Dear HCFA friends and family,
Fall is here in Cambridge and it has been beautiful! We had the joy of getting away with students into the Berkshire’s of western Massachusetts a couple of weekends ago for our fall retreat. We had a great turn out this year — about 90 students, many of whom were freshman.
Greetings from the campus of Harvard Law School!
October is now upon us and the autumn leaves drape the Harvard campus in the bright colors for which New England is renowned. Hundreds of thousands of spectators and athletes will soon overflow the Charles River with the annual regatta races for which the city of Cambridge is famous.
The idea of the university has long been that of a community dedicated to discovering truth and its application to life. Guided by this mission, students and teachers were enabled to find the noble and beautiful things in the world, discover their relationship to one another, as well as establish a concrete structure from which all thoughts, words and actions flowed in their proper order. The biweekly eNewsletter from Christian Union
When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise — in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
— Psalm 56:3-4
Tolkien dearly loved his children, and he left a literary legacy in the form of letters. Many of these letters were written to his sons, and these letters represent, not only a hallmark of literary quality, but a treasure of Christian teaching on matters of manhood, marriage, and sex. Taken together, these letters constitute a priceless legacy, not only to the Tolkien boys, but to all those with whom the letters have been shared.Friends,
Freshmen Welcoming Campaign may be over, but God’s work in and through Christian Union at Brown University is in full swing! Since last I wrote to you, we — the Christian Union faculty at Brown (Matt Woodard, Ministry Director; Laurel Copp, Ministry Fellow; Justin Doyle, Ministry Fellow) and student leaders — have concluded our month-long Freshmen Welcoming Campaign with our annual Fall Retreat.
In an era that celebrates certain forms of diversity under the banner of acceptance, it is ironic that large swathes of American society—those who affirm traditional sexual ethics—are increasingly unwelcome. Now, there is a movement to exclude those holding such beliefs from the legal profession, or force them into conformity to secular sexual ethics. Recently, the American Bar Association initiated a horrifying change to their ethics rules. Under the new rules, any speech or activity that could be traced to organizations that endorse traditional sexual ethics, is punishable. The biweekly eNewsletter from Christian Union
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
— Titus 3:4-7
In a thoughtful article entitled ‘Understanding Generation Snowflake’, writer Carl Trueman reviews and dissects a book entitled I Find That Offensive. In the book, Claire Fox covers in-depth the present plight of many Western universities. She points out the weakness of modern day students and their need for “safe spaces,” while also identifying the significant changes in Western culture itself in the last few decades that have produced such a sensitive generation:Van Oss Writes about Wheaton Case for Harvard Law Review
By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
Religious liberties are woven into the fabric of the United States.With deep admiration for that principle, a Harvard Law School student addressed concerns over the status of such freedoms when he penned an article for the Harvard Law Review exploring some of the key issues in the recent Wheaton College v. Burwell case.
Given his concerns for government interference in the operations of faith-based entities, Trenton Van Oss took on the complex topic for an article that appeared in January.
The Wheaton alumnus of 2013 is an active participant in Christian Union's ministry at Harvard Law School.
Ministry Hosts Lecture by Christian Counseling Professional
by Eileen Scott, Senior WriterDepression is an unwanted intruder into the lives of millions of Americans, including students at top universities. Many of these young people attempt to hide their pain while coping with competing demands and lofty expectations.
A recent lecture sponsored by Christian Union's ministry at Dartmouth took aim at this often-misunderstood malady, creating awareness and empowering one student to take a life-altering step.
Thank you for praying for us. It is hard to choose which encouraging stories to share from the start of the semester until now. God is using your prayers for this campus to accomplish exciting things!
Hello from Dartmouth,
Fall term is off and running and it’s difficult to believe we’re already three weeks into the term with seven more to go. Thank you for all your prayers for the new freshmen (‘20s) who have come in and for our upperclassmen who have labored tirelessly in welcoming them and putting on events in order to meet them and introduce them to Christian Union at Dartmouth. Please join us in prayer for the following requests:
Dear HCFA friends and family,
We are back in full swing here at Harvard! It is just a couple of weeks into the semester and we have already had a retreat, done four weeks of freshman outreach, started Bible courses, had a few Friday night DOXA’s and are planning our fall retreat for the end of the month! The fall is certainly a busy time for students and staff, so we would love your prayers for strength in the Lord and attentiveness to His spirit as we minister on campus.
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. 