Pray for Harvard
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![Please pray for Christian Union's ministry at Harvard.](/images/content/photos/campuses/Harvard/AN2_8778.jpg)
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and Friends,
It is hard to believe that 2020, a truly eventful year with all its ups and downs, has finally come to an end. God has seen CU Gloria and our students through all the unexpected turns that met us this year like needing to shift early on in the spring semester to Zoom Bible courses and Zoom Doxas (our Leadership Lecture Series) and maintaining that momentum through the fall semester as well.
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and Friends of the Ministry,
We pray that you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are reminded of all of God’s good gifts in your life. The CU Gloria Team is grateful for your support and we are especially grateful for Jesus’ empty tomb! This fall we have been journeying through the Gospel of Mark with many Harvard students in our Bible courses. Mark’s gospel ends with the incredible announcement and proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus, which is our hope. It is this gospel of the living Christ we proclaim that motivates us as we continue to love, serve, counsel, coach, and teach our students God’s word.
One huge praise is that Ministry Fellow Tyler Parker has led yet another student, a golfer, to Christ in mid-November. Hallelujah! CU Gloria also celebrates finishing the Gospel of Mark together in our Bible courses as well as the Sky-prayer gatherings which have been happening weekly under the faithful leadership of the Seeking God Ministry Team. CU Gloria was also really blessed to host some great Doxas this fall, under the incredible leadership of the Doxa Ministry Team, you can watch some of the videos of our speakers here.
The week before Thanksgiving the CU Gloria Team was able to meet with freshmen to say goodbye outside Peet’s Coffee in Harvard Square. While everyone was socially distant and masked, it was still a wonderful time of connecting with students. Most of the freshmen are back home now for the semester and will not be returning to campus for another 9-10 months. Please pray for the challenges many of them will be facing at home and with having to do online classes. It is a challenging season for all our students and your prayers for their spiritual, mental, and emotional wellbeing are coveted.
Thanks to your generosity many students continue to be ministered to regularly, and especially for the ones who have come to Christ this year, their lives will never be the same. Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and investment in what God is doing at Harvard.
Pray with us for the following:
- That God would bless and work through the co-ed winter Bible study we will be starting during Winter Break.
- That the students would continue to stay plugged in and connected to Christian community, especially during the prolonged time of separation.
- That students would be intentionally seeking God during winter break and advancing spiritually.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
The CU Gloria Faculty
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.
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and other friends of the ministry,
Cambridge has now officially seen its first snow of the season and Harvard’s campus is currently coated in white. The Fall season was beautiful but short, much like the Fall semester. Freshmen along with the few upperclassmen on campus will be vacating their dorms and going home just before Thanksgiving. As the month of November begins there will doubtless be a growing emphasis on thanksgiving, as there always ought to be, towards our good God and Father, who is the giver of every good gift. At CU Gloria we are most grateful for your support, prayers, and partnership in the gospel as we continue to minister to our students at Harvard.
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and other friends of the ministry,
Thank you for all the love, prayers, and support as the fall semester is now beginning to be in full swing. Bible courses have settled in their new rhythms, mostly on weeknights, studying the gospel of Mark, completely over Zoom. The earliest and shortest gospel has so much to teach us about Jesus, and our team is excited to be mining the riches therein and to be guiding our students in its ancient paths.
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and other friends of the ministry,
It is a new season and the weather is getting cooler and cooler as the fall is beginning to engulf New England. First year students are all moved in on Harvard’s campus, which looks very different from the campus freshmen have been arriving to for years. The students are quarantining for their first week, and following that, they will be adhering to strict guidelines within the Harvard bubble. Needless to say, what these new students are facing is unique, and our prayers for them to find community, thrive, and adjust to this new reality are all the more important.
Hey friends,
I hope this update finds you well, especially amidst a summer that no-one could have expected. Thankfully, ministry at Harvard has continued to take place over the summer, primarily through the summer Bible study of the book of Proverbs. These words from Proverbs 7 remind us of the central importance of the Word of God in our lives. The exhortation here is that as we treasure God’s words in our heart, then we can truly live. God’s desire for us is that we experience the abundant life he has for us, one full of joy, peace and contentment in Christ. That is also our prayer for our students during this season, as many of them will be studying remotely, taking a gap-year, or coming back to a completely different campus.
— Romans 8:22-27
Greetings from Cambridge!
At a time when our individual and collective fate could not be more uncertain, our good instinct is to pray, but this is only half of the battle. What should we even pray for? Most of us have more questions than we have answers. When a pea soup fog descends, even familiar streets may fail us. Enter the eighth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans. The verses quoted above are stunning. If the best prayer we can muster in our weakness is a groan of anguish, we might be content simply knowing that God hears us. But these verses say so much more. God not only hears our cries but he enters into our grief. No wonder Paul tells us in chapter 12 to “rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn”, thereby mirroring the Spirit’s response to us! Our faith-filled groan—akin to “Thy will be done”—is being answered accordingly because the Holy Spirit is already interceding on our behalf.
— James 4:13-15
Greetings from Cambridge!
Having logged some serious miles in life, my appreciation for James’s rather harsh warning has increased at a pace commensurate with the erosion of any illusion I have ever had of earthly security and self-sufficiency. When the calendar turns at the first of the year I no longer ask, “what do I need to work on?”—as if the question of resolutions doesn’t always haunt my life(!)— but instead I wonder, “what in the world will 2020 bring?” Then and now I am praying that we will be faithful, faith-filled and take Jesus up on his invitation to pray (John 15:7-11).
—Romans 5:1
Greetings from cold Cambridge!
We are about a third of the way through the semester and our students are looking forward to Spring break, which is just a couple of weeks away. This week in our Romans study with the Juniors and Sophomores we were in chapter 5. What a wonderful reminder to all of us of the reality of our new standing before God. We have been justified by faith. We were made right with God by trusting in Jesus. And as a result, we can now have peace with God. A peace that cannot be quenched or conquered by anything life throws our way.
Greetings from Cambridge!
As I was recently reading Nehemiah, I was struck by how single-minded and focused he was on the task the Lord had called him to do, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah chapter 6 some of his opponents try to distract him away from his mission, but his response is quite remarkable: “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” There was no taking Nehemiah away from what God had called him to do.