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This excerpt was taken from the prayer letter of our co-laborers and friends Dave and Jen Lowe…
In 1991, Danny Devito and Gregory Peck starred in a movie entitled “Other People’s Money.” In the movie, Devito plays a corporate raider who initiates a hostile takeover of the company that Peck oversees. Near the end of the movie, there is a scene in which Devito addresses the shareholders of the company and makes his case for why it would be a good thing if he were to take over the company. His main argument is that this company is outdated and is not strategically positioned to survive in the new, advancing technological world. The line that I always remember in that movie is when Devito says, “gaining an increasingly larger share of the buggy whip market will not ensure success.” Devito’s point, of course, is that companies who invested all of their energy into being the leading producers and sellers of buggy whips were doomed to fail as that market got increasingly smaller and eventually died out.
Believe it or not, I (Dave) can relate to that quote quite a bit with my new role. A statistic I heard last month might shed some light on what how this all relates. Current trends show that by the year 2023, there will no longer be a majority culture among college students in the United States. What that means is that white students will no longer represent a majority of students. In our region, which includes California, Arizona and Hawaii, we are already at that state where white students represent less than 50% of our student population. Yet, Campus Crusade has traditionally been a ministry that has attracted students who are culturally white.
One of the biggest cultural groups of students on our campuses are Latino students. In our region alone, there are over 700,000 Latino college students. Yet on most campuses, there are no ministries that are intentionally seeking to reach this cultural group. Destino is Campus Crusade’s ministry to reach the Latino community on campus. Right now, in our region we have only 4 staff who are working to reach this group of students.
A few of the things we are praying for:
Pray for a L.A. area Destino team that works exclusively with Latino students to help to start Destino ministries on campuses throughout the L.A. area. We have members to be a part of a team but we need a team leader. Please pray for a leader for our L.A. Destino team.
Pray for new Destino ministries at Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State, Fresno State, San Jose State, Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento State. Ken and I are committed to working with Sac State and San Jose State in addition to running UC Davis. They have identified students who are interested in starting these groups. Pray that the groups would get started and begin to grow.
Thank you so much for your partnership that is enabling us to reach every student of every culture on every campus. We are so grateful for you.
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