Category: Draw Students (Page 3 of 13)

Draw Students and Faculty to Jesus as Savior and Lord

Not alone

February 12, 2020 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

What would be the impact if our communities saw the demonstration of the difference Christianity makes?

Jamal Morris, Associate Area Director in Tennessee, encountered student after student who had no interest in Christianity because they did not see it making a difference.

Over the last decade he has been working to demonstrate God’s kingdom through engagement of college students with local schools. Here is one story of the impact:

One of our class coordinators saw a student visibly shaking and asked her what was going on. The student said five other middle schoolers were going to gang up on her after school. The assistant principal granted us permission to walk her home.

A starting fullback for a local university, was with us along with seven of his teammates, making for a total of twenty-five college students walking her home. During the walk, I had a Bible study with the students about the attributes of God, specifically as a protector and good Father. I expressed how this young lady experienced his protection through us.

Students once far from God are now interested in a Christianity they see lived out around them. Please pray for Jamal and his students as they continue to engage the schools in their community and invite other college students to consider Jesus.

Radical Unity

January 14, 2020 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Leaders from about 30 Christian ministries joined InterVarsity’s staff conference to pray and seek God. InterVarsity and these organizations have built a collaborative initiative called EveryCampus to seek God together for revival and to establish gospel communities on every USA campus. In the past year, we have done prayer walks on almost 2/3 of these campuses. It was amazing to see all of these organizations come together in unity around a vision for God’s Kingdom and to hear how God had been giving their leaders similar messages in prayer.

Finding Pieces

October 8, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Have you ever looked at a person doing something excellently and wondered how they do it?

In our pursuit of the 2030 calling, a team I am leading is identifing the critical elements done by our staff teams that have chapters that reach many corners of a campus.

We have interviewed these teams to identify the pieces of the puzzle to see a multi-corner work be developed and sustained.

Please pray as we work over the next month to refine our learning so that we can begin to utilize the pieces to enable others to develop this kind of work.

Prayer on Everycampus

September 20, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

From coast to coast, students around the country are back at school, and on hundreds of campuses, and as you read this our staff are inviting students from a multitude of backgrounds to consider the relevance of Jesus to their lives today!

These first few weeks on campus are rich with opportunity to build new relationships form new communities, and establish new rhythms (many of which will last throughout that students’ time on campus). As such, for our staff team, these are weeks full of intentional outreach to meet, welcome, and invite students into our fellowships.

Would you consider partnering with our work in this season by prayer walking a campus near you? Just like the students in the video below (who actually road-tripped to prayer walk) and our staff across the country, would you consider taking a look at this State by State list of campuses and consider “adopting” a campus near you to prayer walk via www.everycampus.com?

Together

September 12, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

As a part of InterVarsity/USA, I have the privilege of serving with sisters and brothers around the world inviting students and faculty to follow Jesus through the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

Watch this short video to see the story of the development of this movement.

Recently a delegation of staff and students from the USA went to the IFES World Assembly. Click here to read one staff’s reflections from the time.

Being carried to Jesus

July 3, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Over spring break, Jessica Marotte, staff in Sacramento, CA, hosted a student conference in a rental house to study the Gospel of Mark. She was told there were not many stairs, but when they got there they found a huge flight of stairs.

Jessica says, “One student who came to Mark Camp was wheelchair bound and required two people to her carry up and down 20 stairs each day. It took a lot of bravery for her to trust us not to drop her! Each time we carried her, I could only think, this is a living parable of Mark 2, when the four friends removed the roof of a house and carried their paralyzed friend down into to crowd to meet Jesus.

In the passage it says that when Jesus saw the four friends faith he forgave the paralyzed man and heals him. When we studied this passage at the conference, one of our students made an insightful comment that felt symbolic of this school year, ‘Each of us is the paralytic who needs Jesus’ healing, and each of us is a friend who has faith that helps us carry one-another to Jesus!’

Throughout this year, Jesus has been showing us–students, faculty and staff–that power of faithful community in our healing process. The year was full of miraculous healings that Jesus performed.

Through the power of prayer and intercession we saw God bring breakthrough in the ministry and in student’s lives! We ended the year with 5 students making first time decisions to follow Jesus, and 6 students making re-commitments to follow Jesus!”

Praise God with me for the work of God on campus and let’s consider with these students who God is inviting us to carry to Jesus.

Abundantly More

May 2, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Last weekend Solome Haile, Black Campus Ministry staff at Mizzou, partnered with an administrator to put on an on-campus Easter service and lunch.

Solome says, “We originally anticipated about 50 students would attend, and we were praying throughout the week that many students would respond to the call to faith that we’d give during the service.”

“God is truly able AND willing to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can even ask or imagine! Over 100 black students attended and NINE students accepted Christ!!! All were very excited to hear about the BCM chapter we are building and eager to join! Praise God for his faithfulness in my end-of-semester weariness!”

New partnerships

April 18, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

In partnership with a faculty member, InterVarsity staff trained students at John Brown University in proxe stations and the Big Story.

In one of their following class periods the professor sent his 20+ students to visit a Northwest Arkansas Community College, a campus where staff are starting an InterVarsity chapter, to practice what they learned. They led the the Colorblind proxe for two hours on campus, practiced listening and intercessory prayer, and did pocket proxes all over campus.

All of this was very helpful for the local staff, who is doing follow-up and a gathering event as a result of the outreach. The JBU professor said, “I’ve been waiting 10 years to do something like this, we’ve just never had anyone to partner with.” What a great first step of partnership!

As a former InterVarsity staff in Northwest Arkansas, it is so exciting to see God on the move there. Praise God with me!

God’s movement in Arkansas

April 18, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

God is up to something through InterVarsity at the University of Arkanas.

I was blessed in the late 90’s and early 2000’s to work alongside Kevin Smith with InterVarsity at the University of Arkansas. Several years after Camilla and I moved to St Louis, Kevin took over the leadership of ISCA and the work of InterVarsity grew dormant.

In 2015 Christina and Jacob Foor sensed a call to go to Arkansas and revive the work there. They are now reaching over 75 students from 13 countries on campus, in addition to planting work on two other area campuses.

It is such a blessing to see God growing new seeds that have been planted and to see old seeds we scattered now growing as they are being watered. Praise God!

Following God across boundaries

March 5, 2019 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

God can use a few conversations to change the course of a semester and beyond.

At Urbana 18, Susan, an InterVarsity student from the U.S., talked with our Study Abroad and InterVarsity Link teams about her upcoming semester abroad in Latin America.

She received our guide to prepare her for the semester, signed up for a digital small group, got Bible study training, and connected with the leaders of the IFES movement where she was going who invited her to their week long student camp.

When our staff followed up with her after Urbana, she shared about going to the local student camp where she met lots of excited Christian students who are now her friends back in the city where she is studying. She also started a Bible study on Hebrews at her school where there is not an IFES student group, yet, and is being discipled by a local staff.

Praise God for his divine timing and invitation for Susan to partner with Him in mission. Please pray that she would thrive spiritually and that a group would be established at her university in Latin America and in the U.S. as she goes back at the end of the semester.