Encourage Service to God’s Purposes in the World
Last week our Regional Leadership Team gathered to discern the direction for this next student generation.
As we met, we encountered the presence of God. It was a blessing to collaborate with this amazing group of leaders through deep discussion, prayer, tears, and laughter.
Over the next weeks I will share about the direction for this next season. Would you pray for us as we lead our team into what God has for us?
Eleven years ago, InterVarsity staff Adam Leong had a vision to see the first InterVarsity chapter at the University of Missouri in Columbia born. Now, over a decade later, the group he planted there is thriving and other chapters in Mid-Missouri at Mizzou, Columbia College and Lincoln University have followed.
Adam and his wife, Megan, who transferred in 2013 from St Louis to work with international students at Mizzou, have tirelessly overseen the growth of the Mid-Missouri team which now includes three additional staff.
This month, Adam and Megan move to Omaha, Nebraska to start new roles with InterVarsity. Adam says “It’s hard to not see Mid-Missouri as ‘my baby’ but I’m confident that Jesus will show up in a big way and that it will grow beyond where I could have taken it.”
Please pray for the continued growth of the work in Mid-Missouri and for Adam and Megan’s transition to Omaha.
Ten years ago our region was first launching the 2020 Vision and many of us wondered, “Is it really harvest time in the Central Region?”
Two weeks ago we celebrated as a region (team pictured above) reaching what seemed like impossible goals – 500 cells, 50 chapters, and 1 overseas student movement. Truly it has been an extended harvest season in our region and goals that seemed unreachable by 2020, God brought to pass by 2017.
We spent time remembering and thanking God together. Then we continued a process of discerning what God has next for our region. At our meetings we clarified our list of potential hoped for outcomes for this next student generation. Our regional leadership team will finalize these in mid-January. Would you pray for God’s continued direction?
It is easy to get so focused on what is right in front of us that we miss what God is doing all around us.
At our Regional staff conference we ‘lifted our gaze’, prayed over the 187 campuses in our region (symbolized by the cups in photo), and asked the Lord of the Harvest to send workers to the harvest field and to grow our burden for every campus in our territory.
Would you join us in praying for the campuses in the Central Region?
This week 50 staff from our region are gathering to celebrate the completion of the 2020 Vision and continue to define the next season of work in the Central Region. Please pray for us!
This weekend we are inviting 30 potential staff candidates to consider joining our missionary familia. Please pray for our time and consider if there are others you know (maybe yourself) who could join us.
View our perspective staff handbook below or at this site.
Get a glimpse of the fruit God is bringing through InterVarsity nationally through our annual report.
Praise God with us for his movement on college and universities around the United States!
InterVarsity’s 2016-2017 Annual Report
Despite some wet weather, IV staff Kristen Carr had a great time welcoming new international students to the University of Kansas over the past two weeks. Their group was able to host campus tours and a furniture giveaway which gave them a chance to meet and care for these new students.
As international and American students flock to campuses in the next few weeks, join us in praying for good connections and friendships to be built at colleges and universities throughout the region. This Saturday is St Louis’ massive international furniture giveaway and many more exciting events are planned this month to meet some of the thousands of new students in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri.
On Friday white supremacists marched on the campus of University of Virginia. As a friend put it “Racial sin doesn’t need to be unmasked. It no longer has any shame. Just fear and hate. Praying for them and against them. Lord have mercy.”
Please pray for faculty, students, and staff as they continue preparations to welcome new students at UVA. Here is an open letter from Black alumni of UVA. It speaks to the experience of many students of color with experiences of racism on campus.
Our staff community is speaking out against the seeds of hate spread this past week.
Pray for our staff to demonstrate and speak about the Kingdom of God on our campuses and the Shalom that God and his kingdom offers.
Some students come to the U.S. to study with nothing more than a suitcase. For eleven years, InterVarsity at Washington University in St Louis has partnered with other ministries to host a furniture giveaway on campus. This event has grown through the years and now welcomes over 300 students each fall.
Donated furniture is raffled off to new international students and all receive a free house ware item and lunch. Most importantly, relationships are built between Christians and the new students as they experience a glimpse of God’s hospitable heart during their first few weeks in America.
This year, the Furniture Giveaway will be held on Saturday, August 19th. If you live in the St Louis area and would like to be a part of this event, you can sign up to volunteer or bring a lunch dish. Even if you can’t make the day of the Giveaway, you can still participate by donating furniture or money to help cover food and other expenses.
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