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Early in 2001, Carl and Kathryn Walker began asking God to create a ministry to international students studying in Sacramento. They wrote e-mails to various Christian organizations asking for help, but did not receive any replies. After serving with a Christian organization, Campus Crusade for Christ, for 14 years in Japan, Alan and Audrey Dianich felt that they needed to return to California to care for their aging parents. They were given permission from their organization to move to Sacramento and start a ministry to international students. They contacted Leon Harper with International Students Incorporated, asking for his help, as they knew nothing about international student ministry. One Thursday evening, Carl and Kathryn decided to walk around Sacramento State University and pray urgently for God to do something to start a ministry with international students. The next morning, Kathryn received a phone call from Leon saying that we was arranging a meeting on August 14th at Steve's Pizza for people interested in starting an international student ministry. Leon was one of the people that Carl and Kathryn had sent an e-mail several months earlier. Kathryn called Carl at work and with teary eyes and a choked up voice told him about how God was answering their prayer. Alan and Audrey were also amazed that God was arranging for the beginning of the ministry. The meeting on August 14th brought together about 8 people that were concerned about international students. Other meetings for prayer and planning were set up. On October 13th, the first Sacramento Pot Luck Party was held in Foley Hall at Sac State. Only 2 or 3 international students attended! Alan, sometime accompanied by Carl, met these students for lunch and conversation once a week at Sac State for the next weeks. Earlier that Fall, Alan and Audrey visited First Japanese Baptist Church, and shared with the congregation their burden to reach international students. At the church, they met Coco, then a student at Sac State, and Dr. Aki Kumagai, a professor at Sac State. During the 2001-2002 school year, Coco started meeting with Alan for the once a week lunch times at Sac State and together they tried to reach out to the many internationals at Sac State. Leon also connected Alan and Audrey with Pastor Dave Keane and Bill Coomb of University Covenant Church in Davis, both of whom who have had rich experience in international student ministry. During the 2001-2002 school year Alan joined Davis Int'l Life, a Christian organization reaching out to Davis international students and scholars organized by Bill Coomb. Davis Int'l Life spent one weekend visiting the International Christian Fellowship in the Escondido/San Diego area where they learned from the International Student Incorporated directors, Wichit and Miriam, the principles of their highly successful ministry. Also in Davis, the director of Campus Crusade for Christ brought Alan up to speed on US Campus Crusade ministry. Nationally, Campus Crusade was changing to a multiple movement strategy. This meant that at one campus there might be several different ministries of Campus Crusade. For example, Epic was a Campus Crusade ministry for Asian Americans and Impact was a ministry for African Americans. Campus Crusade's ministry to international students was re-organized under the title Bridges International. Also, new materials were being made available through Campus Crusade to order for Welcome Kits for new international students. These Welcome Kits included a Bible with an introduction for international students, book called How to Survive in the USA, and other materials. Alan and those working with him started to pray that God would provide the money to order these Welcome Kits for the fall of 2002. God answered their prayer when money was made available from the Campus Crusade national office to order Welcome Kits. In the fall of 2002, Welcome Gifts were distributed with the help of Campus Crusade and Davis Int'l Life at UC Davis, and with the help of Chi-Alpha at Sac State. Also, Alan found out he needed to start an official student group at Sac City College to give out Welcome Gifts. He prayed that God would give him a group, and walked around campus asking students to join a group that would give out the gifts to new international students. Amazingly students signed up, a faculty advisor was found, and one Christian international student from Hong Kong, Judson, became the president. Following the model of the ministry in San Diego, Friday night leadership meetings started with Coco and Judson coming over to Alan and Audrey's home for dinner and Leadership Training. One Friday night each month became the International Students' Pot Luck Party and met at Dr. Kumagai's home. By the end of the 2002-2003 school year, almost 50 people were coming to Dr. Kumagai's home! During the 2003-2004 school year, Welcome Gifts were distributed at UC Davis, Sac State, Sac City and Sierra College. International Students' Bible Studies were begun at these schools. Two levels of Leadership Training were held at Alan and Audrey's home and the Sacramento International Pot Luck Parties moved into the youth room, Shoeless Mo's, at Arcade Church. Also, International Students Incorporated staff person, Bud Fuchs, moved to Elk Groove and greatly blessed the Sacramento area and the ministry. Carl and Kathryn and others helped to provide food for the Pot Lucks and hosted