2019 brings a new year and a list of new resolutions. For CU New York it isn’t so much resolutions as our plans and initiatives for the year. We will, of course, continue our salons and forums that explore various aspects and implications of our faith in our vocations and the broader city. Additionally, there are other activities coming that will serve to build the kind of redemptive engagement we seek.
Greetings from Dartmouth!
January has kicked off to be a great month so far. We have launched our winter term Bible Courses and are underway with all of our scheduled winter events. We just got back from our annual winter conference, which tends to be the highlighted Christian Union event of the year for most students. It’s a great time to retreat away from campus to enjoy time with one another, worshipping the Lord with open bibles and open hearts. We had several great times of prayer and discussion on the conference’s theme of Friendship. The students thought about what genuine forgiveness looks like in friendships as well as how to think about the significance of Jesus calling us his friends and how we extend that love to others. The students were both challenged and encouraged by this weekend. It was moving to see several students pursue reconciliation with friends they have turned aside and hear of healing in relationships because of this weekend away. Please join us in prayer as the students return back to their normal routines. It is my prayer that the effects of this conference continue to be vibrant all term long.
It feels like the new year has sprung upon us all too quickly, with students already returning to campus over the past few days and continuing into this weekend. While it has been mostly quiet, God has certainly been at work. Over Winter break many of our students were reading ‘Making Sense of God’ by Tim Keller, which we gave out at the end of last semester at our book giveaway outreach event. A group of our students even met over video chat during the break to discuss the book. In addition, our Seeking God ministry team lead “SkyPrayer Calls” during the break, where students were gathered virtually for times of devotion and prayer. We praise God for the stirring of his Spirit in our midst and for the initiative in prayer seen in our students and our student leaders.
I’m a Patriots fan. (Insert reaction here.)
All kidding aside. I love watching Patriots football, not only because of blind loyalty to the home team, but more so because I find it fascinating that when (and if) we win, the credit goes to the whole team, and not one player. My opinion is that the success of any organization is largely based upon the quality of the vision and the quality of the TEAM executing that vision.
Praise God! Our students have returned safely to campus after Winter Break and our Bible Courses have had an excellent start. We currently have 13 Bible Courses meeting, with the possibility of adding an additional course for those who are serving in Penn’s Gospel choir. We are thankful that God’s Spirit is moving among the students, bringing a sense of unity and hunger for God’s Word. Please pray that our students would have an increasing affection for Jesus and would translate that passion for Christ’s glory to tangible action on Penn’s campus.
I am writing to you on a cold January day here in Princeton. The students here are just finishing their exams, which they have been completing, along with final papers, over the last three weeks. In this letter, I want to update you on the ministry that has been happening here, as well as alert you to several specific ways you can pray for us.
Dear Prayer Partners,
Blessings to you in the name of Jesus! Thanks for praying for us regularly. I’ll maintain that our primary strategy in ministry here is what Paul spells out as the “communications equipment” of God’s armor, saying in Ephesians 1:18 “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”.
Greetings from Palo Alto!
“Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Hebrews 13:9).
Students in our Bible courses meditated on this verse recently as we concluded our Bible course on the book of Hebrews. The author’s teaching certainly includes the temple sacrifices which, after the sacrifice of Christ, had become obsolete.
We’ve finished another semester here at Brown University. Students are finishing up final exams and heading home to be with family during the holidays. Just this last week, we celebrated the end of our semester studying Hebrews with a large, family-style dinner at the Judson Center (the ministry center here at Brown University) with students from our Bible Courses. The Judson Center was abuzz with chatter and laughter as we sat around the large dining room table enjoying one another and the God that has so graciously provided for us over the course of the semester, in these Bible Courses and so much more. It struck me, as we sat there eating and talking, how necessary it is to have Christian Union ministries at these universities. It is because of the love and generosity of so many folks, including you, that these students have a place to belong, a community in which to study God’s Word, to pray, and to witness to the larger Brown community. So, thank you for being a part of what God is doing here at Brown in transforming students’ lives for the sake of Christ’s name!
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.
It is hard to believe that this semester is at an end. Our students are finishing up their last finals this weekend, and many have already made their trips back home. This last month was a busy one with a number of important events happening. The annual Christmas party we hosted after the end of classes was a great time of fun and fellowship for our students. The following day, we hosted Grill Me for Grilled Cheese. Students were invited to text in their questions about Christianity and in return would receive a free grilled cheese. We had around 350 students text in questions, and had a number of volunteers help to answer those questions. Students reported several encouraging conversations they had with unbelieving students, as well as some Christian students not connected with Christian Union.
