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Brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is hard to believe that this semester is at an end. Our students are finishing up their last finals this weekend, and many have already made their trips back home. This last month was a busy one with a number of important events happening. The annual Christmas party we hosted after the end of classes was a great time of fun and fellowship for our students. The following day, we hosted Grill Me for Grilled Cheese. Students were invited to text in their questions about Christianity and in return would receive a free grilled cheese. We had around 350 students text in questions, and had a number of volunteers help to answer those questions. Students reported several encouraging conversations they had with unbelieving students, as well as some Christian students not connected with Christian Union.
It is hard to believe that this semester is at an end. Our students are finishing up their last finals this weekend, and many have already made their trips back home. This last month was a busy one with a number of important events happening. The annual Christmas party we hosted after the end of classes was a great time of fun and fellowship for our students. The following day, we hosted Grill Me for Grilled Cheese. Students were invited to text in their questions about Christianity and in return would receive a free grilled cheese. We had around 350 students text in questions, and had a number of volunteers help to answer those questions. Students reported several encouraging conversations they had with unbelieving students, as well as some Christian students not connected with Christian Union.
Happy Advent and a Merry Christmas from Hanover!
The students are enjoying their hard earned winterim while the Christian Union team at Dartmouth prepares for a new term in the New Year. We are sad to say goodbye to Julia and Chase Carlisle as the Lord has called them to Texas. This means we are looking for new candidates to fill two Ministry Fellow positions. Please be praying that the Lord brings to us the right people to minister to the Dartmouth students. He knows who they will be and so we are trusting Him and waiting patiently with expectation.
“Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little…” Haggai 1:5,6
One of the most frustrating things in life is to invest an exorbitant amount of resources—time, talents, and sometimes treasures—towards something, to only see questionable ROI’s - RETURN ON INVESTMENTS. It’s painfully awkward when it’s someone else’s resources, but when it’s our own, it’s just painful. My wife, Melissa, will commonly say, “Well, that’s a part of my life I won’t get back!?” Ouch.
One of the most frustrating things in life is to invest an exorbitant amount of resources—time, talents, and sometimes treasures—towards something, to only see questionable ROI’s - RETURN ON INVESTMENTS. It’s painfully awkward when it’s someone else’s resources, but when it’s our own, it’s just painful. My wife, Melissa, will commonly say, “Well, that’s a part of my life I won’t get back!?” Ouch.
Greetings from Cambridge,
As we remember the birth of Jesus and celebrate the breathtaking global impact of the incarnation, I’ve been thinking of the extraordinary lengths that God went to so that we may know. John includes a remarkable number of things that we know in the end of his first letter; none more important than verse 20 (italics mine):
As we remember the birth of Jesus and celebrate the breathtaking global impact of the incarnation, I’ve been thinking of the extraordinary lengths that God went to so that we may know. John includes a remarkable number of things that we know in the end of his first letter; none more important than verse 20 (italics mine):
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I am writing to you from a small café on Princeton’s campus where many of our ministry fellows meet with students. It is not uncommon to see a ministry fellow at a table with a student, often with a Bible open, in this spot. This is one aspect of our ministry that your prayers and financial support enables—regular one-on-one discipleship of students. I personally just finished meeting with a student, studying the book of 1 Samuel together. In part, due to these meetings, this student has gone from having deep doubts about the Christian faith to becoming a Christian leader on campus. This has been extremely encouraging. Thank you for your partnership which allows for this kind of one-on-one discipleship to happen!
I am writing to you from a small café on Princeton’s campus where many of our ministry fellows meet with students. It is not uncommon to see a ministry fellow at a table with a student, often with a Bible open, in this spot. This is one aspect of our ministry that your prayers and financial support enables—regular one-on-one discipleship of students. I personally just finished meeting with a student, studying the book of 1 Samuel together. In part, due to these meetings, this student has gone from having deep doubts about the Christian faith to becoming a Christian leader on campus. This has been extremely encouraging. Thank you for your partnership which allows for this kind of one-on-one discipleship to happen!
Dear Friends and Partners of Christian Union at Penn,
Merry Christmas! Classes have ended and finals have commenced at the University of Pennsylvania. Our students are dealing with the stress of finals, but also the anticipation of an extended break.
Merry Christmas! Classes have ended and finals have commenced at the University of Pennsylvania. Our students are dealing with the stress of finals, but also the anticipation of an extended break.
