Category: Draw Students (Page 9 of 13)

Last week, Cal Hsiao, InterVarsity Staff at Washington University, met with two students for a midnight prayer meeting near the clock tower in response to their concerns over the recent election. Five minutes later twenty more students arrived and they circled up to begin praying over the campus, the nation and the world. They held hands and cried out to God, confessing their fears, frustration and anger.

In the midst of the prayer time more and more students joined until there were too many to count from nearly every imaginable background. There were students in the circle who had never prayed or heard prayer before and as they left, Cal overheard some of them asking their friends about their faith. An atheist student told her this was the kind of movement and togetherness that America needs right now.

As Cal sees it, “In the midst of confusion and chaos God is working. He is using the fellowships and Christians on campus to love and witness to students in this time of uncertainty.”

While meeting new students at Lincoln University this fall InterVarsity staff Adam Leong jumped right in starting conversations about faith. Last week, he used InterVarsity’s Hope Campaign as a visual way to gain students’ attention and start conversations with passersby. D came up to the station and asked what it was. Adam walked him through it and got to know his story a bit. He’s a freshman who just moved to Mid-Missouri a little while back to live with his dad. He said his mom is a Christian, his dad is an atheist and he’s not really religious but if he had to choose something, he’d probably choose being a Christian since that was how he was brought up.  After hearing a bit more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, He said, “this makes total sense!” Adam invited him to make a decision right then to follow Jesus and he said “yes.” They prayed, chatted a little more, and he went on his way, a new believer. Adam and D will be meeting to discuss the book Deeply Rooted in Christ starting next week.  This is the first conversion at Lincoln University through InterVarsity. Praise Jesus for his faithfulness!

What would you do with $20,000?  A new initiative in the region last year gave staff the option of allocating 1% of their regional overhead contribution toward expanding ministry to every corner of campus.  This $20,000 was then used to encourage new ministries and resource staff in five key cross-cultural corners (Asian American, Black, International Student, Latino and Native ministry).  In just one year, this initiative saw the hiring five corners-focused staff, grants given that enabled events like a 45 student LaFe launch and two new groups started to reach Asian American and Karen students.  Who knows how God will use this initiative in the coming school year.

God is doing amazing things in the Central Region. It is one of the most fruitful seasons in the history of InterVarsity in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Praise God with me for his work and for each of the numbers in the graphic above that represents a student and groups of students saying yes to Jesus!