After a summer of being far-flung around the world, Princeton students will be returning to campus in just over two weeks. In addition to welcoming returning students, we as a ministry are excited to be welcoming new freshmen on campus. This coming year is sure to be full of new things, and we strongly believe that God wants to do something new in our midst. In light of this, it is only fitting that our campus ministry is transitioning to the name of “Nova,” the Latin word for new.
God has also moved in several “new” ways in our ministry—each of which is exciting and significant. One of these is that Christopher Heslep has recently been promoted to the position of Ministry Director after serving for two years as a Ministry Fellow here in Princeton. As a team, we are quite thrilled about this! Christopher steps into this role as our previous Director, James Fields, followed God’s call to serve as the senior pastor of Sojourn Church Carlisle in Louisville, KY. James served Christ energetically and faithfully for nearly seven years with our ministry. He is and will be greatly missed. We are also excited to welcome a new Ministry Fellow, Ashlyn Gibbs, to our team. Ashlyn comes to Princeton with extensive ministry and university experience, having served both in the church and as a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. We also have three new interns serving with our ministry this Fall—Kyle Chen, Duke Anderson, and Al Curley. Finally, our student Exec Team has determined to lead our ministry this year with a new, intentional focus on practicing hospitality. As a ministry, we are excited to practice hospitality so that others might hear and receive the good news of Christ.
As our ministry looks for God to do new things at Princeton University, would you pray that God would work powerfully in the lives of students? Specifically, we would ask for your prayers in the following ways:
- The Freshmen Welcoming Campaign—Pray that God will use the many events we have planned to lead over a hundred Princeton students to join Bible Courses and ministry.
- Christopher Heslep and James Fields—Please pray for God to work through Christopher’s leadership to accomplish great things for God on our campus. Please also pray for James Fields as he transitions to his new role as the senior pastor.
- Encounter, TruThursday Bible Courses, and 12:1—As you know, each of these are pillars of our ministry. Pray that God will use these regular gatherings this year to greatly strengthen the faith of students as well as to draw more students to Christ.
Grace and peace in Christ,
Ryan Reed
Teaching Fellow
Christian Union Nova
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.
