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Greetings!

Christian Union at Columbia has continued to experience God’s goodness this semester. We just finished a successful freshmen welcoming campaign, having reached all our goals for freshmen signups. Our desire is to integrate this freshmen class with the rest of the ministry, forming a loving community of believers on Columbia’s campus. One of the ways we intend on building community is through our upcoming fall conference at Spruce Lake. Fall conference is a great opportunity for students to build relationships with each other through various activities and spiritually refresh themselves before the semester gets crazy. Our staff has decided to teach through the book of Ruth during our time there.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

Before giving a few updates about what God has been doing here at Cornell, I wanted to just give a brief introduction to myself. My name is Jordan Cooper. I served in pastoral ministry for about six years in the Midwest before receiving God’s call to serve the students here in Ithaca, NY. These past few weeks since I moved in, have been a whirlwind, but I am very excited to be part of God’s work through Christian Union, and specifically here at Cornell.

Hello from Dartmouth,

Thank you for your prayers for our Freshmen Welcoming Campaign. The Lord has answered them in so many ways! It’s been a wonderfully full few weeks.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am writing to you today in the midst of our Freshman Campaign which we have been undertaking for just under two weeks. In this letter, I want to update you on our Pre-Retreat and Freshman Campaign and then share several specific prayer requests with you.

Dear Friends and Partners of Christian Union at Penn,

The weather is starting to cool down and a new season is imminent in Philadelphia. For all of us that means finishing our Freshmen Campaign and starting our Bible Courses. This semester we are studying Hebrews, one of the more mysterious books in the Bible.  But for all of its seemingly weird Old Testament references and complex logic, Hebrews is ultimately about a very simple theme: what it means to be human in the world that God created and is now redeeming from the curse of sin and death through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Dear Prayer Partners,

We’re in the 4th full week of the semester — classes are in full swing, fall weather is here, and the students are feeling quite harried with all the demands on them!  Thank you for each of your remembrances and prayers for us and the ministry here at Yale and thank you for lifting up our students.  Someday we’ll all have a better view into how much Christ has truly been holding all things together!

Hello from Palo Alto!

Today is a big day for students at Stanford, especially for our new freshmen. As I write this, today (Monday) is the first day of the fall quarter. I think about these students stepping into a classroom for the first time, a launch of a four-year journey that started years prior for most of them as they strove hard to enter their top choice schools. As we have prayed and prepared to meet these new students, I also think of the spiritual opportunities ahead of them. For some, unfortunately, their faith will be shaken and they will exit Stanford not walking with Jesus and out of fellowship with His Church. But for some (and we pray for many!) this will be the season they will look back on the rest of their lives and say, “This is where God met me.”

Friends,

It’s the end of August, so you know what that means – students are getting ready to head back to campus! This is one of my favorite times of the year. Lots of energy on campus, excitement among the student body, and sense of God’s Spirit working in our midst. Please join us in prayer for the following as the semester begins:

Greetings!

I’m excited to report that the new academic year has begun. All our staff and students are brimming with expectation as we begin freshman campaign. We’re off to a great start as we even had a few freshmen attend our pre-retreat. Our pre-retreat was highly successful. We had a great mix of older and younger students and it was evident that the students in attendance grew deeper in community, had fun, and were spiritually nourished. On our last night, we had a time for students to share their heart. The level of vulnerability was simply astounding. It was as if these students had known each other for years, but in fact many were just getting to know each other. It was clear that God met us during our retreat; we left energized and ready to engage the incoming freshman class.

Dear friends,

It was over twenty-five years ago, but I still remember moving in my freshman year of college and wondering “now what?!”. We just witnessed thousands of first year Cornellians move in last week and by the looks on their faces they’re thinking much the same thing. We’re doing our best to answer their “now what?!” with “come and be a part of our Christ-centered community . . .”.