Christian Union Universities

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As I am writing you, our students are just finishing their midterms and leaving for Fall Break. Though only halfway through the semester, we as a ministry, are celebrating God’s work in the lives of the students we minister to.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…” - Colossians 1.3

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Though Paul and the Colossian church were strangers, they still prayed for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. So it is with us. As you pray for us, we are praying for you. And we are thankful for your partnership in this ministry. It is our joy to serve with you and alongside you for the sake of the Kingdom!

“… if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard …” Colossians 1:23

Dear Prayer Partners,

Praise be to Christ Jesus, the only sure foundation upon which we stand here at Yale! This semester, we're seeing in Colossians how the only way to continue in the Christian life is the same way that we began in the Christian life—by grace, through faith!

Greetings from Palo Alto!

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel” (Colossians 1:3-5)

What has struck me most this quarter as we revisit Colossians in Bible courses and one-on-one meetings is the relationship of faith and love to hope which Paul here describes.

Greetings from New York,

We are thankful for the ministry of Lane and Michelle Young who moved back to the Midwest over the summer. Please join us in praying for a new Ministry Director for our Columbia team.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

It has been a busy month here at Cornell, as we have been welcoming this year’s freshmen and transfer students. We have also been reconnecting with all those who have returned to Ithaca after the summer. Throughout this Freshmen Welcoming season, we have done a number of events, led by our students, to reach out to those who are looking to be connected to Christian community. We just started our Bible courses, as well as large group meetings, and we all look forward to what God will do this semester on campus.

“ Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66:1,2

I love to cook. I love cooking, not simply because I love food (as all inspiring chefs!), but I really like the process of creating something with ingredients that I have at my disposal. Once in a while, my wife, Melissa, will watch me prepare a meal, and notice that I’ve stopped following the recipe at one point in my preparation. “You’re not following the recipe anymore, are you?” she’ll ask. And my answer is, “Nope.” I’ll tell her that while I love my cookbooks and all its recipes, I get to a point that I know what the key ingredients I’ll need for a sauce, or a meal, or a recipe are.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are now entering our second full week of classes here in Princeton. Ministry has begun with a breakneck pace as our staff and students earnestly seek to draw freshmen into our ministry and Bible Courses through the Freshmen Welcoming Campaign.

Dear Prayers Partners of CU@Penn,

Penn’s Freshmen Welcome is always intense: Intensely tiring, intensely exhilarating, intensely active, intensely fast. Penn’s 1st year students have already been here a month, and are only 3/12 weeks away from Fall Break. As a staff, we don’t want to take these days for granted. Meeting new students, re-connecting with returning students, and seeing Bible Courses form is a joy, even in the midst of the intensity. We appreciate and need your continued prayers!

Good afternoon prayer partners,

We are nearing the end of our 4-week freshmen outreach, and we have welcomed with great joy a new crop of young men and women who want to know, love and pursue God here.

This last month has been a season of testing and trial; a mixture of pangs of discouragement combined with moments of joy and delight. Looking back, we are thankful for each of the new students God has brought into the ministry and for each gospel exposure, touch of kindness, and warm welcome we’ve been able to extend to the class of 2023. It’s not lost on me that our strength for this task came daily through the ministry of prayer.

As the pressure of the semester begins to increase, I ask that you’d pray for protection over our community from any of Satan’s classic schemes of gossip, disunity, or grumbling. Rather, pray that we would “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience” - Colossians 3:12

I also ask that you pray for God to move and be glorified in our midst during our Fall Retreat at the Incarnation Center, 11-13 October. There’s an appropriately-high expectation amongst our students that God is on the move and desiring to give us more of himself.

Thank you for your prayers. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all!

Warmly,

Clay Cromer
Ministry Director
Christian Union Lux

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.