May 2018

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As I write to you, students here in Princeton are just finishing up their final exams and commencement and reunions are just a few days away. As the academic year comes to a close, we at Christian Union Princeton conclude the year with gratitude for your prayers and support for making ministry here possible. Over the past month, we have seen God work in the lives of our students. This has been happening both by large-scale, ministry-wide events as well as through individualized, one-on-one interactions with our students.

On a ministry-wide scale, we have been encouraged by our students’ response to Scripture. These past few weeks at Encounter we have been walking through Romans chapter twelve in a series entitled “Genuine.” This three-part series was comprised of messages from two of our ministry fellows, Carola Hernandez-Cappas, and myself, Ryan Reed, as well as Scott Jones, a local pastor and former ministry fellow. A number of students have remarked that these messages have had an impact on their faith. Another significant, ministry-wide event was the “Freshman BBQ” which happened on May 5th. This event was intended to be a time to help strengthen and grow our freshman class. This event was very well-attended, with over 40 freshmen turning out. It was also encouraging to see the freshmen themselves take ownership in leading this event as well as the testimonies they shared.

Finally, at a ministry-wide level, we spent this past week honoring our graduating seniors through several events. This past Monday we honoured our “execs” in a small lunch at which we were able to share words of exhortation and encouragement with them. We also celebrated our seniors at TruThursday and on Friday at our official “Senior Send-off.” These times of celebrating our seniors were extremely encouraging. In part, this was because we were able to hear testimonies about the ways in which these seniors have impacted younger students. For example, one freshman student, Tyler, shared how much a senior, Kyle, has impacted the trajectory of time at Princeton. Beyond this, these events also provided us as a ministry, a chance to reflect on the ways in which these seniors themselves have grown in their faith while at Princeton.

On a personal level, we have also been seeing God’s work in the lives of our students through one-on-one interactions. To give one example of this, at our Senior Send-off on Friday, a freshman shared that another student named Samantha, a senior and one of our former execs, began witnessing to her over this past year. She shared that, as a result of her relationship with Samantha, she has come to “question her doubts” about Christianity. She then indicated she had decided to join our ministry and she is considering becoming a Christian. We are praying that this freshman will come to personally experience the grace of God. Please join us in this!

As we look ahead in our ministry, we have a number of specific prayers we would bring to you:

Pre-Retreat—We are currently recruiting for Pre-Retreat, which happens just before the beginning of Fall Semester. It is a time of spiritual equipping, reconnecting, and planning. We are praying for a turnout of at least 70 students at this event and, more importantly, for the Spirit to move among us and to give us a God-sized vision for ministry at Princeton.

Our Rising Junior Class—Our rising junior class is the most underrepresented class in our ministry.
Knowing this, would you pray for spiritual renewal and revival among this group of students in particular?

Our Rising Sophomores—Please pray that God would raise up leaders among our present Freshmen class (who are now rising sophomores). Events like the Freshman BBQ have sparked a lot of excitement in us in regard to this class. Still, we need God to continue to grow these freshmen into godly leaders. Please pray for this!

Unbelieving Princeton Students—Please finally pray for students like the freshman I mentioned above—that they would experience the grace of God in their lives. We strongly desire to see more students come to know Christ!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

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.