"FOCUS" is a joint ministry of many Churches and Christian organizations in Portland concerned for international students on the campuses in the area. For over a decade now Inter Varsity staff have joined volunteers within FOCUS in running a "coffee house" ministry for internationals near the Portland State University campus.

“Ann” came from an Asian country in the Fall of 2001. She requested a home stay and FOCUS was able to place her in the home of a believer. But she never got involved in any FOCUS activities until she joined us on our six-day trip to Yellowstone this summer (2002).

I became acquainted with her on that trip, but I didn’t really get to know her. However, she became friends with Roberta, a long-time volunteer who recently came on as FOCUS staff. The next I saw Ann was at new student orientation, when she came to have lunch with Roberta.

In the fall I sent her (along with many others that I had met on the Yellowstone trip) an invitation to join our Bible Overview class. She didn’t respond to the invitation and she didn’t come to the class, but she did ask Roberta, whom she was continuing to meet with, why I would have specifically invited her.

I had no idea what was happening with her spiritually. I saw her and greeted her at the coffee house, but our interactions were brief. One Friday as I was passing by the table where she was sitting, she asked me how the Bible study was going. I was surprised that she asked.

I said, “Oh, it’s going great. They ask great questions.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like ‘was God lonely before he created the world?’” I said.

“What did you tell them?”

So Ann and I had a brief conversation about the Christian Trinity and how love is eternally rooted in who God is. And then I continued on my way.

Seeds that had been planted by Roberta and others were beginning to grow. In November, Ann became a sister in the Lord.

At our Christmas banquet, Ann helped to host the table where other internationals were invited to receive Bibles and Jesus videos in their own language and English.

Then she was baptized at a local church on January 5, 2003. She invited many of her international friends. Afterward, there was a reception at the church. As her international friends listened, she read from her journal:

"Dear God,

"Even though you have all power, you chose to let us, your creation, have freedom to choose whether to believe in you or not. You have given us free will, so we are not simply robots. I realize, too, that I have no power at all to change others' minds to convince them to believe in you. Someone says let your words speak for themselves.

"Then, God, I pray for wisdom and curiosity to learn from many people who know your Word. I pray for the opportunity to bring good questions about you, so I'll have more understanding in you, and then I can answer other's questions and explain the gospel to them.

"I pray for you to open my family and friends' hearts so they'll give me the chance to tell them about the gospel. And please, God, choose them to be your children, too. I'll use my brain that you've given me to think critically, to question what I hear in light of your truth, and to tell others about the gospel as well as I can.

"Please help me to seek to understand you and your word better. Please bring me the opportunity to meet more good people who can teach me the truth about you and your words. Please give me wisdom to differentiate between what is true and what is false.

"Dear God, I choose to believe and have faith in you even though I still have so many questions about you and your word. I choose to believe you because of the unconditional love you have for me and for everybody. You love us so much that you would like to draw us closer to you and that you sent you own Son to save us by dying for our sins."

She is now at work in God’s vineyard. Praise God who makes seeds grow!