November 2015
To Our Faithful Partners,
Thank you for your prayers! Yale has been in the news lately. A lot. When Christian Union’s Yale Faith and Action began planning the Veritas Forum a year ago with other ministries on campus, we could not have imagined just how timely or relevant the topic would be to our campus. But God knew, and God provided a needed Christian voice to speak into an otherwise secular movement.
In one sense, race and the oppression of minorities at Yale has been the dominant topic of conversation on campus in the past month. At the same time, the reality of pain, violence and mourning all over the world has put the issues on campus into the perspective of a world plagued by brokenness and sorrow. Our world is in need of a Savior. As we approach this Advent season, we know it full well.
The Veritas Forum, which Yale Faith and Action co-sponsored this year, was a conversation about racial injustice and the law. Thank you for praying! It was a wonderful evening of hearing the gospel and how it comes to bear on the social issues of our day. The gospel was conveyed clearly and faithfully, and shown to be fully relevant to conversation on campus. Two nights later, after a night of worship with all of the campus ministries at Yale, nearly 50 Christians from the various ministries met to discuss their experiences and observations, and ultimately, to commission a response to recent events on campus on behalf of the entire Christian community.
Around the conference room table of the Pennington Center, Christian Union's ministry center here at Yale, students from every undergraduate Christian ministry at Yale worked night after night for two weeks. They crafted a statement to the Yale community on human dignity, the need for a Savior, and the hope of the gospel's transformative power to redeem this evil and hurting world. If you would like to read it, you can find it at www.loveforyale.com. Students have wrestled in prayer and in conversation about the role of Christian faith on issues such as justice, free speech and community. Prayer meetings have convened all over campus as students have sought the Lord with greater fervor.
Yet, the work has only just begun.
As students have become more exhausted and overwhelmed by the demands of the end of the semester, please pray that Christian students would boldly and courageously show the campus what it means to live in a way that promotes a respectful and loving campus community. The need for a change in student culture is particularly apparent. Pray that Christian students would show the campus what it means to honor the dignity and image of God in each and every person they meet. On a campus that often sees Christian faith as a religion of oppression and bigotry, please pray that Christian students would show that the way of Jesus is the only way to lasting peace. And finally, as we enter this Advent season, pray that every student at Yale who suffers loneliness and despair would find Christ to be our loving brother who has identified with us and our great Savior who has come to rescue us.
Carried by your prayers,
Jane Hendrickson
Christian Union Ministry Fellow
Yale University
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Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Yale, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
