With Thanksgiving behind, the Christmas holidays ahead, and the semester coming to a close in a few weeks, we are grateful for the Lord’s hand that has guided CU Lumine this academic semester.
The month of November was a busy one for CU Lumine. Our weekly Thursday night Illumina’s created a space for students to grow in their faith and invite friends that were seeking God. We had speakers teach on a range of topics from “How to Hear the Voice of God” to “Is the Bible Historically and Scientifically Reliable?” Each lecture was followed by a post-event—a vibrant student question and conversation time that would go late into the evening. Along with our Illumina’s, we were also able to host multiple student fellowship gatherings from pumpkin painting to our annual Friendsgiving celebration before the students went home for the break.
This year, we opened up the Christian Union Center on Thanksgiving Day for a meal with the students who stayed back on campus. We had all the Thanksgiving fixings and it was a great reminder of what it means to be the family of God on this campus. As students shared what they were grateful for, one common theme was their gratitude for Christian Union. One student shared, “I am grateful for Christian Union and the Christian community I have because of CU. I honestly didn’t know what college life was going to look like, but it has been great to grow closer to God because of Christian Union and my friends here.”
Since Columbia has relaxed some of the in-person restrictions, our students were able to give leadership and participate in an Interfellowship Worship Night in mid-November. It was such a beautiful sight to see over a hundred students from multiple campus ministries worshipping Jesus at St. Paul’s Chapel.
As we begin wrapping up our Bible courses on the book of Philippians and students get ready for finals, would you join us in prayer for:
- Student body: Pray that the students will be able to manage their time well and give priority to studying God’s word and seeking His face in prayer. Pray that they would experience God’s peace as many are dealing with anxiety over exams. Pray that God would help them grow in Christian community with other friends and be encouraged in this season.
- Spiritual hunger and thirst: It’s easy to get distracted. Pray that the students would have a deep hunger for the things of God: prayer, worship, Christian community, reading scripture. Pray also that they would grow deeper with their Christian community.
- One-on-one discipleship: Pray for deep, meaningful conversations with students. Pray for those that are struggling in their faith and for those that seek to grow in their walk with God. Pray that God would use these one-on-one times to strengthen and grow individuals.
- Student leaders: Pray that God would give them strength and wisdom as they lead this ministry and take on new responsibilities this fall.
- Raising up new financial partners: we know that we can’t do this ministry without supporters like you. Join us in praying that God would bring new Christ-minded friends of this ministry to help rebuild CU Lumine at Columbia through their financial support.
- Revival on campus: a pandemic and lack of students on campus are not a deterrent for God to move in a mighty way. Pray that God would continue to open hearts to respond to His call of grace and bring about a mighty wave of peace, joy, and transformation so that when campus reopens, we would meet students on fire for Christ.
Thank you for your love and partnership with CU Lumine. I could not do this without your prayers and support.
Stan Thomas
Ministry Director
Christian Union Lumine
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.
