October 2018

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As I write to you today, there is a clear cool breeze in the air—a clear indication that Fall has finally arrived. Here in Princeton we are now well into the semester, with midterms right around the corner for our students. In the midst of the busyness here, God has been very faithful—he has helped get us off to a good start with a successful freshman campaign. In this letter, as usual, I wanted to update you on the freshman campaign as well as give you an update of some individual prayer requests that we have.

Our freshmen campaign ended just over a week ago. Freshman Campaign, as I mentioned in my previous letter, was a very busy time for us as a ministry. Overall, we hosted over eighteen major events all in the hopes of bringing new freshman into our community and, ultimately, in closer relationships with Christ. By God’s grace, during this time we had 118 students indicate their interest in joining a Bible Course. During freshmen campaign, we also hosted a production of Max Mclean’s newest show “The Most Reluctant Convert.” This show was a huge success—almost 400 people attended the play! The show tells the story of C. S. Lewis’ conversion to Christianity in a very engaging and compelling manner. It was an amazing night and it was extremely encouraging for our ministry. Having concluded Freshmen Campaign, this past Friday we also had a panel entitled, “Can I Trust the Bible?” We had three panelists: Curt Blattman, Dr. Raymond Johnson, and Pastor David Rowe. It was a great time for our students to ask specific questions about the Bible.

Beyond these major events, many of our regular ministry rhythms have been continuing. Our intensive Bible Courses have been happening weekly. Our ministry staff have also been meeting regularly with students to disciple them and encourage them in their faith. We also have been having 12:1, our daily prayer gatherings.

As we continue to strive to see students grow in their faith, would you pray with us that this end would be accomplished? Please pray specifically for the following:

Growth in Prayer and 12:1
Would you pray that the Lord would grow us in the area of prayer as a ministry? As a staff, we seek to make seeking God in prayer a lifestyle, but there is certainly still room for growth in this area. We would also like to see our students grow in this area, especially by seeing more students join us at 12:1 daily.

The Freshmen Class
Would you pray for the freshmen class to become deeply involved in our community, so that they would either come to faith or to grow stronger in their faith over the next four years here. There are some students who in the midst of the busyness of the semester are hesitant to make the time commitment it takes to truly invest in Christian community. Please pray for these students in particular—pray that God would lead them to intentionally seek out Christian community on campus, so that they would grow as Christians.

Discipleship and Missional Engagement
These are two aspects of our ministry we are prioritizing this year. We want to see our students disciple one another in what we call “discipleship pairs.” We also desire to see our students sharing their faith with others. Please pray for these ends. We know that we need God to see these particular goals accomplished.

Thank you for your prayers! It is a joy to partner with you in the gospel of Jesus Christ!  

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.

As a postscript, I thought I would mention God’s personal faithfulness to me and my wife.  Since our last prayer letter, I have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation—I am now Dr. Ryan Reed.