understand God’s work. It is so good to walk with Jesus. I created a blog so I can share with other people what I experience today. “(Brazil)
“Hello I have read some things about Jesus Christ, but I couldn’t understand a thing because I am a Muslim. I really would like to know some things about the Christian religion.” (Egypt)
“I must admit that your site has changed or maybe I would better say completed my vision about a relationship with God and about Jesus’ role in this relationship, so I tried as much as I could to open my heart towards Him. I feel very strongly the need to know and talk to people that feel the same, so it is very important to me to participate in such meetings.” (Romania)
“I would like to thank you for your help,throughout my life I have been searching for proof of God and I think I never really understood the meaning,you have helped me in this,I hope that you are able to continue to reach people like me,and to help them in understanding the word of God,I have only begun on this path,but I feel its right,for the first time,this just feels right. Thank you again.: (USA)
“Thank God I am a Christian believer now. I accepted the Lord Jesus in my life. I just have one question which is: how do we pray on Sundays.” (Qatar)
Pray for Rich as he gives worldwide leadership to the campus ministry in this vital role.
What is Kourtney’s role?
Kourtney’s primary role is to be the mother of our 3 busy children. However, she enjoys staying very involved in the ministry. Currently, Kourtney is leading a small group on Thursday afternoons for 20+ American MK’s (Missionary Kids) who have recently moved to the United States, most for the first time. Kourtney is also mentoring Emily, a high school senior who is a small group leader for the MK Ministry. Kourtney enjoys serving alongside other Global Campus Team wives by participating in activities that encourage women serving internationally.