You can stay in touch with the Brays and our CIS Missionary members by signing up for the daily “Fetch A Prayer” or by following us on our personal blogs and Face Book pages. For information, please call Bill Bray personally at 434-227-0811 or send an email to bray.william@gmail.com.

If you live in Charlottesville, join us on Tuesday nights at the Downtown Prayer Room (DPR) to Pray for All Nations from 7:30 to 9 PM. (The DPR is located opposite the police headquarters on Market Street.)

The Case for a "Decade of The International Student"

By Bill Bray
Overseas Students

The time has come at last for American Christians to unite and urgently support the “Decade of the International Student” emphasis from 2010 to 2020. The U.S. economy, global politics and a mature understanding of the power of indigenous missions have all combined to make this approach a “no brainer”!

For everyone who loves the Lord and the kingdom of his Son, this approach is biblical, logical, self-apparent and more attractive than ever before. The age of the indigenous missionary has come at last – we are going back to the missionary methodology of Pentecost and Saint Paul.

We are on the cusp of a decade that will change the future of not just the United States but all humanity. However, we need to unite in faith and obedient action to see it come to pass. American leaders must seize this opportunity to support student missionaries as they return to their homelands. We can do it if we prepare now and unite our efforts.

Without making an intentional decision to unite this year (in 2009) we will not be able to reach and send forth these international students in the decade ahead (starting in 2010).

Without finding such new unity, it is impossible to imagine the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:14 coming to pass, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

On the other hand, with a renewed effort to send international students back to their homelands carrying the Gospel, it is impossible to imagine not reaching All Nations! The passion of our Lord can finally be fulfilled.

A record-breaking 600,000 international leaders are studying in the USA this year alone but less than 25% ever visit an American home or stay with a Christian family. Even fewer experience dynamic church life or study with small Christian groups. We must change these figures and help visiting students go back home with a new vision for their lives and nations.

What an opportunity for us to reach these visitors with the love of Christ!

Amazingly, about 60,000 of the international students now in the United States are already Christians. If only 10% of them return as missionaries, that’s 6000 new missionaries! Many of them want to do so, but don’t know how to raise the support they need. If we work together, we can help them manage it.

The OSM team is currently contacting student leaders on over 850 university and Bible School campuses in the United States to discuss the need and possibilities for such a campaign. In addition, we are hoping to contact local churches to improve campus outreaches, and enlist existing outreach ministries and denominational leaders in the joint venture.

We are calling upon campus leaders from groups like Bridges International, International Students, and Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship so that this united effort can begin at the Urbana 2009 mission’s conference this December in St. Louis.

To do so, we need united prayer, some major grants, and many new Faith Partners who will stand with the Bray Family and our efforts to reorganize Overseas Students Mission as the servant to this new movement in support of international students.

If we get the funding needed this year, next year, it can spread to the huge international missions conventions being held in Boston, Cape Town, Edinburgh and Tokyo. From there it will spread around the world.

Meanwhile, this is an urgent opportunity for American Christians to “welcome the world” which has come to our doorsteps. If we all work together with missions-minded churches who have outreach ministries in over 900 key university centers, we can work together to recruit Friendship Partners and host families to reach these students.

It is sad that international students come to countries like the United States to enjoy academic freedom and the other blessings of democracy, but never understand the Christian faith and culture which makes such freedom possible in the first place.

The Lord Jesus Christ is concerned about the tragic violence that continues in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan or Somalia and the suffering of hidden people groups in Asia and Africa. International student leaders are the best hope for change in the places where humanity is hurting the most. They can go home bearing the message of peace that changes hatred to love.

What’s most important to a true follower of Christ is that these international students are the key to finally fulfilling the prophecies of our Lord Jesus regarding reaching all nations before he returns. We need to endorse this effort. To contact Overseas Students Mission, go to www.OSMission.org or call (434) 227-0811.