Pray for Columbia
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Midterms have begun, student schedules are packed and it’s still winter, but there is an excitement in the air with what God is doing at Columbia University through Christian Union Lumine. We are seeing higher turnout for our Leadership Lecture Series nights, impromptu prayer gatherings among the students and a feeling of community and togetherness even in the midst of all the transitions. Thank you for your continued prayers for the work on this campus. Here are ways you can be praying for us this month:
I pray that you are having a blessed start to the new year.
Christian Union at Columbia started 2020 with a new Ministry Director and some faculty transitions. The students recently returned from vacation after Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and we are truly excited for this upcoming semester.
We are thankful for the ministry of Lane and Michelle Young who moved back to the Midwest over the summer. Please join us in praying for a new Ministry Director for our Columbia team.
Greetings,
We’re in the final few weeks of what has been, a very productive semester. Earlier in April, we had Vince Vitale, a minister with RZIM, visit campus to make a compelling case for Christianity as a worldview. Vince showed how the Christian faith answers some of life's biggest questions surrounding origin, purpose, morality and destiny. We had both Christians and unbelievers in attendance, and Vince skillfully interacted with students, answering their concerns about Christianity. We received encouraging feedback from students about the event. One student in our ministry, currently wrestling heavily with doubt, remarked that the discussions over Vince's book and his event on campus helped make Christianity seem more believable.
We also have selected new student leaders for the upcoming academic year. We strongly believe that we have a new group of student leaders that are faithfully walking with Christ and are excited to serve Jesus and all of Columbia's campus. We thank God for the service of our leaders currently transitioning out of leadership, many of whom are seniors, getting ready to engage a new season of life after graduation.
Here’s how you can pray for us:
- Pray for students as they enter into the final stretch of the semester, and as they prepare for final exams
- Pray for our senior students as they near graduation and are feeling a wide range of emotions about what comes next
- Pray for our new student leaders as they prepare to lead next year
- Pray for staff as we prepare for the fall semester
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
Bryant Parsons
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Columbia
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Columbia, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
and all His ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is He.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Greetings,
We continue to give God praise for his work on Columbia’s campus through Christian Union. By His grace, we continue to minister faithfully in every way that He has called us. This semester,our major outreach initiative has been the book giveaway and discussions around Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale’s Jesus Among Secular Gods. The outreach culminates in Vince Vitale coming to speak at our Illumina. These book discussions have been aimed primarily at skeptics of the Christian faith. We held our first discussion a few weeks ago on the topic of Scientism. Non-Christians were in attendance, including a Buddhist student. Pray that these discussions would lead ultimately to conversions, and that Christians who attend may be strengthened in their faith.
The Spring semester is fully underway here at Columbia; and as our students prepare to endure midterm season, God continues to be faithful through our ministry to them. We’re thankful to God for the Spirit’s work in our Bible courses, Illumina meetings, and discipleship time with our students. The Spirit is indeed at work on Columbia’s campus. One of the ways we are seeing this is by a lifestyle of seeking God on display through daily prayer gatherings happening early morning. Morning prayer is an inter-fellowship gathering that is growing in number and fervency. Join us in asking God to bring significant change to Columbia through these students’ faithful pursuit of God.
I pray that you are having a blessed start to the new year. Much of the month of January was spent diligently planning for the rest of the year and identifying new student leaders for next year. Columbia students recently returned from vacation after Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and we are gearing up for another semester of fruitful ministry. Here are ways that you can be praying for us:
Our semester is coming to a close, and we thank God for all the ways we saw him move. This semester marked the opening of our ministry center and our community was invigorated because of the brand-new space. The center has been serving the needs of students in a variety of ways. For finals reading week, we implemented study hours for our students, and many students had an accommodating space to prepare for finals. Most of our Bible courses, many one on one discipleship meetings, and seeking God prayer hours have already been held in the two months that it has been open. We continue to be grateful for everything that went in to securing a center one block from campus.
