Moving to Austin this Summer!

I’m writing today with mixed emotions: excited about the next opportunity God has given me, but sad to leave Houston and the many friends I have here. Thankfully, I know that God will provide new friends, a new church, and new ministry opportunities as I trust Him. So I bet you are wondering what I’ll be doing next…

This coming July I’ll be moving to Austin, TX to co-lead a Campus Crusade staff team that will directly focus on starting movements among different pockets of ethnic students at the University of Texas as well as other schools in the Austin area. Here is what Dennis Chen, my Regional Director, has to say about reaching ethnic students:

Out of the students that we are effectively reaching (as determined by those involved in our movements), less than 5% of them are ethnic students. Everything that any of us does is done in a cultural context. The cultural context of most of our ministries is such that it renders our methods and strategies ineffective and unappealing to ethnic students. We need to reallocate and re-equip our resources and innovate new strategies and methods if we truly want to help reach every student.

So my staff team and I will be pioneering and innovating new ways to reach out to the Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, African Americans and International students that permeate our college campuses today. While I’ve enjoyed leading multiple types of ministries in Houston, I am looking forward to specializing in cross-cultural ministry in Austin.

Here is a few Ethnic Student Ministry Facts:

“There is really no significant outreach to college-aged Latinos anywhere in our country. Yet, Latinos represent the fastest growing group of college students.” — Mark Gauthier, U.S. National Campus Director.

“There are more than 1.7 million college students in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Out of those 1.7 million students, more than 40% or 700,000, are ethnic minorities.”— Dennis Chen, Red River Regional Director

The University of Texas has a 46% ethnic student population.