Merry Christmas! Since childhood, this has been a season I’ve looked forward to – the gatherings, anticipation, cookies, and yes, hopefully presents under the tree. Advent is actually that period of anticipation for the main event, the celebration of the birth of Christ. In recent years, I’ve begun to wonder why a sense and discipline of anticipation is important – for celebrations like Christmas, Easter, marriage, the birth of a child. For children it makes sense - children are, by their very nature, impatient and full of hopes – which is expressed in anticipation.
Happy Advent and a Merry Christmas from Hanover!
The students are enjoying their hard earned winterim while the Christian Union team at Dartmouth prepares for a new term in the New Year. We are sad to say goodbye to Julia and Chase Carlisle as the Lord has called them to Texas. This means we are looking for new candidates to fill two Ministry Fellow positions. Please be praying that the Lord brings to us the right people to minister to the Dartmouth students. He knows who they will be and so we are trusting Him and waiting patiently with expectation.
As we remember the birth of Jesus and celebrate the breathtaking global impact of the incarnation, I’ve been thinking of the extraordinary lengths that God went to so that we may know. John includes a remarkable number of things that we know in the end of his first letter; none more important than verse 20 (italics mine):
One of the most frustrating things in life is to invest an exorbitant amount of resources—time, talents, and sometimes treasures—towards something, to only see questionable ROI’s - RETURN ON INVESTMENTS. It’s painfully awkward when it’s someone else’s resources, but when it’s our own, it’s just painful. My wife, Melissa, will commonly say, “Well, that’s a part of my life I won’t get back!?” Ouch.
Merry Christmas! Classes have ended and finals have commenced at the University of Pennsylvania. Our students are dealing with the stress of finals, but also the anticipation of an extended break.
I am writing to you from a small café on Princeton’s campus where many of our ministry fellows meet with students. It is not uncommon to see a ministry fellow at a table with a student, often with a Bible open, in this spot. This is one aspect of our ministry that your prayers and financial support enables—regular one-on-one discipleship of students. I personally just finished meeting with a student, studying the book of 1 Samuel together. In part, due to these meetings, this student has gone from having deep doubts about the Christian faith to becoming a Christian leader on campus. This has been extremely encouraging. Thank you for your partnership which allows for this kind of one-on-one discipleship to happen!
Pray that our students rest well over the break: that they sleep well, spend quality time with family and friends, exercise their bodies and have fun—those things we all know to do, and which can be difficult to keep in the balance with busy lives, especially for young and ambitious students—and that they will seek God’s face diligently. It’s all too easy, when the structure of a regular routine is interrupted for a few weeks, to lose the momentum of positive habits that we’ve built up. Pray that our students will use the break not to sit around aimlessly, but to increase the time and energy they devote to prayer and reading the Scriptures.
And let us all—students, Christian Union faculty, and you, our partners in prayer—give thanks for the abundance of good work God has done in our midst this semester. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies…” (Ps 119:2). We’ve seen a deepening of fellowship and unity in our community; we’ve welcomed in a wonderfully eager and engaged freshman class, who continue to bring in new friends even at semester’s end; and we’ve seen movement along every stage of the discipleship spectrum, from the un-churched exploring and discovering the gospel for the first time to established believers deepening their faith and growing in knowledge and love. God has been good, as He is and always will be, and He is worthy of our thanks and praise.
To you also, whose prayers are precious to God and a help to us, my co-workers and I extend our sincere gratitude. May the Lord bless you and keep you in Christ Jesus, until he comes again in glory to reign forever and ever.
Michael Racine
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Yale
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.
As I write this, our students are in the final stretch of their fall quarter, laboring over exams and papers, counting the minutes until they can walk away from all of it for a few weeks. For busy students (as well as the rest of us) exerting so much energy and focus on finishing the task during this time of year can certainly take them out of the season of Advent—a season of expectation, waiting, and reflection. In light of this, how refreshing it was recently when one of our students led a prayer time on campus using the words of a great old Christmas hymn to focus our devotion and prayer:
It’s hard to believe, but we’re nearing the end of the semester here at Brown University. Our Christian Union community has had a full past couple of months digging into the book of Hebrews through Bible Courses, gathering together weekly for our large-group Leadership Lecture Series (“The Anchor”), serving students on campus and the larger Providence community, a Fall Retreat back in October, and currently a week of fasting and prayer, culminating in a large Thanksgiving feast on November 17th. With all this and so much more, it’s been a fun, spiritually nourishing, and busy semester so far!
