Our History
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 he 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 Potluck Party was held in Foley Hall at Sac State. Only 2 or 3 international students attended! Alan, sometimes accompanied by Carl, met these students for lunch and conversation once a week at Sac State for the next few 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, a 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’ Potluck 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 Grove and greatly blessed the Sacramento area and the ministry. Carl and Kathryn and others helped to provide food for the Potlucks 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 Potlucks 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 Potluck Parties one Saturday a month at Davis Chinese Christian Church.
During the 2005-2006 school year, 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 Potluck 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 Google 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 experienced 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.
The 2008-2009 school year was a wild emotional ride for the ministry. Kimi finished interning and decided to join our staff and attended new staff training in the summer of 2008. Alvin, from Singapore and Sierra College and UC Davis, also decided to join our staff and attended new staff training. However, when they returned to California they found out the US government had denied them their visas and they had to leave the country. We were heart broken. They returned to their countries and reapplied for the visas and this time were accepted. We were overjoyed. They worked diligently on their support development. Then Kimi became engaged to Adam, a fellow she met at the new staff orientation, and we found out she would be joining Adam in his ministry on the East Coast. We were happy for Kimi but so sad to have to say good-bye. Then James, a Sac State Christian student leader from India, was diagnosed with leukemia – again we were so sad. Somehow even with all this drama, the ministry moved forward in Sacramento, Davis and Stockton. In Davis, we started out without any student leaders but miraculously by the end of the school year we had many great student leaders in Davis! We held a Cluster Training in Sacramento and staff from all over the US attended during Sac State’s spring break week. India Night at Sac State, drew 200 students. We were able to start a Fund Development Counsel and held our own Fund Raising Dinner which was a great success. The ministry continued to send people to all over the world. For example, Ariel, a graduate of the ministry in Davis, felt called to go to Japan for a year to serve God.
In the 2010 school year, we saw an answer to prayer right away when a student from Egypt saw our flyer and brought other Egyptians to our September International Students’ Dinner in Sacramento. The previous school year we prayed specifically that we could meet students from that part of the world. The Egpytians came to activities all school year long. We also saw an increase in the number of Japanese students coming to our Sacramento events- another answer to prayer. Also, in Stockton, Jerry helped us meet a UOP professor’s family that wanted to help international students and we began to use their home for Stockton International Students’ Dinners. We saw Charlotte apply to be an intern with ISI and Alvin just about complete his support team to be a full time staff person. The student leaders and volunteers met several times for all night prayer meetings in Sacramento too. James continued in good health all school year and was a great blessing to us all. However, we all grieved when the leukemia returned and James passed away to heaven on July 2nd. We will miss James greatly. We had a Memorial Service of James on July 10th.
The 2010-2011 academic year started off with Alvin completing his support team so he was able to take on the leadership of our group in Davis. One Davis student, B, came to a meeting at the beginning of the year and realized she had lost her cell phone. After looking in her bag and wondering where she left it, Alvin offered to pray for her. After he prayed she looked again in her bag and there it was! Bora and others came to our Fall Camp where she and several others put their faith in Christ. This was a big answer to prayer because at the end of the previous school year we all had prayed that God would use us to help more international students trust in Christ. Shon graciously turned the Davis leadership over to Alvin and helped Talk Time at Sac City College and Sac State and led a Bible Study at his home for some Davis grad students and researchers. At Sac State, our Talk Time group grew from one or two people to a group of twelve. Our Talk Time group in Stockton met all year long under the guidance of some great volunteers. “New Life” seemed to be the theme for this school year. We finished the last semester by celebrating 10 years of international student ministry in Sacramento at our Fund Raising Dinner.
