Dear friends and family of HCFA,
First, my name is Tyler Parker and I'm the Harvard College Faith & Action (HCFA) intern for this year! Some of you may know that Anne Kerhoulas usually writes these messages, but this month, we're trying out a little bit of a fresh perspective on things. As an HCFA alum, I'm truly honored and excited to be serving the organization that transformed my college experience and gave me my first true experience of spiritual family. With that said, here is the update for the month of October:
The calendars report the fall season to be upon us, but the continued presence of the colorful lounge chairs in the Yard and the chipper attitudes of our Southern students reflect the persistence of sunny, breezy days in Harvard Square.
It has been quite a month! The Spirit of the Lord has been both wondrously faithful and brilliantly alive in our community. At the end of September, our students packed into buses and headed into Western Massachusetts for our annual Fall Retreat. This year, the students named the retreat "Up and Out" to emphasize our commitment to looking up to God to receive inspiration, joy, and a filling of the Spirit so that we can empty ourselves out onto our campus in love, service, and gospel. Fady Ghobrial, one of our ministry fellows here, gave a truly enlightening talk on the person of the Holy Spirit that kept students in vibrant, spirited (pun intended) conversation deep into the night. Students experienced the joyous wonder of Christian community through freestyle rap battles, soccer games, and volleyball matches with Don and Jon. And to top off the weekend, our student executive board led a night of worship and prayer that led to three new students giving their lives to the Lord!
Please pray that God would sustain the faith of these students, that He would deepen their knowledge of his ways, and that He would embolden them to speak their testimonies to their unsaved friends who still haven't met the Father.
On the last day of Fall Retreat, our Outreach Team leaders Joanna and Jackson challenged their brothers and sisters to participate in HCFA's first ever Mission Week, a week of living out God's mission through evangelism and acts of kindness. The culmination of the week was one of the most well-attended DOXAs of the semester, with nearly 150 students present to hear a Gospel presentation from Gordon Conwell professor Jim Singleton. Please pray that God would continue to embolden our students to develop an even deeper and persistent culture of evangelism so that their classmates and professors might come to know Christ.
In the coming weeks, our students will be programming weeklong series of faith-based events to coincide with Harvard Sex Week, and we'll also be engaging DOXA speakers on topics such as abortion, race, poverty, filmmaking, and other points of social and cultural engagement. Please pray that God's voice would speak directly to our students in these events and that God would also speak to their nonbeliever friends who are searching for answers to questions that can only be answered through Christ.
Finally, please continue to pray that the Spirit of the Lord would sustain our staff as we continue to press on towards the mark of the high calling. We do tire sometimes, but we are sustained by God's mighty hand and the prayers of the saints.
May God bless you and keep you for your sacrifices of love towards this community, and may we continue to share this gift of salvation and mission for the sake of Kingdom Come on Harvard's campus!
In Christ,
Tyler Parker
Christian Union Intern
Harvard College Faith & Action
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Harvard, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
