Dear Prayer Partner,
Thank you for your prayers! The first month of school is certainly the most taxing for us as staff and it is an incredible blessing and encouragement to know that a great cloud of witnesses (you!) stand behind our efforts in the most important work of all (prayer). We could not do what we do without you!
Greetings from the campus of Harvard Law School!
With the arrival of September all of our students have now returned to campus. In addition to the new 1L’s and returning 2 and 3L’s, we have opportunity this year to minister to several LLM students. Representing countries from around the world, LLM students have already completed law degrees and now attend Harvard Law School for completion of a one -year degree to add to their academic resume.
Dear friends,
We are grateful for your steady prayers, support, and encouragement during these weeks as we launch into a new and exciting season of ministry on the campus of Princeton University. Even as I write this report, we are concluding our second full week of ministry with classes in session; I'm happy to share with you the following highlights from the past month.
According to one major index of economic freedom, by country, the US has been in steady decline since the early 2000s. In the Economic Freedom of the World 2016 Annual Report, the US has dropped from second best in the world to sixteenth or eighteenth. How does this happen? Anne Bradley, a Christian economist, offered her insights into this phenomenon during an interview with Joe Connors: 
At the beginning of the school year, Chicago University students received a peculiar welcome letter from the dean of students. As noted in The New York Times, instead of being solely an introductory letter, it addressed the issue of trigger warnings, and informed students that the University of Chicago would neither encourage nor tolerate educational conditions, including demands for safe spaces, that some claim are producing “coddled” students at US colleges and universities, and seriously undermining academic inquiry and growth. 
In recent decades, American culture has so fetishized autonomy as a moral good that the once-beneficial idea, taken to excess, is now harming individuals and threatens to tear apart the fabric of society itself. Devotees of radical autonomy assert that individuals can define the relationships they have with others on their own terms, and cast aside traditional definitions of friendship, marriage, or parenthood. 
We would like to express our thanks to FaithZette for featuring us on their website. While addressing the challenges facing Christian beliefs and ideology in academia, they highlighted Christian Union, talking about the ministry’s dedication to cultivating tomorrow’s Christian leaders at some of the nation’s most influential, but intensely secular, universities. Friends,
We are back into the swing of things here at Brown as our Freshmen Welcoming Campaign is underway. Students made their way back to campus at the beginning of September and the craziness of serving and loving them in the name of Jesus has not stopped since then. It has been a crazy and fun ride thus far!
Greetings from New York!
Welcome to Fall — that is what has been going through my mind for the past week. Cooler temperatures are a joy to me; I look forward to this season starting early August, and this joy lasts until I am finally driven mad by the fixation on all things flavored pumpkin — usually by mid-October.
Is American society in the process of utterly decimating First Amendment rights? Recently, Judge Ruth Neely was taken to court because of her personal religious beliefs. She had previously served twenty-one years as the municipal judge in Pinedale, Wyoming, and had carried out her duties faithfully and with no infraction. 
A new, eye-opening report has surfaced on the sexuality and “gender” front. The report’s authors are Lawrence S. Mayer, MB, MS, PhD, a scholar in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University, and Paul R. McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, University Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Christian Union Ministry Director Publishes Third Book
by Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
Youth ministry involves far more than staging fun-filled retreats and offering frightful warnings against teen vices.Rather, God calls youth pastors to develop students who will embrace missional purposes throughout their lifetimes.
With such principles in mind, Jon Nielson co-edited and co-wrote Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Practical Guide. Crossway, part of Good News Publishers, released the 224-page paperback in February, about seven months after the longtime youth and college minister became the director of Christian Union's ministry at Princeton University.
New York City Salon Features Seth Ward
by Eileen Scott, Senior Writer
At a salon sponsored by Christian Union New York City, musician Seth Ward countered the philosophical notion that man's ability to think uniquely defines his existence. In his presentation, "The Mark of the Maker: The Musical Soul," Ward contended that humans have God's rhythmic signature engraved upon their souls, marking them as His beloved.The pianist's love of music and deep Christian faith were evident during a discussion that ranged from historical to whimsical. Ward, the music director at Central Presbyterian Church in New York, discussed the ancient chords and rhythms uncovered by archeologists and noted how these early songs and chants have been interwoven into timeless classical, contemporary, and iconic works.
Why do we pray?Even those of us who pray regularly have sometimes wondered if we should not ask God for things in prayer because, since He is all-wise, doesn’t He know already what is best? And if He is all-good, won’t He do it whether we pray or not?
Hello from Dartmouth,
We are wrapping up our sophomore summer with the ‘18s and it has flown by quickly! We spent several weeks walking through a book study with them over Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller, which proved to be not only impactful for the students, but for us as staff as well. It proved to be the perfect read, given the phase of life the students are in with all the pressure they feel to perform and to put their value and worth in their grades or a job or a spouse. We were thankful for the conversations that led to a greater hope and thanksgiving for Christ who frees us from bondage to the things that do not satisfy that we might worship the only One who can truly fulfill us.
Dear Prayer Partners,
The fall air is noticeably "in the air" as mornings are cooler and the streets of New Haven are alive again. Christian Union's ministry here at Yale has kicked off the new semester with a pre-retreat of students leaders. We got away for three days together to hear from one another about all that God had done in each student's life this summer, as well as what we hope He will do at Yale this fall. There was great enthusiasm and energy for prayer and outreach--both critical aspects of a thriving ministry this year.
Greetings from the campus of Harvard Law School!
As the warm summer days give way to the approach of autumn, students are beginning to repopulate the Harvard Law School campus.
When former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli raised the price on the drug Daraprim by 5,000% earlier this year, he also raised the question of whether pharmaceutical should be held to higher ethical standards than companies in other industries.Greetings from Princeton!
We are under two weeks away from our annual Pre-Retreat, which will mark the official start of our fall season of ministry at the university. This particular retreat is an opportunity for some of our core leaders to gather together before classes start. We want them to be refreshed spiritually through biblical teaching and worship, connect relationally through the fellowship a retreat affords, and prepare to approach the fall season with outward-looking hearts and minds for the sake of inviting freshmen into Christian community. We would ask for your prayers for a powerful and encouraging time away together!
