Greetings from Christian Union Libertas! Thank you for continuing to pray for our students and our staff. Our students are in the midst of a very busy season, the home stretch before final exams begin. The weather has changed: the days are longer, the sun seems to shine brighter, and the temperatures are warmer. Students are using their breaks to hang out in the quad in socially distanced circles, of course! They continue to make use of the Judson Center for study, prayer, and personal discipleship meetings and we continue to meet on Zoom for Bible courses. Please pray:
There’s still snow on the ground here in Providence, but the days are getting a little longer and the temperatures creep higher with each passing day. Spring is right around the corner! During the month of February, CU Libertas has been busy welcoming freshmen to campus, hosting weekly Bible courses, and continuing the work of prayer and discipleship. God is up to big things and we have so much to be thankful for.
January has been a cold and snowy month here in Providence! Fortunately, students have returned to campus and the quiet, still winter days have been livened by the long-anticipated arrival of this year’s freshman class. CU Libertas has used the month of January to begin planning for the spring semester. We recall how good the Lord has been to the ministry over the years, and eagerly await the good works yet to come as students settle in and classes begin.
Your prayers continue to make a difference! Restrictions still remain relatively tight on campus, but smaller classes have begun meeting in person and staff eagerly hopes in-person Bible courses can begin meeting shortly. Until then, Zoom calls and socially distanced 1-on-1 meetings enable the ministry to make a difference in the lives of students who desire to seek the Lord with all their being.
This continues to be a most unusual year! Out of an abundance of caution, Brown decided to return students to campus in waves. Just recently, a second group of students moved back, while many more have chosen to study remotely this semester. In a normal year, we’d be sharing updates about our Leaders’ Retreat on the Cape, welcoming freshmen to dinners at the Judson Center, and giving away coffee on the Main Green. Nonetheless, we are thankful for those students who were able to return this semester and grateful for the technologies that enable us to move forward with online meetings!
We hope you’ve all had a wonderfully refreshing and blessed Thanksgiving! Here at Brown, the ministry has so much to be thankful for this semester. CU Libertas continues to see the Lord work in the hearts and minds of our students. Despite the difficulties we’ve all faced during this abnormal season, students are seeing the fruits of faith toughened by extenuating circumstances, they’re sharing the gospel in creative ways with family and friends, and they’re relying on one another through prayer and new expressions of communal bond.
I’m writing this on a snowy afternoon in late October! That’s not too out of the ordinary for us New Englanders, but an all-too-soon preview of the cold winter to come. CU Libertas gives thanks for all the Lord has done since students arrived on campus last month. Yet, the students and ministry faculty pray for even more! More hearts changed to desire Christ, more opportunities to share the gospel, more connections with interested students, and more normalcy in a semester that has been filled with everything but that. And as the weather turns cooler and cooler, we look forward to the unique opportunity of ministering to the Brown community during a rather abnormal holiday season.
This continues to be a most unusual start to the semester! Out of an abundance of caution, Brown decided to return students to campus in waves. Just recently, the second group of students moved back, while many more have chosen to study remotely this semester. In a normal year, you would be hearing updates about our Leaders’ Retreat on the Cape, welcoming freshmen to dinners at the Judson Center, and CU Libertas students giving away coffee on the Main Green. Nonetheless, the ministry is thankful for those students who were able to return this semester and grateful for the technologies that enable us to move forward with online meetings!
We are so grateful for your prayers in this unusual season. Typically we would be beginning to have coffee with freshmen at Thayer Street restaurants and setting up shop at a table in Ratty or V-Dub, for our regular discipleship meetings with students.
May 23, 2020
Thanks for joining Christian Union Libertas (Brown University) at 4:00 PM EST for the virtual reunion. Christian Union Libertas invited participants from all classes, all denominations, and all Christian ministries to this annual event. We loved connecting with Christian alumni and current students. Thanks for joining us!
Learn More
For questions about the Christian Union Libertas contact Christian Union's VP of Alumni Engagement Christine Foster: christine.foster@christianunion.org.
Greetings from Providence,
We are grateful for a restful and joyful summer. As a staff, we feel energized and look forward to welcoming new freshmen to campus in just a few short weeks. We are also excited to announce the addition of Benjamin Pascut, our new men’s ministry fellow, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team!
Please join our Christian Union at Brown community in praying for the following:
The spring semester is underway here at Brown University. Students have already made it through their first round of midterms as they work hard to prepare for the ones to come. I wanted to take a moment to highlight one story that has encouraged me during these beginning weeks of the semester.
All is quiet here on Brown’s campus. Students are still away for winter break but will soon return to begin the spring semester. Given the absence of students on campus, we don’t have much in the way of stories or updates, but would love if you would join us in praying for the following:
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!
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!
We’re well on our way into the fall semester here at Brown University. Lots of life and ministry have happened so far this semester – Bible courses, community gatherings, service opportunities with local non-profits, and so much more. One highlight from the past month was our annual Fall Retreat to Lakeside Christian Camp and Retreat Center in the beautiful Berkshires of Massachusetts, the weekend of October 5-7. This year’s theme was “Until We Find Our Rest in You,” a theme taken from St. Augustine that focused on exploring what it means to find rest in Jesus in the midst of the busyness of life. The retreat center was the perfect setting to slow down and consider the rest of Jesus in community. There was plenty of time for small-group discussion, apple picking, and even the occasional nap. In all, the short time away proved to be exceptionally restful, encouraging and helpful in solidifying our community as the year begins.
The fall semester has begun here at Brown University and we’re well into our Freshman Welcoming Campaign (our effort to love, serve and welcome freshmen into our community during the first four weeks of the semester). It’s been a flurry of events, conversations and the beginning of our normal rhythms of ministry. There’s so much I could share, but I wanted to briefly share one story.
Friends,
It’s the end of August, so you know what that means – students are getting ready to head back to campus! This is one of my favorite times of the year. Lots of energy on campus, excitement among the student body, and sense of God’s Spirit working in our midst. Please join us in prayer for the following as the semester begins:
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I pray your summer has been full of fun, rest and, most of all, Christ. Campus here at Brown has been quiet since graduation back on Memorial Day weekend. Outside of a few students who have remained in Providence for internships, research and/or work, the majority of our students are dispersed around the globe. Matt Woodard, Ministry Director of Christian Union at Brown University, Laurel Copp, Ministry Fellow, and I have been busy catching up on some professional development and preparing for the fall semester. Additionally, we have gathered the few remaining students for a study of the book of Revelation. Though we haven’t been able to gather as often as we had hoped, the times we’ve gotten together have been fun times of catching up and trying to wrap our minds and hearts around this crazy book of the Bible. We’d love your prayers as we meet a few more times between now and the beginning of August. Please pray that God would not only enlighten our minds but encourage our hearts and empower obedience as we finish up this final book of the Bible.
Friends,
It’s June and nearly all our students have left Brown’s campus, including our first-ever graduating class. As I’ve said in past prayer emails, this senior class that has just graduated was the first class of Brown students that Matt Woodard, Ministry Director, and I gathered together in the fall of 2014. In those first few months of their freshman year, these students trusted God with a vision of a community that was yet to be formed. They risked their time, energy and resources to gather friends for Bible Courses, retreats, campus outreach events and so much more. And you know what? God rewarded their faith. Over the course of their four years at Brown, God used these students to form a Christ-centered community on campus to help encourage Christian students while also witnessing to the hope of the gospel to the wider Brown community. If it weren’t for these students, these recently graduated seniors, and their love for Jesus and others, we definitely wouldn’t be the ministry we are today. Praise be to God for these young men and women that He so faithfully raised up for such a time as this!
