Greetings from New Haven! We have so many amazing testimonies to share of what God has been doing here that I can’t possibly share them all in this email, but let me begin by saying this: God is gathering students together and setting their hearts on fire in a way I haven’t seen before in my seven and a half years with Christian Union.
We kicked off the semester with a retreat that was not only our largest ever, with 82 students in attendance from Friday evening through Sunday morning, but was extremely powerful on multiple fronts. Students made huge breakthroughs in time set apart for prayer and confession of sin within their respective Bible Course groups; so many are now walking free of burdens they had been carrying, and they have grown so much in friendship with one another by opening up and trusting each other. Worship was deeply Spirit-filled, marked both by loud, vigorous praise and students bowed face-to-the-floor in holy reverence. And the teaching obviously struck a chord: our beloved former colleague from Boston, Fady Ghobrial, spoke on Saturday about the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, pursuing God as a community, and the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit; I was then able to tie things together on Sunday with a message from 1 Cor 13 on love (i.e., willing the good of the other) as the reason why we earnestly desire the gifts mentioned in chapters 12 and 14 (i.e., they enable us to bless others in very practical, powerful ways). Most students came in with very little knowledge on these subjects, but they have clearly been inspired to seek God for more of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in witness.
Since we returned to campus, a number of students have been praying for the campus every morning at 7 a.m., and small groups have been going out every evening to evangelize. Just yesterday I heard from one of our freshmen about his first experience leading someone (another freshman) to Christ earlier this week! And our students are eagerly anticipating what God is preparing to do at Arise, a two-day event February 21-22. Spearheaded by CU Lux students, the first day will see a gathering of students from different ministries at Yale as well as other universities to pray and seek God; on the second day, these students will all go out on campus to share the gospel.
Please join us in celebrating what God is already doing, and pray that the greater movement we sense Him birthing continues to grow and come into its fullness. We look forward to sharing many more testimonies with you in our next update!
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Blessings in Christ,
Jeffrey Walsh
Jeffrey.Walsh@ChristianUnion.org
Ministry Director, Christian Union Lux
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