The 2011-2012 was our most fruitful year to date. Natsumi, an intern from Japan, was able to befriend many Japanese women and by the end of the school year three of them came to follow Jesus. Alvin, in Davis, was able to see many students come to believe in the Lord too. Alvin married Sophia in the spring and together they continued their ministry of seeing disciples who make disciples. More people in Sacramento too embraced the idea of multiplying discipleship. We also opened our spring break trip to all international students by changing the trip to be an Inner City Service Project. Nguyen led a group of Sac State students to serve in the inner city of Los Angeles and Natsumi led a large group of community college students to the inner city of Seattle. Nguyen also drove a van full of students to Washington DC for the international students conference over winter break. The end of the school year was rather sad however because Natsumi, Shon and Christina felt called to leave Sacramento and Charlotte felt called to end her internship.
The 2012-2013 school year started off in an amazing way when over 220 people tried to squeeze in the room for our September International Students Dinner in Sacramento and at our Fall Camp, Leon Harper (see 2nd paragraph above) was one of our guest speakers. Jesús, a student from Mexico who came to know Christ the previous year, continued to grow and led several others to the Lord too. Jerry and Toni started going to Stockton to lead the ministry at UOP and saw a large number of students at UOP get involved – they even had a church donate the use of a bus so their group could go to Yosemite. At the end of the school year, Jerry and Toni felt called to go with some of the students they met back to China to teach English and so we will miss them dearly next year.
During the 2013 -2014 school year, although we felt we were short staff, the Lord enabled our small staff team to cover all our campuses. Also, we gained much support from Arcade Church as we were selected as one of a few “focus area” for their missions department. As a result we received a financial gift at the end of the school year to meet our operations budget for the following school year. This is the first time our operations budget will be 100% funded! At the end of school year, Alan had received a text message from a PHD student from China saying she had decided to become a Christian because of God answering her prayer to become a graduate assistant and because of the Christians who had surrounded her. We will all miss Katie as she leaves our team to get married and we will be glad to have Jerry and Toni back from Shanghai.
At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year we had some new events: a Welcome Party for the new Sac State students at a home near campus and a Panel Discussion in Chinese for the new Chinese students at UC Davis. After the Panel Discussion, one student came and talked with the Chinese pastor who spoke, and gave her heart to Christ! Having Jerry and Toni back really helped the ministry in Stockton. Another encouraging thing happened at Sac City College: the spent a little bit of extra time in prayer for the campus and soon afterwards two guys indicated they had put their faith in Christ!
During the 2015-2016 school year, ISI staff person Erv was able to get a much stronger group going at Folsom Lake College and the FLC Rancho Cordova Center too! In Davis, the group there started working much more closely with the Cru group and this generated new leaders for the Bridges international student outreach. Our group at William Jessup University grew and more of their students came to the Sacramento Leaders Meetings. Also, two new community people, Cliff and Sylvia started helping at the Sacramento Leaders Meetings. Several Sacramento international students put their faith in Christ this school year too! The story will continue in the 2016-17 school year.
During the 2016- 2017 school year, we heard of 7 students who began a personal relationship with Christ. These are students from Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and India. Some of them we were able to meet with personally for one-on-one follow-up and discipleship. However, much of the school year was difficult due to health problems and interpersonal relationship problems. We are very thankful for the Lord’s presence with us all through the school year! At the end of the school year, we said good-bye to our dear friends Alvin and Sophia as they moved away to Southern California to go to pursue more education. We are trusting God for new mercy, new lovingkindness and new grace for the 2017- 2018 school year (Lamentations 3:21-25)
One of the remarkable things about the 2017-2018 school year was the growth of the ministry at UC Davis without staff! Our group at Davis was led by eight student leaders, seven of which are graduating. These busy UC Davis students shared the Gospel with over 20 international students, five of whom have come regularly to Bible Studies. At the extension center where English as a Second Language students study, they have seen at least two international students in each of the three sessions of international students there express a strong desire to learn more about Christianity. Not only this, but these busy Christian UC Davis students have also tried to connect international students who are interested in Christ to churches in their home countries. We all praise God for His work through these Davis students.
We were blessed during the 2018-2019 school year with new full time and part time workers! Vivi joined us as a full time intern, Amber joined us part time, and Claret started as an affiliate staff. What a blessing! One highlights for us during the school year was our Portland Launch trip during Spring Break. Several of us, including Vivi and Amber and some students very new to our group, went to Portland to help give lift to an international student ministry on three campuses. We had so much fun and such a meaningful time. We learned so much too! We look forward to what God will do during the 2019-2020 school year.
