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Twelve months ago, R, an Indian-American student, decided to start following Jesus at InterVarsity’s Urbana missions conference. As he began his semester at KU this fall, R saw the hundreds of South Asian students all around him. They were like sheep without a shepherd—and hardly anyone was reaching out to them. R started wondering how he could be their shepherd and bring the gospel to them. Fighting his internal fears and hesitations, R decided to start a weekly discussion group called “Faith and Chai” where South Asian students could talk about faith and spirituality.

Thanks to his faithfulness and persistent inviting, that group has officially launched! Every week, there are about 10 South Asian students gathering together, from undergrad students all the way up to PhD candidates, all wanting to talk about faith questions!   R is now praying that the Lord would grant him an apprentice, someone whom he could train up to be a leader for this group in the future.

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.”