Watch this testimony from a student who attended the LaFe track at Corners 2018.
Category: Engage People (Page 6 of 15)
Engage People of All Cultures and Ethnicities
An exciting opportunity on college campuses are the chance for interfaith dialogue.
One staff in our region does an event called Peace Feast three times a semester where students look at texts from each other’s Holy Books. It gives students a new found appreciation for the Bible and the realization how central Jesus is in the Christian Faith.
Here is his report of the most recent one:
We looked at the birth and importance of Jesus with 11 Christians and 11 students of other faiths. The Peace Feast is a time where no evangelism is allowed and relationship building is central. We looked at the birth story from Luke and Surah 2 in the Qur’an. Many students were amazed hearing how Jesus is a sign from God, and we are called to obey what he says. A lot of new relationships were built so that more Bible discussions can occur in the future. One student exclaimed how interesting and in depth the Bible was. He loved the detail, and asked me to meet up more with him to look at the Bible.
Have you been in a meeting where you begin to expose areas for discussion that have not typically seen the light of day? Each track at Corners 2018 under the leadership of staff, volunteers, and students (pictured above) delved into these previously unexposed areas with the light of the good news of the Gospel through Ephesians 2.
We experienced a powerful time of confession, grace, and mobilizing our communities to ‘pursue peace together’ on campus.
By the numbers we saw at least:
- 6 First time decisions to follow Jesus
- 64 Recommitments to Jesus
- 53 Who want to start something new on campus
Please pray for the follow up from our time, particularly for the light of the Gospel to do it’s work in places of darkness; for discipleship for decisions and substantial recommitments; and for students to step out in faith to start something new.
This weekend over 300 students, staff, and volunteers will be joining us in Kansas City for Corners Conference 2018.
At this conference students will learn about God-centered ethnic identity and their call into mission. We are focusing on Ephesians 2 and our call to “Pursue Peace Together”. I am so grateful for the five tracks we have. They are focused on serving Asian, Black, Latino, White, and International students.
Please pray for us: for God’s protection over the weekend, that students would encounter God in life-transforming ways, and that the students would be mobilized to partner with God in the work of His kingdom.
If you would like to connect with our prayer team throughout the weekend, let me know.
Can you imagine the impact of a witnessing community on every corner of every campus in the U.S.? As an organization we are partnering with others to press forward to this reality.
One of the ways we empower students from every corner of the campus to reach every corner, is through our Corners Conference.
I am directing this conference and overseeing the track leaders pictured above.
Please pray for God to draw the right people, to show up in power, and to send students from every corner to every corner of the campus.
It is clear that we never have the full picture of what God is doing. A story from Cal, staff of the ACF chapter at Washington U, gives one example of this.
“One of my alum, Jennifer, just told me a story from two or three years ago. While we were on a Discipleship Roadtrip to connect with people at Missouri S&T, she met a international student from East Asia who had family in the Bay area. Since Jennifer is originally from the Bay they swapped contact info and haphazardly planned to meet up when they were both home.
Jennifer forgot about this interaction and finished her semester. When she gets home she randomly remembers this student exists and decides to text her. They grab coffee and chat and Jennifer invites her to church with her the next day. Jennifer thought she had never been to church before though she tells Jennifer she actually had been to that church before! She shares with Jennifer that her aunt’s family lives in the Bay and are strong Christians and have been praying for her family’s conversion for years.
Jennifer invites her to a church young adult event the next week and at the event the girl accepts Christ! What a random awesome story! Now Jennifer is going to go be a missionary in East Asia!! Crazy amazing stuff 🙂 Praise God for discipleship road trips and how He crafts stories that are waaaaay longer and cooler than I can even imagine.”
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!