October 2023

Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and friends of the ministry,

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,  since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” - Colossians 1: 3-5

We are grateful to have had a good start to the semester for CU Gloria at Harvard. Our student leaders came back from Pre-Retreat inspired and motivated to welcome the new Freshman class of 2027, and that’s exactly what they did. Through pizza parties, hangouts, weekly Church visits, Friday night Doxas and movie nights, our students befriended the new class of freshmen and welcomed them into Christian community.

All the different Bible Courses that meet weekly have now launched and begun studying the book of Colossians together. This is such a rich little epistle and we are excited to be doing a deep dive into it over the next ten or so weeks. Our office space continues to be the central hub for all our activities; that includes the many Bible Courses happening every single night of the week, as well as groups of students studying and ministry team leaders meeting to plan different activities and events for their respective areas of ministry. On a campus increasingly hostile to our presence, we are really grateful to have this space for ministry.

Last weekend we had 34 students come to Fall Retreat and enjoy a powerful weekend of seeking the Lord together. It was a sweet weekend of fun, friendship, prayer and teaching. We were extra blessed to have been able to partner with our sister ministry, CU Vox from Dartmouth for this Fall Retreat. On Saturday night in particular as we were closing the session and getting ready for the scheduled late-night fun activities one of the worship leaders felt let to close with a song. One song led to another song, which led to prayer, which led to more ministry time filled with repentance, more prayer and more worship. This lasted for hours past when we had planned and we could all sense the presence of God’s Spirit there as we continued on in praise and worship.

Sadie Sasser, our newest Ministry Fellow, has hit the ground running after starting in late August. She has been a wonderful addition to the team, and our students have loved working with her. What an answer to prayer!

Please join us in praying for the following:

1. That the Lord will bless our weekly Bible studies, which meet every night of the week to study Colossians.
2. That God would use our time in His Word to help the students grow in their faith and walk with Him more closely.
3. That the Lord would provide for our current staffing needs. Like the Lord said in Matthew 9:37-38 “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Thank you for your prayers and support, which God is greatly using to grow the ministry impact at CU Gloria. We would be grateful if you are led to give a one-time or recurring donation at this secure link:

https://www.christianunion.org/cornerstone/gloria

Also, feel free to share this link with anyone in your life who may be interested in helping to make Christ known at Harvard.

Thank you, again, for your prayers to help develop and connect Christian leaders to transform culture for God’s glory! We couldn’t do this without you and your support!

God bless you,

Fady Ghobrial
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union Gloria