The 2019-2020 school year was by far the strangest year in our ministry's brief history. Wildfires and power outages cancelled our usual Fall Camp in October, and COVID-19 in March moved all our activities online! In God's perfect timing, He brought us more young staff this school year who are very good at digital communications: Emily (part time with ISI), Leo (part time with Bridges), and Andrew (full time with Bridges). The Lord used our team in the lives of students during all the craziness. Some heard the Good News of Christ, some came to Christ, some grew in Christ, some were sent for Christ and, prayerfully, all felt the love of Christ through our team.
The 2020-21 school year was the pandemic year. We were not able to go to campus to give out Welcome Gifts or do Mobile Mapping, but we were able to meet new students through Instagram exploring and were able to give out some Welcome Gifts to students who requested them. We used online platforms like Zoom more than ever before to connect with students. We learned a lot through trial and error, and although we had a relatively small group of students, we still had some good times with them in Talk Time, iLife Growth, and more. We also had our first online reunion, monthly online prayer meetings and online commissioning time for students leaving our area.
The school year of 2021-2022 brought many changes to our ministry. Smoke from forest fires caused our staff retreat to be moved from a cabin in the Sierras to Alan and Audrey's home in August. Our prayer walk in August around Sac State also had to be moved due to smoke from fires to a video call. We decided to try three Friday night Bible study meetings, called iLife Growth, in three areas: Davis, South Sacramento and North Sacramento. Also, we divided up our staff team to minister in those three areas, and we saw the Lord raise up full support teams for Leo, Kimmy and Vivi. We wondered if smoke from fires, or COVID, would prevent us from having Fall Camp, but glory to God, we had blue skies and no COVID concerns during Fall Camp. We also were able to bring a group to the winter conference and were able to do welcome events and trips to San Francisco and Yosemite once again. In the fall, one student who had been involved in our group for a couple years, gave her life to Jesus and in the spring, another student who had been involved in our group the whole school year, indicated giving his life to Jesus. Others also indicated they had grown in their commitment to Christ. We had one student go on a summer mission and another pursue an internship with us for the following school year. We are trusting the Lord for many challenges next school year: Emily, one of our staff, feels the Lord calling her to move to Tennessee and she will be greatly missed. Leo will be off campus much of next school year due to Camy having a baby and joining staff. The new intern and another staff person are trusting the Lord for their full support teams. We are thankful that God is in control of ministry next school year!
The 2022-2023 school year ended with rejoicing because a student involved in our group for 4 years placed her faith in Christ. We were also able to give out Welcome Gifts to new international students at more campuses than in recent years. Staff too were able to talk with more students using tools like Mobile Mapping and a Worldview Survey. More community volunteers joined with us by helping our iLifeGrowth meetings in Davis, South Sacramento and North Sacramento. We were able to have a Sac State Spring Break trip and other great activities too. Burnice saw her financial support raised and joined our team. She also feels led to be an intern again for next school year. Another student, Gordon, also feels led to be an intern next school year. Leo and Camy had their baby safely and they too are trusting God for their financial support for next school year. Sadly, two other staff, Kimmy and Andrew, felt led to leave staff. Although we felt short handed much of the time, we give thanks to God for being with us during the 2022-2023 school year!
The Lord blessed us during the 2023-2024 school year by raising up the support for Gordon, Burnice, and Leo and Camy. Because of their joining Amber at Sac State, we were able to have many more activities there like Game Nights, outreaches to South Asian students, and also have more discipleship relationships at Sac State. God also raised up Amanda who decided to join our iLife Staff Team. We saw one Sac State student from India and another from China put their faith in Christ. We also saw another Sac State international student baptized and a former Sac State international student also receive baptism. One highlight was seeing Vivi commissioned to return to her county as a missionary. Vivi had come to Christ here in Sacramento and served as an intern, a staff member, and a Team Leader. How thankful we are to the Lord for His kindness to us in 2024-2025!
