Why wouldn't I be involved?

"Why wouldn't I be involved in something like InterVarsity? It's too good not to be."  That's what Zach told my wife a couple weeks ago at a party for students we were hosting.  Zach spent most of last year disconnected from Christian community.  Even though he grew up in the church, in college he wasn't really pursuing Jesus or growing his faith.  My staff partner, Kit, kept inviting him to different events on campus and praying for him.  This summer as Zach prepared to come back to campus, Jesus sparked something inside of Zach - a desire to be part of God's mission at the UO.

This fall, Zach helped reach out to new students on campus, handing out popsicles to freshmen.  He is having spiritual conversations with his friends and inviting them to Bible study and our worship.  At Fall Conference, he responded to the invitation to start something new and is taking significant responsibility to help lead one of our small groups.  He's considering going to Urbana so that he can learn how to represent Jesus through his future career in business.

Would you pray for Zach as he reaches out to his friends?  Pray that God would use him and other InterVarsity students to help their friends see and follow Jesus. 

Crash Course Bible Studies

Charlie has been studying at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) since March.  When she left last spring, she asked for a crash course in leading a bible study because she had never led one before. She wanted to start a Bible study at OIMB for anyone interested.  As she emailed the OIMB campus to invite people to the bible study, she realized she couldn't just email students but had to email the staff and faculty as well.  She was nervous about expressing her faith so openly in a strongly scientific environment but refused to let that fear stop her.

"Mary" was the one person who responded.  Mary isn't a Christian but is curious about Jesus and Christians.  Charlie and Mary started reading through John together, talking about Jesus and his invitation for our lives.  As they kept hanging out, Mary got more and more excited about Jesus.  Charlie bought her a Bible and Mary started reading on her own.  At one point, Mary came to Charlie really excited because she had just read in John 8 where Jesus says "I tell you the truth before Abraham was even born, I am."  Mary was blown away by the reality that Jesus has always been.  

Jesus is revealing himself to Mary.  As Charlie returns to the main UO campus this fall, she's excited to continue hanging out with Mary and talking about Jesus.  Would you pray for both of them?  And praise God with me for faithful students who take risks to advance the Kingdom of God.

You Don't Think of Us 24/7?

Sometimes I forget that your lives don't revolved around the UO and InterVarsity.  I would like to imagine that you frequently think of us throughout the day and offer up prayers that shake heaven and shake our campus.  But I know that you are people who are committed to many different works of God, for which I am really thankful!  And that you have lives that are full of work, children and grand-children, serving in countless ways, and many other things.


But I've been reminded lately by reading Ephesians of the spiritual battle that we are in.  That there is a very real war taking place in our world and on the University of Oregon campus.  Daily we are engaging in a war for the souls of these students, faculty, and staff.  I don't know how often you pray for us, but would you at least pray for us weekly?  Our hearts can get pretty beat up day after day and we need the sustaining power and grace of Jesus.  Our student leaders are serving on the front lines of the battle and they need your prayers.  This ministry needs your prayers to move forward.


Would you pray for us weekly this month.  Here is a way to pray for each week in February - you could even print this out and put it on your fridge:

• Week 1: That student leaders would grow a love and passion for prayer that they would pass on to their small group members.  That as they pray, they would learn to be still and hear the voice of God and then respond.  And that God would answer their prayers as they pray for their non-Christian friends.
• Week 2:  Pray for our process of selecting new leaders that begins this week.  Pray that God would impress on new students a desire to become leaders and influencers for the Kingdom of God on campus.  Pray that the staff would have wisdom in this process as we interview lots of students.  And finally, pray for students who will make the sacrifice of moving back into the dorms.
• Week 3:  This our week of Winter Conference. The staff will already be tired as we have pushed hard to this point.  Pray that we would learn to receive our strength from Jesus and that we would know the joy of our salvation.  We need to be reminded that this is God's work!
• Week 4:  As we come back from Winter Conference, pray that the things God did would stick in students and that they would be able to translate the things they learned back to campus.

Thank you for praying for us.  

Joel

Influencers

If you think back over your life, there are probably some key people who influenced your journey.  This quarter, our student leaders are learning how God wants to use them to influence the students in their small groups. They are learning that some of their greatest joy comes in seeing others fulfill the vision that God has for their lives.  These leaders serve, sacrifice, and invest with the hope that the students they are influencing would be moved to pursue God's vision for their lives.

Aaron (above) is a great example of this. As a first year small group leader, Aaron is passionate about helping the people in his small group pursue Jesus through community, prayer, and Bible study.  He tries many different things to help his Bible study engage, like last week when he wrote the whole passage on butcher paper on the wall so they could study and discuss it differently.  I love his creativity!

Aaron has been influencing Zach, a Christian who has grown a ton in the last few years in IV.  As Zach is growing under Aaron's influence, he invited his non-Christian roommate Alex to come to Bible study.  Alex agreed and has been a regular this year at Bible study and just recently started coming to our Guy's Prayer Group that meets weekly.  He's asking great questions and is discovering that God has incredible things for his life.  Please pray for Alex!

Aaron influences Zach who influences Alex.  I love it!  I'm praying that more students understand how God wants to use them to influence their peers and help them see Jesus!