Antonio asked a simple question nobody would answer, so he went searching alone, on his phone. Tonight, students all over Croatia are searching the same way. We want to be there when they find Jesus.
A friend shared this with you because they believe in what God is doing here.
Antonio grew up in a small village in a Catholic family. As a teenager he asked his religion teacher a simple question: why did Jesus have to die? His teacher brushed it aside: stop asking questions and just believe. Nobody would answer him, so Antonio walked away from faith and became an atheist.
Then COVID hit. He was stuck at home with a lot of time and a smartphone, so he started searching. One YouTube video led to another, until he found a preacher who actually answered his questions and explained the gospel. And Antonio gave his life to Jesus.
When Antonio came to Zagreb to study, he thought there were no other students in Croatia like him. Then he stopped at our outreach table, and in 2025 he started coming to Fokus. One of our staff started meeting with him every week, reading the Bible together and working through the questions YouTube couldn’t answer.
Today he’s one of our most committed student leaders. He’s learning to share his faith, and he helps lead our weekly meetings.
Antonio, at our Fokus Christmas gathering last year. In Croatian, with English subtitles.
university students in Croatia. Most of them don’t know anyone who truly follows Jesus, and most have no one reaching them.
“Why would I not kill myself?”
“How can I get new parents?”
“How do I break the curse my occultist ex-boyfriend put on me?”
A few of the questions students have brought to us this past year.
We want to be there when they find him.
On campus at our tables and events, and online, where students like Antonio already look for answers.
Fokus Digital: content and follow-up that meets searching students online and invites them into real friendships on campus.
Coffee, the Bible and real friendship, week after week, in a community where no one follows Jesus alone.
The Fokus Pathway: four courses (Follow, Grow, Share, Lead) for PODS of two to four friends, in Croatian and English.
Students leading students. Antonio now helps lead outreach and our weekly meetings in Zagreb.
A national network of Christian students, and teams sent to start movements on new campuses.
72,000 students. Weekly meetings, a student leadership team and a growing staff team.
17,000+ students. Our summer team has already been on the ground there.
19,000 students on the Dalmatian coast.
23 universities in 17 cities, and online.
“Do you remember making that decision for yourself?”
Hana asked our team that at Alpha, a course for people exploring Christianity. They each told her their story. She left that night with a Bible.
“Then I’m 110% sure I’ll go to heaven, because of Jesus.”
At our Christmas outreach we asked Patrik, “From 1 to 100, how sure are you that you’d go to heaven?” He said “maybe 80%.” After reading the Bible with our Fokus staff, he saw that it was all Jesus, not him.
“I am excited about going to the unreached faculties!”
Nela is a medical student and one of our student leaders, helping plan how to reach the parts of the university nobody has reached yet.
We met at Ball State, and for almost 20 years we’ve served with Cru, helping university students find Jesus and grow in Him. Most of those years we led Cru’s ministry at Ball State, with seasons serving in East Asia along the way.
We serve with Cru because today’s college students are tomorrow’s leaders. College is a short but significant season when students decide what they believe and who they will become, and there is real competition for their hearts and minds. We want to be there to help them find Jesus Christ and follow Him, and we’ve watched God meet students in those years again and again.
In Croatia, very few students know a single person who truly follows Jesus, and almost no one is reaching them. So in 2021 we moved our family of six from Muncie, Indiana, to Zagreb, to help build something that will last: a self-sustaining student movement, so that university students across Croatia can have the opportunity to say yes to Jesus and a community to follow Him with, for generations to come.
Today Corey serves as National Director of Fokus Student, Cru’s student ministry in Croatia, and we lead it together. Our four kids (Caroline, Dietrich, Hudson, and Theo) have grown up between Indiana and Croatia, and they love this city as much as we do.
We came because we believe no student should have to find Jesus alone. Antonio is why we stay.
Your gift helps us open new cities, build a discipleship pathway, and reach students who are searching online. Would you pray about giving a gift today, so that we can find the next Antonio tomorrow?
You’ll choose your amount, once or monthly, on Cru’s secure giving page (give.cru.org/0611415). Gifts go to Corey and Stephanie’s ministry account with Cru, are receipted by Cru, a 501(c)(3), and are tax-deductible in the U.S.
Your friend is inviting people to this. A quick message makes their day.
Can’t give right now? Prayer matters just as much. Our monthly letter carries a real story from campus and a few specific things to pray for.
Sign up to pray →Send this page to one person who would care about students finding Jesus. That’s how this whole campaign works: friends telling friends.
Copy the link from your browser’s address bar.Yes. Every gift goes through Cru’s secure giving site to Corey and Stephanie Schumacher’s ministry account. Cru sends your tax receipt.
To Corey and Stephanie’s ministry account with Cru. It supports their ministry and family, and the leadership, training and outreach it takes to help build a student movement across Croatia.
Yes. On the giving page you can make your gift recurring. Monthly partners are the backbone of what we do.
Fokus is the name of Cru’s ministry in Croatia. Fokus Student is its ministry to university students.
Please do. Friends telling friends is how this whole campaign works.
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