July 2018

Dear friends of Christian Union at Cornell,

Summer casts students far and wide, while a handful remain on campus to conduct research or fill in a class or two. Irrespective of their specific job or responsibility this summer, we’re thankful that they belong to Christ and that he holds them fast.

Since my last newsletter, many of our students have gathered weekly via video chat specifically to pray that Cornell would awaken to Jesus, our Christian Union fellowship would widen and deepen, and that the Christian ministries on campus would display even greater unity in the year ahead. I’m especially happy that many of our rising sophomores are taking part in this prayer time and in other areas of leadership. Their involvement is an indication of God’s kindness and provision.

Our student executive leadership team also meets weekly to pray and plan outreach to freshmen during the opening weeks of the school year. These discussions have been immensely fruitful, which testifies to our Lord’s grace working through our thoughtful and mature student leaders. Would you pray that our planning of pre-retreat - two and a half days of worship, prayer, and planning for the opening weeks of the academic year - would continue to go well? We expect about 30 returning students to come to pre-retreat in mid-August. I’ll provide more details in my next newsletter.

About 30 of our returning students have been working hard to make personal contact with incoming freshmen in order to be a personal Christian connection point for them. Please pray for one specific outcome: meaningful connections with incoming freshmen who will want to check out our fellowship in September. We especially want to connect with believers who would want to be involved in a fellowship such as ours, but we would of course be very glad to develop relationships with seekers whom the Lord might be drawing into relationship with Him through a close-knit group like ours.

We also want to remember our recent graduates. Would you continue to pray that they would find local church fellowship and deep friendships in their present communities? Some are in places familiar to them, some have ventured to new cities, but all of them need the Lord’s presence and people. The pressure to make a name for oneself early in one’s career can be powerful and needs to be countervailed by a joy-filled desire to promote the name of Christ.

Since my last letter, we on staff - Carrie, Hannah, Jim and Liz, and I - have enjoyed restful vacations. We’re grateful for your prayers in that regard, and pray that you, too, have found both physical and spiritual rest in Christ.

Until next time,

Geoff Sackett
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Cornell 

Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Cornell, please email prayer@christianunion.org.