Dear Prayer Partners!
Thank you for your prayers and support of Christian Union at Yale. Shortly after I sent the last prayer email, one of you encouraged me to keep on spiritually “mothering,” and later that day a student confessed some sin to me, asked for my advice and help to get out of the situation and then said to me, “Thank you for being my mom that I can tell things to” (as opposed to her mom that she can’t tell things to).
One of the remarkable things that I have noticed about the Christian Union students at Yale that I have worked with is that many young women actually have very strong relationships with their mothers (and fathers), so are afraid to share some things with their mothers for fear that they will disappoint them. Please pray for wisdom for me and my colleagues to comfort and exhort our students in ways that draw them closer to their heavenly Father.
One of my colleagues and the director here at Yale, Chris Matthews, wrote an excellent bible course manual on the book of Mark which we have been studying this semester. In one section he draws parallels between Mark 6 (feeding the 5000 and calming the storm) and Psalm 23. As we studied it a few weeks ago, students were amazed to see the beauty of the wisdom of God spoken so long ago and recorded in the Bible. I asked the students to share the lines that embodied promises that they wanted to believe more fully. Here are a few of their responses:
- Evy shared that she wanted to believe the whole thing more fully because she struggles to allow God to comfort her.
- Chelsea said that “I shall not want” meant the most to her because she wants to be satisfied with God’s provision right now.
- Steph agreed, saying that it is exhausting always to want something. She added that the line “even though I...” could be followed by anything. No matter what she goes through, God never changes.
- Haley said that she wants to “fear no evil,” because she had learned through working through her fears in the past that thoughts create feelings and she wants to be filled with thoughts of truths and promises of God.
- Marina agreed, adding that she wants to live with the perspective that there is always help available in God and that she does not need to defeat her struggles on her own.
- Emily said that it was the idea that her “cup overflows,” knowing that God has given her enough grace for her to share it with others who do not yet know Him.
- Nayeon agreed, adding that most days she feels like she is just barely getting by and that she wants to receive more fully God’s overwhelming love and goodness every day.
So many more reflections could be shared, but my prayer is that these students would live into the promises of God, which support and empower them for any trial or challenge that they may face.
They soon leave for Thanksgiving break and then come back for a fast and furious couple of weeks, including finals. Please pray that they would honor Christ above all and seek His face no matter what. Pray that they would connect well with family and friends at home. Pray also for mental health at Yale (we recently had two student deaths) and that students would never succumb to despair, but find hope in Christ for today and for tomorrow.
God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!
Jane Hendrickson
Christian Union Ministry Fellow
Yale University
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Yale, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
