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After a summer of being far-flung around the world, Princeton students will be returning to campus in just over two weeks. In addition to welcoming returning students, we as a ministry are excited to be welcoming new freshmen on campus. This coming year is sure to be full of new things, and we strongly believe that God wants to do something new in our midst. In light of this, it is only fitting that our campus ministry is transitioning to the name of “Nova,” the Latin word for new.
Dear Friends and Partners of Christian Union at Penn,
Thank you for your continued prayers for our ministry, staff, and students. It was a restful, hopeful, prayerful summer for us here in Philadelphia. As a staff we are excited to begin our Freshmen Campaign, and our returning students share that excitement.
Greetings from Yale!
As I drove through town yesterday, there was a distinct increase in activity as students are moving back into their dorms and preparing to start classes next week. Our own ministry team and students are in the middle of Pre-retreat, where they are preparing their hearts and minds to welcome the incoming Frosh class with the love of Christ and invite them into our community. Please pray for their time together as they seek the Lord and plan events and strategies to welcome a new class of students.
Pray that the Spirit would grip them to love God whole-heartedly and to walk with bold faith. As they return to campus, a fast-paced season awaits. Along with tackling another semester at Yale, they’ll be navigating a robust line-up of events and following up with students they meet. Pray they would be fruitful as they intentionally seek out other students to offer friendship and the good news of the Kingdom.
Pray for our ministry team as they set up new Bible Courses and begin mentoring relationships with students, that the Lord would sustain them and they would be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading as they navigate conversations with new people.
Pray for the students of Yale at large - that in this season of transition and change, the Spirit would be at work in their hearts to ready them for an encounter with the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your prayers on our behalf and for the students of Yale!
Joy,
Callie Cromer
Administrative Assistant
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.
Following Instructions
Thursday, August 29, 2019Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Greetings from Palo Alto!
Students are gearing up to return, or arrive for the first time, to Stanford’s campus toward the end of September. We would love for them to benefit from your prayers!
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
— John 15:6
From Fasting To Feasting
Wednesday, August 28, 2019“‘Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done so for so many years?’ Then the word of the Lord came to me…‘When you fasted and mourned, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?’…Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.” (Zechariah 7:3-6, 8:19)
“[Fasting] is the most misunderstood of the Christian spiritual disciplines. Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life…People fasted in the Bible in response to some grievous event in life—like death or the realization of sin or when the nation was threatened.” (Scot McKnight, Fasting)
Ministry Director Mentors Penn Football Players
Catherine Elvy
Christian Union: The Magazine, Staff Writer
Penn quarterback Ryan Glover ’21 (left) celebrates with a teammate.
“Time is such a commodity,” said Else. “It’s pretty easy for these guys to live and sleep football and academics.”Ready, Fire, Aim!
Tuesday, August 27, 2019“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.” — Ezra 8:21–23 (ESV)
Laurel Copp
Christian Union Ministry Fellow
Brown University
When this happens, one trick my father taught me as a kid is to quote, in order, the Psalms (or, let’s be honest, maybe just remember a snippet from some of them) until you fall asleep. Granted, this is a lot easier to do if you grew up in a church tradition that sings the Psalms regularly. Nonetheless, the point of this trick is rest comes from being in God’s presence through His word and prayer.
