Category: Encourage Service (Page 5 of 10)

Will we live out God’s invitation to be a Faithful Witness?

At Urbana18 through deep engagement with the book of Revelation, participants will be challenged by what it means to be a faithful witness in this generation.

Over this last month, our InterVarsity community has reflected on the lives of three faithful witnesses that walked amongst us: Gwen Wong, Jen Huerta Ball, Barbara Boyd (pictured above).

We have mourned the loss of each of these precious witnesses to Jesus and from their stories are compelled to give our whole lives to Jesus. Each one to the very end of their lives on earth embraced and proclaimed the love of Jesus.

They join the great cloud of witnesses that cheer us on to run our race with perseverance.

This week I preached at chapel on the way that faithful witnesses compel our faithful witness.  Please pray that God would strengthen our faithful witness and that many would say yes in this generation of students and faculty to be a faithful witness.

Over the last several weeks, I have been blessed to hear stories of God’s movement around the world through the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), the umbrella movement that InterVarsity/USA is a part of.

One story is about Dr. Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018. He is a graduate of InterVarsity’s sister movement in Burundi, where he did part of his medical studies. IFES General Secretary Daniel Bourdanné said of Dr. Mukwege: “He is a model to me of Christian engagement in society. He selflessly brings the character of God to these broken people.” Read more

Praise God for me for the world changers he is developing on campuses around the world!

Have you seen a world changer in the making? As an InterVarsity staff at Washington U I was privileged to be a small part of what God continues to do with Nicole, an alumni from 2007. Below is her story of God directing her to a space of influence and impact.

Moving back to Africa was never a decision I made, it was my plan from the day I left high school in Ghana for Washington U in St. Louis. I was going to become a doctor and work in Ghana, although at the time I thought of my future profession as just that, a job, with no real connection to a larger plan or a location-specific purpose. Over the years, God’s plan was increasingly revealed to me. At every step it I saw a new piece added to the picture and a clearer overall view of where God wanted to be.

With my father’s death, my nuclear family’s gradual return to our native Liberia, and my increasing exposure to the huge deficits in the Liberian health system; I developed an irrepressible longing to intervene in the system and to re-integrate into my family. I left Ghana in 2002 with a desire to return and continue a comfortable, carefree life and I had now felt compelled to move to the much less developed Liberia to participate in the gargantuan task of supervising and restructuring a residency program. Only God could have turned my heart in that direction and given me the audacity to believe that my mission was achievable.

Now, two and a half years after finishing residency, three years after having begun this journey to return to Liberia and only ninety days into my new career here, I can already see God’s hand working. Even in the wake of significant challenges, I am fulfilled and challenged every day in my new role and have never before felt such a sense of purpose. I know for sure that I am exactly where God wants me to be. It’s a feeling that I pray for everyone so that Eph 4:16 is fulfilled “16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”