Release the students! - A beginning of the 2016-17 school year update from the Hables

The University of Illinois has the most Chinese visas of any university in the United States. Nearly 6,000 of the around 43,000 students enrolled at the Champaign-Urbana campus are Chinese citizens.

However, our recent focus as a ministry hasn't been specifically for this people group. We love partnering with other campus groups that have expertise in this area. But God, being who He is, seems to be calling us to step out to reach this growing mission field in our backyard.

Last year, a Chinese student we'll call Jess (many Chinese students have to navigate their new faith carefully online due to Chinese government policies on Christianity) came to be a part of our church and then accepted Christ as her Lord. Hooray!

After going home for the summer, she's jumped back in to help reach out to new students this Fall. Already this Fall, God has given her a special place in reaching other students, especially those from China. She actually, just this week, helped to share the Gospel with another Chinese girl who most likely just accepted Christ herself!

What we love about this part of our ministry is that it's an area that God is moving and calling us into it. We didn't have this specific work in mind for this year, but God has shown that He wants us to be involved in something this special. These are people who are culturally curious and spiritually hungry. Oftentimes, they are desperate for us to share what Christianity is about. The harvest seems to be plentiful. We hope we can send workers into the field!

Pray that God would reveal ways we can support students excited to reach out to internationals and give us ways to disciple these new Christians.

We can't wait to tell you more stories about the year in our next update (including a starting point class for new students we're calling Foundations), but we wanted to celebrate the support God raised for us this summer and a roadmap for us going forward. If you'll recall, at the start of this past summer, we had a goal to raise $1400/month of new support to cover increased needs related to our growing family.

So how far did we get? Well, as of the end of August, we have $907/month of that $1400 raised! That is seriously amazing! With the time we needed to devote to other projects as well as time off learning to care for our new girl, we're very happy with where we landed. We're still $500 a month short of our summer goal, and a bit more short of our need (as we had a couple partners decide to give to other places over the summer). Although we're a little bit short of our goal, our needs have been met enough that our primary focus this semester is on campus until winter break.

We've been incredibly inspired by how God provides for us as we learn to provide for our new girl and reach the campus.

So thank you to all of you who have partnered with us financially. Whether it has been for years, months, or you're brand new, we are floored by how our needs are being met. The words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:12 may say it best for us, so we'll leave you with those (and some pictures from the year so far) and can't wait to write next month!

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Pictures say a thousand words

Alan & Ashley Hable work with Reliant Mission, who partners with missional churches and gospel-centered nonprofits to mobilize support-based missionaries. We serve at the University of Illinois, where we work with a local church called Illini Life Christian Fellowship, a member church in Collegiate Church Network. You can support our work by giving directly to Reliant. We thank you for your partnership.