It is with a heavy heart that I write to you this afternoon.
Facing difficult COVID-related financial shortfalls from donors unable to sustain their normal giving this upcoming year, CU made the difficult decision to lay off over 30 people across our organization last month. This has affected every campus where CU ministers, including Yale. Therefore, we are saying goodbye to Jane Hendrickson and Michael Racine right on the cusp of what was already shaping up to be a challenging semester for ministry. As I have expressed to our CU Lux community, these 2 servant-leaders have glorified God so well in their work. Jane, a 6-year veteran has been a highly-competent, faithful, loving, servant-hearted leader helping this ministry continue on true to its mission over many, many seasons. She has gone above and beyond to serve each of our individual students, the ministry at Yale, and the broader CU organization. Michael, with 3 years on our team, has brought academic excellence, theological depth, and a compassionate heart to our campus and organization. He as inculcated in others a real heart for seeking God with his well-measured and God-centered words in teaching and everyday conversation. Blessings to you, Michael, as you transition to another role in Christian Union.
We are in Week 4 of the summer term, albeit virtually.
Hey friends,
I hope this update finds you well, especially amidst a summer that no-one could have expected. Thankfully, ministry at Harvard has continued to take place over the summer, primarily through the summer Bible study of the book of Proverbs. These words from Proverbs 7 remind us of the central importance of the Word of God in our lives. The exhortation here is that as we treasure God’s words in our heart, then we can truly live. God’s desire for us is that we experience the abundant life he has for us, one full of joy, peace and contentment in Christ. That is also our prayer for our students during this season, as many of them will be studying remotely, taking a gap-year, or coming back to a completely different campus.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This past month I have been reading the book of Proverbs in the mornings. God has been using the wisdom of this book to strengthen and encourage me in this time. The central conviction of the book of Proverbs is that the thing we need most is the fear of the Lord. Elsewhere in Scripture we see commands to fear God, but also characters who embodied, albeit imperfectly, this fear of God—people like Daniel and Esther who feared God and followed him in the midst of crisis and at great personal costs.
Grace and peace from Palo Alto!
Usually, during the summer weeks, we pivot a bit from our regular Bible courses to do something different. This summer several CU students—including some incoming freshmen—are meeting on Tuesday nights via Zoom to read through and discuss the book of Genesis. Recently while covering chapter 18, we read about Abraham’s persistent intercession on behalf of Sodom before God:
The One Who Is, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loyalty and faithfulness, maintaining loyalty for a thousand generations, bearing iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will not leave them unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on their children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation. —Exodus 34:6–7
This spring and summer, many Americans have been made increasingly aware of the reality that, whether we like it or not, the iniquity of past generations does weigh on us. To be sure, there's much more we have yet to attend to—both in terms of disarming the spiritual and cultural forces that militate against true racial reconciliation, and in terms of the many other sins that have been allowed to fester for too long. And yet, we thank our God, who is, and was, and is to come, for His unfailing covenant loyalty and faithfulness.
It is finally summer here in Hanover. The spring term concluded on June 10th and commencement took place (virtually) on the 14th.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Thank you, as always, for your prayers for our ministry! With the summer having begun, our staff will be spending the next two months completing intensive training, praying and planning for the coming school year, and taking some much-needed vacation time. We are looking forward to the year ahead and the many things we expect God will do in us and in the lives of students.
Greetings from Palo Alto!
My wife, Kate, and I have a habit of listening through books of the Bible, one chapter per night, as part of our evening routine. A few nights ago we came across one of the most astonishing parts in Joshua:
Dear Prayer Partners,
Our family just moved across town. To be sure, moving is a result of the fall (Adam and Eve had to move out of the Garden), and my back attests to that spiritual reality. However, there is something good about moving to a new(ish) home. Besides being bigger and cheaper, there is the clean house, the opportunities to purge (a lot of) unneeded stuff, and the new perspective that our new lodgings affords us.
“We will not neglect the house of our God.” Nehemiah 10:39
After returning from exile in Babylon, Ezra and the priests gather the Israelites together in a great corporate assembly to renew their covenant with God. In his prayer, Ezra carefully pronounces how each offering, tithe, and “first fruit” of dough, oil, wine, etc. is to be brought accordingly into the house of God. As Ezra prays summarizing the Levitical instructions the Israelites have had for years, his recasting is so clear that you can practically “see” the disorder of their sinful ways atrophying and the good, pleasing order of flourishing provision, celebration, and thankfulness materializing before their eyes.
So I was out running the other day when a teenager rode up on a bike, stopped in front of me, and blurted out, “Do you know you look like Harrison Ford?”. I was surprised, to say the least, but am also realistic enough to suspect he was thinking Harrison Ford circa “Call of the Wild”, rather than “Indiana Jones”. I found myself gratified to be recognized (sort of), but I knew it wasn’t so. I reflected later that the incident reminded me of that deep desire to be noticed and to be of consequence at some level.
June 7, 2020
Christian Union Vita (Cornell University) enjoyed connecting with alumni at 2:00 PM EST for a virtual reunion. Christian Union Vita invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event.
Learn More
For questions about how to get involved as an alumni or Christian Union Vita on campus, contact Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
May 31, 2020
Christian Union Nova invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We enjoyed a time of connection and fellowship.
Get Involved
To learn more about how you can get involved, please send an email to Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
Unlike most colleges we are still in session and finishing Week 8.
Please pray for our seniors as their last few weeks as Dartmouth students draw to a close. We are saddened that we won't be able to properly say goodbye. Pray for them as they leave "campus," that they would be bold and faithful witnesses for Christ in their new communities.
(Psalm 46:1-2)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The semester has just concluded for our students—and what a semester it has been! As others have said, we are very excited to get back to more normal times rather than “unprecedented” ones. Though it has been an unusual semester for us, God has remained the same and has continued to be “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” as the Psalmist declares. What a joy it is to know God is constant, even when everything else appears to be in disarray.
