Category: Engage People (Page 8 of 15)

Engage People of All Cultures and Ethnicities

Photo Credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales) Flickr via Compfight cc

Pray for University of Virginia

August 14, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

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.

2016-2017 National Impact

August 8, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Praise God with us for how He is working across the United States through InterVarsity/USA. Partner with us to see people from every corner of every campus have the opportunity to say yes to Jesus!

A Warm Welcome

July 17, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

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.

Photo Credit: mayanfamilies Flickr via Compfight cc

What am I missing?

July 17, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

School supplies being set out at your local store signals something in the InterVarsity world. Continue reading

Empower 2

July 10, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

Can students lead like staff? Continue reading

Ever Expanding

June 26, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

InterVarsity in the Cedar Valley of Iowa partners with the college ministries staff of two churches to reach out to their local campuses. One of their joint programs is a weekly large group called BASIC at the University of Northern Iowa.

Over the last few years some small group Bible Studies have begun happening at Wartburg, a private college in Waverly, IA, which is about 20 minutes from UNI. The students in these small groups drive to BASIC when they can and one of the college ministry staff has been going up to Wartburg to coach the student leaders once a month.

Recently, the first BASIC was hosted in Waverly. About thirty Wartburg students came for a free meal and time of worship. Some then stayed to begin praying and brainstorming about what ministry could look like at Wartburg. One student shared that she longed for the ministry at Wartburg to reach out to the diverse groups and communities on campus.

Please pray for the ministry happening at Wartburg and for the staff team as they discern what it might look like to invest more time, energy, and resources in Waverly.

Central region staff, students, faculty, and volunteers

Summit

June 23, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

What dreams has God placed in the heart of our community for the next season of ministry in the Central Region?

This month we did a three day offsite gathering to start the process of discerning just that. It was a wonderful time of considering what fruit of this season God was calling us to savor, which areas we needed to steward, and places he was inviting us to sow.

It was a blessing to be together as a familia and dream together about what is next. Please pray and join us in this year of waiting on the Lord for his direction for the Central Region.

Distant Relatives

June 19, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

The Central Region has an ongoing partnership with the work of SONOKO, a sister movement of InterVarsity/USA in Cambodia. Former Central Region staff, Steph Schmaltz, directs the growing movement there and recently shared about their end of the year training:

“Each May we combine both of our branches (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap) for a leadership training. Over my past five years in Cambodia I have seen this training grow tremendously. This year everything was led by our local staff. From worship, to Bible exposition, to seminar training they planned and executed it all! It was super encouraging to see and reassuring to know that our local staff are ready for more levels of responsibility.”

As a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, InterVarsity/USA is privileged to work alongside national movements that share the gospel with students around the globe. Whether it is sending staff to help those movements develop or having a chance to meet with groups while on service trips or studying overseas, this worldwide network of Christian students is truly an amazing family.

Meeting the Desamparados

June 12, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

A team of students and staff from the Kansas area recently arrived back from two weeks of fresh fruit, amazing coffee, and learning and working along side the missionaries of Students International in Costa Rica.

The team served in the community of the “desamparados”, or forgotten ones, outside the Capital city of San Jose. This is one of the poorer communities in the area, and many people fall into drug addictions. Students International provides services in the community such as tutoring, sports camps, trade classes, bible studies, and much more free of charge. By being a positive influence in the community, and meeting their physical needs, the missionaries there are able to encourage and equip the community members to make better life choices. It is also a powerful way to share the gospel, as people who have been helped with their physical needs are drawn into community and life in Jesus Christ.

God also used this trip to greatly impact the InterVarsity students and staff who participated. Confronted with culture shock, miscommunications and the frustrations of their own limitations, God was able to reveal His powerful love to those who had gone to serve. As one student reflected, “I can see now God is so much bigger than I had ever imagined. He cannot be contained in a box or defined by the ideas in my head.”

“I Can See the Uniqueness of Jesus”

May 22, 2017 / Howie Meloch / 0 Comments

“I can see Jesus, He is reaching out his hand to me. He wants me to give him my troubles and fear,” shared one student after last week’s International Getaway. “I really enjoyed the intellectual conversations on the scriptures. Through our studies I can see the uniqueness of Jesus; no other prophet is like Him. There is something different about Him and I want to read more about Him,” explained another.

60 international students from around the region gathered near the lake of the Ozarks, May 12-16th. While there, friendships were deepened and many met with God in His word for the first time. Six students also indicated that they wanted to begin following Jesus! Praise God for His harvest work during these five days as well as all the seeds planted for the future.