Ministries
Dear friends and family of HCFA,
I hope your summer has been warm and restful. At Harvard we are already a few weeks into the semester and the Lord is at work!
Please Join Us for a Week of Spiritual and Physical Refreshment
Thanks for joining Christian Union leaders, staff, alumni, friends, and ministry partners (and their families), this summer, for the third annual Christian Union Summer Getaway from July 13 - 20, 2019. We gathered at the beautiful CAMP-of-the-WOODS, in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York, for a week of spiritual and physical refreshment.*Due to COVID-19, we have no plans for the CU Summer Getaway.*
Speakers
Our 2019 chapel speaker was Dr. Colin Smith. He is an evangelical pastor and author currently serving as the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Illinois where he has been since 1996. Pastor Smith was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland and trained at the London School of Theology. Prior to his time with The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, he served as pastor of Enfield Evangelical Free Church in London for 16 years. Smith brings a strong emphasis on God’s Word and brings passion to help the church develop a vision for the future, including training younger preachers.
We were excited to have Eric Metaxas be part of the Christian Union Summer Getaway again this summer. Eric Metaxas is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, the host of a nationally-syndicated radio program (the Eric Metaxas Show), and a highly sought-after speaker. This was Eric’s second year with us, and his talks last summer were a highlight for many of the Summer Getaway attendees.
CAMP-of-the-WOODS
Mornings are highlighted by chapel services that feature inspiring worship and biblical teaching. In the afternoons you will be free to explore all that CAMP-of-the-WOODS has to offer.
CAMP-of-the-WOODS has been providing meaningful Christian vacations for families and people of all ages for more than 117 years. The ten-week summer season runs from late June through Labor Day. Each week guests enjoy teaching from internationally known speakers and teachers, such as Ravi Zacharias, Alistair Begg, James McDonald, Erwin Lutzer, and Charles Zimmerman. While parents enjoy morning speaker sessions, children from kindergarten through high school enjoy age-specific Christian education and make new friendships that last a lifetime. For younger children, childcare is provided during all speaker sessions and concerts.
Afternoon activities include: water sports; hiking; canoe trips; rock climbing; sand volleyball; mini-golf; tennis; shuffleboard; arts and crafts; and a wide variety of games and competitions in the massive Sonju Sports Complex.
Christian Union Activities
As part of the CU Summer Getaway, you will also have the option to participate in a number of Christian Union-specific excursions, seminars, and social opportunities.
Learn More
Email us with any questions at SummerGetaway@ChristianUnion.org.
We are wrapping up another sophomore summer and have enjoyed getting to focus on just the ’19’s class for these past few months.
There are a few highlights from the summer, including a 4th of July picnic, which turned out to be a beautiful day for grilling out and playing volleyball, a welcome break from studying for the students. We also led a weekly book discussion on the book You Are What You Love, The Spiritual Power of Habit, by James K. A. Smith, which turned out to be a wonderful tool to discuss spiritual disciplines and how to train our hearts to love the right things.
Thank you for your prayers! Our first year welcoming campaign is winding down and we have been so encouraged by the depth of faith of some students as well as the openness to the gospel of others.
The students and team in Palo Alto are in the middle of our summer rhythms, enjoying a slightly different pace and landscape. While this is a great time to refresh, we also expect God to continue His work in the lives of our students while they are away from the demands of school.
It's hard to believe that the summer is nearly over and our staff conference is right around the corner!
We're delighted to announce the addition of Michael Racine, a Brown and Yale alumnus, to our staff as men's ministry fellow. We now have a "complete" team and couldn't be more hopeful about how God will use Christian Union at Yale this coming year.
Greetings from the campus of Harvard Law School!
Another academic year is just weeks away at Harvard Law School. But this one is a bit different. HLS is celebrating its Bicentennial: 200 years of producing some of the most significant leaders of this country. This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation that God used to spread his gospel across the world. And Christian Union is celebrating 15 years of God’s grace and the transforming power of the gospel at the most strategic universities in America.
Physical & Spiritual Refreshment
Christian Union alumni, friends, and ministry partners and their families, plus several Christian Union staff members and leaders, recently gathered at the beautiful CAMP-of-the-WOODS, in Upstate New York, for the week-long 2017 Christian Union Summer Getaway.
Guests enjoyed CAMP-of-the-WOODS' daily chapel services that featured worship led by a tremendously talented orchestra and vocal ensemble, as well as powerful teaching from Ravi Zacharias and Abdu Murray.
Zacharias, the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), is a world-renowned speaker and brilliant defender of the Christian faith. Murray is part of the RZIM speaking team, has authored two books, and serves as the North American director of RZIM.
Summer Getaway attendees also took part in hikes, special teaching times, socials, and meals together — all designed to help the group connect. Guests enjoyed access to the full range of CAMP-the-WOODS activities, including swimming, water skiing, sailing, kayaking, canoeing and other water sports, hiking, rock climbing, zip line, golf, mini golf, tennis, basketball, volleyball, and more.
CAMP-of-the-WOODS offered something for everyone, including special programs for children and teens.
The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive.
One family said, “we’ve had an absolutely amazing week — of course we love everything CAMP-of-the-WOODS has to offer from a recreational perspective, but the spiritual component is what really made it special. We will leave both physically and spiritually refreshed.”
Another commented, “it is remarkable to be at such a gorgeous place, with so much to do, yet to feel totally safe letting our kids run around without us having to know where they are every second of the day.”
“It was an absolutely fantastic week. We particularly enjoyed getting to know others taking part in the Christian Union activities — we feel like we’ve made a lot of new friends,” observed another participant. “We would love to come back next year.”
To stay up-to-date on news related to future Summer Getaways, please visit www.CUSummerGetaway.org.
September is a funny month; while working professionals no longer have summer breaks we nevertheless continue to lean toward the academic calendar. For those older with children, the September ritual of school starting remains a family focal point. For those just out of college, well, old habits die hard and September remains the month of new beginnings. This is true as well of Christian Union New York.
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