We come again to the end of a semester. As I write this, a few students have finished all their work and are packing to go home, while others are still gearing up for the push through final exams, papers, and projects. Please pray that our students receive grace, not only to finish well, but that they would turn to their heavenly Father in times of pressure. Truly, He carries us through when our strength and wisdom fail; and by trusting in Him, our hearts find rest even where others are crippled with anxiety. As the psalmist says: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps 4:8, ESV).
Pray that our students rest well over the break: that they sleep well, spend quality time with family and friends, exercise their bodies and have fun—those things we all know to do, and which can be difficult to keep in the balance with busy lives, especially for young and ambitious students—and that they will seek God’s face diligently. It’s all too easy, when the structure of a regular routine is interrupted for a few weeks, to lose the momentum of positive habits that we’ve built up. Pray that our students will use the break not to sit around aimlessly, but to increase the time and energy they devote to prayer and reading the Scriptures.
And let us all—students, Christian Union faculty, and you, our partners in prayer—give thanks for the abundance of good work God has done in our midst this semester. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies…” (Ps 119:2). We’ve seen a deepening of fellowship and unity in our community; we’ve welcomed in a wonderfully eager and engaged freshman class, who continue to bring in new friends even at semester’s end; and we’ve seen movement along every stage of the discipleship spectrum, from the un-churched exploring and discovering the gospel for the first time to established believers deepening their faith and growing in knowledge and love. God has been good, as He is and always will be, and He is worthy of our thanks and praise.
To you also, whose prayers are precious to God and a help to us, my co-workers and I extend our sincere gratitude. May the Lord bless you and keep you in Christ Jesus, until he comes again in glory to reign forever and ever.
Michael Racine
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Yale
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.
Pray that our students rest well over the break: that they sleep well, spend quality time with family and friends, exercise their bodies and have fun—those things we all know to do, and which can be difficult to keep in the balance with busy lives, especially for young and ambitious students—and that they will seek God’s face diligently. It’s all too easy, when the structure of a regular routine is interrupted for a few weeks, to lose the momentum of positive habits that we’ve built up. Pray that our students will use the break not to sit around aimlessly, but to increase the time and energy they devote to prayer and reading the Scriptures.
And let us all—students, Christian Union faculty, and you, our partners in prayer—give thanks for the abundance of good work God has done in our midst this semester. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies…” (Ps 119:2). We’ve seen a deepening of fellowship and unity in our community; we’ve welcomed in a wonderfully eager and engaged freshman class, who continue to bring in new friends even at semester’s end; and we’ve seen movement along every stage of the discipleship spectrum, from the un-churched exploring and discovering the gospel for the first time to established believers deepening their faith and growing in knowledge and love. God has been good, as He is and always will be, and He is worthy of our thanks and praise.
To you also, whose prayers are precious to God and a help to us, my co-workers and I extend our sincere gratitude. May the Lord bless you and keep you in Christ Jesus, until he comes again in glory to reign forever and ever.
Michael Racine
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Yale
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.
Merry Christmas! Since childhood, this has been a season I’ve looked forward to – the gatherings, anticipation, cookies, and yes, hopefully presents under the tree. Advent is actually that period of anticipation for the main event, the celebration of the birth of Christ. In recent years, I’ve begun to wonder why a sense and discipline of anticipation is important – for celebrations like Christmas, Easter, marriage, the birth of a child. For children it makes sense - children are, by their very nature, impatient and full of hopes – which is expressed in anticipation.
Merry Christmas from Palo Alto!
As I write this, our students are in the final stretch of their fall quarter, laboring over exams and papers, counting the minutes until they can walk away from all of it for a few weeks. For busy students (as well as the rest of us) exerting so much energy and focus on finishing the task during this time of year can certainly take them out of the season of Advent—a season of expectation, waiting, and reflection. In light of this, how refreshing it was recently when one of our students led a prayer time on campus using the words of a great old Christmas hymn to focus our devotion and prayer:
As I write this, our students are in the final stretch of their fall quarter, laboring over exams and papers, counting the minutes until they can walk away from all of it for a few weeks. For busy students (as well as the rest of us) exerting so much energy and focus on finishing the task during this time of year can certainly take them out of the season of Advent—a season of expectation, waiting, and reflection. In light of this, how refreshing it was recently when one of our students led a prayer time on campus using the words of a great old Christmas hymn to focus our devotion and prayer:
A Christmas Concert; Calling Believers to a Ten-Day Fast in January; Look Forward to a Better Christmas; I'm Good, I Think...; Friday Night Lights; Everyone Believes in a Virgin Birth; Three Ways to Help Develop Christian Leaders and more, in this issue of Christian Union's bi-monthly email brief.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14
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