other events. UC Davis Bridges International began with two students who had accompanied Alan and Audrey on a mission trip to Japan during the summer. During the 2004-2005 school year, Welcome Gifts were distributed at the above schools and also American River College and Cosumnes River College. At Sac State, God answered prayer when Stany, a Christian student from India, received a Welcome Gift and showed interest in starting a Bible Study for students from his country. Stany attended the Bridges Conference during Christmas vacation and in the Spring Semester the Indian Students Bible Study grew and the International Student Ministry at Sac State became an official student group. The Pot Lucks in Sacramento moved into larger rooms at Arcade Church, and Bud organized Sacramento churches to bring food. Bud also taught the second level of Leadership Training at Alan and Audrey's home. These Leaders Meetings grew to 15 students. The international student ministry at American River College became an official group. Also, the Bridges ministry at UC Davis grew and started having their own monthly Pot Luck Parties one Saturday month at Davis Chinese Christian Church. During the 2005-2006 school year, a ISI associates came and replaced Bud as the teacher for the second level of training at our Friday Night Leaders Meetings which they hosted at their home. They also started Talk Times at each campus, coached the UC Davis ministry and the Sac City Bible Study, and led our Apple Hill Trip, Snow Day and first ever Fall Retreat (all while teaching ESL at various schools). The UC Davis ministry grew greatly with 15 people regularly coming to their Tuesday night Bible Study. At one point, the leaders prayed for 80 to come to their Pot Luck and we were all amazed when nearly that many people showed up! They also prayed for a better outreach to the many graduate students, and along came a assistant professor who greatly helped their outreach. The Sac State ministry grew and offered a Sacramento Tour to new students and a cricket match to reach out to new students from India and an Open Forum meeting to reach out to the whole campus. One new student from India came to stay at Stany's apartment and revealed an incredible story of searching for God and later became one of the leaders at Sac State. Another Sac State student did a goggle search wanting to find out more about God and was put in contact with one of the staff who met him. This student came to know Him and signed up to go to go to New Orleans over spring break with 9 others from Sac State to do hurricane relief. This student was later elected to high office in the Sac State student body. Students and volunteers attended every track of the Bridges Conference. One community college school official invited our group to give out Welcome Gifts inside the new international students' orientation. Several community college students went on the Spring Break inner city mission project. Students were sent on summer mission projects to New Orleans, East Asia, Africa, and England. During the 2006-2007 school year, we were given much needed help when Shon and Christina and their family started doing international students ministry full time at UC Davis and Bill, an experience volunteer. came to help our Leadership Training Classes in Sacramento. Also, Paul, a native of India now working in Sacramento, really started to help the ministry at Sac State. Shon was able to bring seven students to one of the winter conferences from Davis. Fourteen from our area attended another winter conference. And a remarkable work began in women from India at Sac State as two girls in one apartment came to know Christ as Savior and Lord through the witness of their roommates and the help of Paul and his family. Also, this year's Spring Break trip to the LA Inner City had eight student participants - the most we have ever had! Another highlight of the year was when the Sac State group held a special India night featuring music and dancing from India in the Redwood Room at their school. This event made the school newspaper and led to many conversations about spiritual things among Indian students at Sac State. Finally, six students went to Korea for a world missions conference called Campus Mission 07 and five of the students went on to India to experience missions in the summer.
We started the 2007-2008 school year with a Day of Prayer in August. God answered our prayers in so many ways! Kimi Nishioka saw God raise her support and she joined the staff team as an intern. With Kimi's help, the staff team, volunteers and student leaders were able to give out Welcome Gifts at Cal State Stanislaus, Folsom Lake College, Delta College and University of the Pacific. Amazingly, student leaders were raised up and we became an official student group at Folsom Lake College and UOP and were able to start regular activities on these campuses. We were able to have International Student Dinners for the first time in Stockton. During Spring Break, we had a One Day Mission Trip to Foothill College in the Bay Area too. We took a large group of students to the Bridges Training Conference in Anaheim during Presidents' Day weekend. We added Golf Day to our fun activities and had many more students come to Apple Hill, Snow Day and Yosemite. We had Christian students go on summer mission projects with two going to Africa, two to India, one to Seattle and one to San Diego.
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