What's New in the New Acad Year for myself and NUS Cru? - [Oct'25 Newsletter #3]

Dear supporters,

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement through these nine months serving as a full-time Cru Singapore staff. It's now midway through the first semester of the new academic year for NUS (AY25/26), and I'm excited to share what has happened so far for NUS Cru ministry!

The current NUS Cru staff team ☺️

At the beginning of August, Elaine joined the NUS Cru team as a FUEL intern (the same internship program I participated in a year ago). Ruth, a missionary with Cru who previously served in the US, is here in Singapore for her seminary studies and is helping with our post-graduate ministry at NUS. I'm thankful to have a supportive and united team to journey with through ministry!

"Come & See" - NUS Cru's theme for this year's recruitment! 🫡

I had the opportunity to lead the recruitment efforts for this year, from planning our CCA booth for the annual Student Life Fair (SLF) at NUS to determining the best ways to welcome any newcomers we meet.

I'm proud of the efforts my student team (Andrew, Esther, Joel, and Wenxin) put into various aspects of this year's recruitment, including praying over the theme and direction, developing the design language of the booth and materials, and heading programmes such as the Welcome Tea.

We were blessed to have meaningful conversations with many non-Christians and Christians despite the less-than-ideal placement of our booth. I believe that this SLF booth was a significant opportunity to sow the seeds of the gospel among many wandering students.

During this recruitment period, we had:

• 201 interest form sign-ups from our SLF booth (August 13-14)
• 35 newcomers who attended our Welcome Tea (August 18)
• ~15 (and counting) new students planted in our Discipleship Groups over the subsequent weeks!

This has been very encouraging to the students in NUS Cru as these numbers are almost double those of previous years. But beyond the numbers themselves, this also represents a deep need for strong Christian communities on campus especially for those who may be stragglers in church circles. I am also heartened to see new students coming in with such a big heart for discipleship and evangelism, the main pillars of Cru's work.

(And a special shoutout to my friend Alicia (@alyletters) who designs beautiful Christian-focused merchandise such as stickers and pins that were some of the main giveaway attractions at our booth!)

Solo-leading a freshmen Discipleship Group (DG) for the first time + journeying with a non-Christian student 🤓

One of my biggest joys over these past few months has been discipling the incoming freshman students. An interesting aspect of my Discipleship Group (DG) is that two of them are first-generation Christians (and one is a non-Christian)!

I love hearing their stories and experiences in the faith and am inspired by their fervour in wanting to reach other non-Christians on campus too.

The non-Christian student who joined my DG is an international undergraduate I met at our SLF booth who was keen on exploring Christianity further with us and attended our Welcome Tea.

Through our conversations over the following weeks, he mentioned being exposed to Christianity through American movies and Russian novels. He tried reading the Bible for a bit but felt he needed someone to guide him through it. I was really glad that he eventually made time to attend a DG session, and I handed him a bilingual Bible along with teaching an overview of the Bible. He said it was the first Bible he owned!

I was moved to hear that a few days after receiving this Bible, he actually started reading the gospel of Matthew on his own 🥹

Although he still feels that he lacks enough knowledge whether to believe in Jesus as the Christ, he will continue to join us for our DGs and events, and I intend to continue following up with him personally!

"Come & See Gatherings" (CSGs) - Our new initiative to equip students and foster community 🙌

For this academic year, the NUS Cru student leaders and staff team have decided to run fortnightly gatherings called CSGs to bring the NUS Cru community closer and to equip them with the basics of what it means to be a testimony for and disciple of Christ. We are continuing our fortnightly prayer meetings in the evenings too. It is heartening to see all these students coming together to learn and pray in community.

How is my financial support going?

I'm deeply grateful to the support (both financially and in prayers) that I've received over the past nine months since I've started as a full-time staff with Cru this January! 

Although there have been worrying months of whether I’ll have enough, I'm amazed and thankful that at the end of each month I've not been in deficit and have still been able to draw my full salary.

I still have not raised the full 100% of my monthly salary I need for this year, and am currently at 88%! I am still looking to raise about $6,600 to sustain me for the rest of the year.

I am also currently largely supported by one-time donations, and am still looking to raise another 20 ministry partners of $100/month or 40 ministry partners of $50/month through the next few years.

Looking back at these past nine months, it really has been such a privilege that I get to do the work that I am doing - journeying with students, teaching the Bible, and discipling Christians and non-Christians on campus has made me come alive (my wife can attest to this 😅).

I do hope to be able to serve with Cru Singapore for at least the next 4 years (completing a full ministry cycle with NUS). If you believe in the work Cru is doing and the ministry I'm serving with in NUS Cru, please prayerfully consider being a ministry partner, whether through a one-time donation or a monthly one!

And of course, I could not do this work without the constant support and encouragement of my lovely wife, Natalie!

Prayers 🙏

Do continue to pray for me and the ministry in NUS Cru:

• For a personal encounter with Jesus for the non-christian international student I'm journeying with
• For wisdom and humility as I continue to disciple the Y1 guys
• For continued favour as NUS Cru reaches students through the programmes we have for the rest of semester

Thank you so much again for reading this all the way through and for being a part of this ministry!

Love, Elijah (Oct 2025)