Students at Stanford have just finished their spring quarter exams and are beginning their summer adventures of internships, volunteering, travel, time with friends and family and more. Please pray for these more than 18,000 students, that God would make himself known to them through his word, through the world he has made, and through the body of Christ!
All the students involved with our ministry have received a copy of The Reason for God by Tim Keller, and our student leaders are also reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer this summer. Please pray that the paragraphs and pages in these books would encourage and even dramatically affect these students for the glory of Christ this summer!
Bonhoeffer, who willingly returned to Germany to lead an “illegal,” underground seminary during the Nazi’s rise to power, wrote Life Together during his brief stint with the seminarians at Finkenwalde before the Gestapo shut the seminary down and forbade Bonhoeffer from further writing or publishing. He was later martyred by the Gestapo near the end of World War II. As one who knew and appreciated the value of living alongside other Christians perhaps far more than we do, we would be wise to listen to his (now classic) thoughts on the subject. Here is just a taste from pages 20 & 21:
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. … The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. They receive each other’s benedictions as the benediction for the Lord Jesus Christ. But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!
Please pray that the students involved in our ministry would experience the inexhaustible blessing and joy of Christian community this summer. We are praying that same for you who read this!
Grateful for your partnership in the gospel,
Garrett Brown
Ministry Director
Christian Union Caritas
2431 Park Blvd
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
