WSU Cru alumni - Kelsey Martin and "Women of Hope International"

Kelsey Martin is a 2008 graduate of WSU. She was a leader with Cru during her time as an undergraduate and is now working for Highline Community College as an Employment Consultant. Kelsey has been actively involved with a ministry called "Women of Hope" that exists to bring whole person healing to women with disabilities in Sierra Leone. Here is a portion of a recent update we got from Kelsey...

A summary of our last trip is difficult, but we were able to accomplish the majority of what we had set out to do in the short two and a half weeks there. The first week was dedicated to meeting with the local non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), other humanitarian aid agencies and governmental officials in the area. Our focus was on assessing the services already provided to women with disabilities and to begin networking with those already serving women there. We were so thankful to be welcomed warmly by everyone we encountered as they openly affirmed of the tremendous need forWOHInt. We hired three full time Sierra Leonean staff and assembled and met with our SL Advisory Board during this time as well.

The second week was emotionally exhausting as we held focus groups with representatives chosen from the blind, deaf, polio, amputee, war-wounded and leprosy communities. Every woman had a unique story about how society tells her she is worthless and the many barriers she faces living in the poorest country in the world. Most women were sexually exploited in some way, and all experience isolation and significant poverty. We facilitated brainstorming around solutions. While I had been to the country before and I had researched the trials of women with disabilities, nothing could have prepared me for hearing their deeply personal stories for myself, and developing friendships.

I returned home overwhelmed. I wrote this letter three different times before today. Each time I struggled with communicating all that I learned while still questioning what role God has me play in His desire to bring restoration to the women. Today I am sure that God wants to use myself and Women of Hope International to facilitate healing and the restoration of dignity and hope to women with disabilities in Sierra Leone. He has given WOHInt a strategic plan of action and our prayer is that gospel transformation will take place for these women and inspire the development of a community!

Helping change the world through IT...

Nathaniel Fremd graduated from WSU in spring of 2009. He is now on an intern at the Campus Crusade for Christ Headquarters in Orlando, FL helping provide the IT backbone that supports and resources the 25,000 staff around the world as they share Christ and launch movements "so that everyone will know someone who truly follows Jesus".

Above is Nathaniel's December update to friends and ministry partners that help fund his ministry. We're excited to see him at Venture 2010, the Northwest Winter Conference!

Drop him a note of encouragement via email (or other communication means). We're sure he would love to hear from you on his computer, whether at work or home. ;)

Redemptive work in Australia

Kara Michael graduated from WSU last spring. She was involved with Cru, and is now getting ready to go on a year long mission trip (STINT) to Australia. Here is a little bit of her story...

"Throughout my four years at Washington State University, I studied Sociology expecting to learn ways I could bring hope to an aching world. Semester after semester my classes dove into global social issues, discussing ways to bring hope into these pressing situations.

As my studies continued, I noticed my professors’ solutions did not seem to implement the hope required for the brokenness we experience everyday – whether it be with warring countries, political instability, the hurting within our families or within ourselves. The textbook answers and my professors’ theories for hope were not satisfying.

As my relationship with Christ deepened, He demonstrated what hope could look like in my fractured life personally, as well as in the fractured world we live in. Being involved with a Christian group at WSU called Campus Crusade for Christ, I experienced a transformational community of believers, with truth and grace being pillars in our relationships. It was here that I began to catch a vision for how God could bring hope into our broken lives and world.

Using similar communities built on grace and truth, God is bringing hope to students throughout the world. Three summers ago I had the joy of being a part of His redemptive work on the University of Newcastle campus in Australia. Since then, He has been patiently and persistently calling me back to this ethnically diverse and spiritually apathetic culture. It has been a beautiful process, knowing there is no other place I would rather be than in the center of His will."

Kara is currently raising support for STINT so she can leave for the start of the Australian school year in January. You can help by giving here!

Two masters

Jack Heimbigner has been involved with Cru since receiving Christ his sophomore year while living in Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He now works for the athletic department helping produce Cougar sporting events. He recently shared with us something the Lord has been teaching him...


"Do you remember the last time you saw a child with his or her parents in a store, and one parent says, 'Don’t touch anything' and right away the child reaches out for whatever is in reach? I have realized that I am like that child when God gives me truth or direction. I am always asking God to reveal his path for me. But when God says 'follow me', I immediately try and go a different way.

I currently work on campus. As I am no longer a student, I wasn’t sure how I could be best used to help live fulfill the Great Commission here at WSU. As I talked this through with a Cru staff member, he asked if I would consider coordinating many of the operational needs within the movement. Right away, as the child did, I said 'no'. I felt like that didn’t align with the things that I believed I needed to be doing this year.

As the next couple of days passed, I was reminded of something that same staff member had shared with me. He realized God was calling him to something specific but refused to do it right away. However, he said that he was reminded of how he would challenge students to take steps of faith because he felt it was part of God’s plan for them and realized that was the same thing he was being asked to do.  So he accepted the calling of God. I realized I was in the same seat: God was calling me to be obedient to his call.

There is a passage of scripture that has hit close to home in this process. It comes from Matthew 6 as Jesus speaks about serving God or serving other things. For me, it speaks of being obedient to God or rebelling against Him. Matthew 6:24: 'No one can serve two master. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.'

I want to choose the Lord...and obedience to him."