Patience and Perseverance: Long-Term Ministry, Lasting Impact

Imagine moving to another country for the first time. You don’t know a soul, and all of your family and friends are an ocean away. You might know the language well — or you might not — but suddenly, it’s your lifeline to be able to communicate with those around you. Everything is new, potentially disorientating, and you have to move forward with patience and perseverance.

This is the experience for many international students as they take their first steps on US soil. In the midst of the unfamiliar, sometimes it takes a community opening their doors and reaching out in order for a new place to feel like home.

For Adam Johnson, the Navigators International Student Ministry (ISM) regional director, this is what ISM at the University of Minnesota is all about — meeting international students’ physical, social, and spiritual needs to create a place of genuine belonging. From hosting bi-weekly Cross Cultural Connection (3C) nights at a campus church to offering services like airport pickups and host homes, the ISM team’s vision is to form meaningful relationships between international students and Americans, eventually leading to deeper discipleship connections.

“We want to give people the opportunity to get to know the Bible, to understand the message of Christ and the gospel,” Adam says. “So it ends up being a funnel, where we meet a lot of people through airport pickups and welcome events and then some of them come to our social events, like the 3C nights. Then through genuine relationships, ongoing evangelism and discipleship takes place.”

The Long Game of Intentional Relationships

Though initial connections can be easy to make, sometimes it takes a long time — even years — before students open up to gospel conversations. This was the case for Adam’s team two years ago, when they held a fall retreat for 30 international students. They took the students to a camp in Wisconsin, where they spent 24 hours having fun and exploring Scripture — a first for many of the students.

With such a good turnout, the team wanted to be more direct with the students and how they talked about the gospel. “There was a sense that we should be a little more bold this time around, since we’d done this retreat before,” Adam says.

However, the weekend didn’t quite go as expected. Instead of growing closer or opening up to God, it seemed like one by one, the students started spiritually shutting down.

Adam remembers how one student, Justin*, told him after the retreat that he just wanted to meet girls, and he didn’t want to discuss God. Another student, Kara* shared similar sentiments. She told a volunteer, Mandy*, that though she wanted to be friends, she didn’t want to talk about the Bible.

“We started to wonder if maybe we moved forward too quickly in how much we shared with them that weekend,” Adam recalls. “And you feel a bit deflated when you put all that energy in, and you’re trusting God with that. We thought, ‘I don’t know if that turned out well.’ And it didn’t.”

To Adam, the retreat felt like throwing seeds onto hard soil in cold weather. But what else was there to do but to continue watering? They prayed and built relationships, continuing to pursue the students who seemed disinterested in going deeper. “One of the things we emphasize in our team is that we are building relationships with no strings attached,” Adam says. “We continue to offer that to these students, and authenticity comes through.”

Eventually, the seeds that seemed long lost started to sprout. As time went on and the students’ circumstances changed, they knew that they could trust the friendships they had built within ISM. Justin started to wrestle with his life’s meaning, and Adam and his teammate started a Bible study with him. “There was a hunger that had been awakened that wasn’t there when we met him,” Adam remembers.

Similarly, Kara went through a breakup and reached out to Mandy, who had become like a mother to her in the US. In her time of need, she knew that Mandy was safe.

Now, through intentional relationship two years later, both Justin and Kara have given their lives to Christ.

Sowing Seeds for Harvest

When we think about our own personal ministries and Jesus’ parable about soil and sowing seeds (Matthew 13:1-30, 36-43), we don’t always get to see if the seeds we sow bear fruit. For Adam, ISM has been one place where the Lord has shown him how his efforts can have long-term effects.

“We often encounter more nos than yeses, and it seems like the soil is too hard and the weather is too cold,” Adam says. “So we think, is it really worth sowing? I think this story is an encouragement for me, and hopefully for others, to keep sowing. You don’t know when the circumstances or the temperature may change.”

As Adam and his team continue to pursue the international community at the University of Minnesota, as well as in their neighborhoods and churches, they are taking this perspective to heart. By building relationships and spaces of belonging for those in unfamiliar territory, they continue to plant seeds with the hope of harvest.

“This year with my team of volunteers, we are reminding them of two years ago when we had this trip,” Adam says. “We say, look at this picture. We didn’t know who would be around in two years, and now here we are. So the next time you meet somebody, you don’t know what God might do.”

*Names and images have been changed for privacy.

Discipleship Tip:

For Adam, it took years to see the fruit of sharing the gospel with his international student friends. Sometimes when we disciple others, we can feel discouraged by the waiting, feeling like we are also sowing seeds on hard soil. When it comes to discipleship and evangelism, patience is key. Consider your relationships with others and how you can invite the Lord into the waiting and long-term vision as you anticipate the growth of those you disciple.