February 2018

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

I am writing you as we begin a new semester at Princeton to thank you for your ongoing prayers, encouragement, and financial support for our ministry. We depend on your prayerful support for the ministry we do here, so thank you. We want you to know that God is at work in the lives of our students!

Last month, we enjoyed a week-long ski-trip in the Adirondack mountains, which we affectionally call “Ski Safari.” Ski Safari is one of the major ministry events of the year. This year we traveled to upstate New York once again for a time of transformative teaching, worship, and fellowship. In addition to seeing God at work in the lives of our believing students, we also saw God at work by bringing several individuals who are not yet Christians. We are continuing to reach out to these students—please pray with us that God will bring these young men and women to faith in Christ.

God worked powerfully through our speakers at Ski Safari. This year our scheduled speaker cancelled at the last minute, so our staff team had to step up and give the messages each evening. Though unexpected, God was faithful and used these messages in the lives of our students. One senior specifically shared with me that this was the most spiritually impactful Ski Safari that she had been on and that she heard God speaking to her each night through the messages from our staff—praise God for this report! Since our return, we have seen our community grow—we had 80 students attending our Super Bowl Party and have had an average of 15-20 students attending our daily prayer from 12pm-1pm every day. Please pray that God continues to deepen our community with greater intimacy with Him and with one another.  

On Friday, February 16^th, we commemorated one of our nation’s most transformational leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In honor of Black History Month, we hosted an event on campus entitled, “MLK50” (this year marks the fiftieth-year anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination). As a ministry that seeks to develop leaders to transform culture, we honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by hosting a panel discussion with Jemar Tisby, Founder and President of “The Witness,” and Lisa Fields, Founder and President of Jude 3 Project. This event was moderated by our Ministry Director, James Fields.

Looking ahead, here are some specific ministry items you can pray for:

Bible Courses

As you also know, Bible Courses are a central aspect of our ministry. This semester our students will be working through various Bible Courses: Seniors will be studying a Bible Course on Vocational preparation; Sophomores and Juniors will be studying the Book of Romans; and finally, Freshman will be taking a two-part series: Seeking God and Sex & Spirituality. Please pray with us that God will transform our students through the study of Scripture!

Nexus

Nexus is an excellent opportunity for students from all eight of our Ivy-league campus ministries as well as students from Stanford, to come together for a three-day long conference, which is being held from Feb. 23-25 in New Brunswick, NJ. This year, we have roughly 50 students going from Princeton. Please pray that God will be at work in the lives of these students during this concentrated time of seeking God.

Encounter

This spring, we’ll have several Ministry Fellows as well as guest speakers, such as Tim Henderson (former Christian Union Vice-President) and Reece Davis (ESPN Sports Analyst) speaking at “Encounter,” our weekly Leadership Lecture Series. Please pray that God will use these times to conform our students into the image of Christ and to draw us closer to each other as a Christian community.

Thank you for your prayers and support again! Enabled by your support, we are working towards the goal of seeing Christian leaders developed here in Princeton! 

Grace and peace,

Ryan Reed
Christian Union Teaching Fellow
Princeton Faith and Action

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