Freshmen Enjoy Leadership Roles During Annual Dinner
By Anne Kerhoulas, Staff Writer
Thanksgiving was a different holiday for most people this year, but thanks to the leadership and creativity of the freshman class, Christian Union Vox’s turkey dinner was one of the highlights of a socially-distanced semester. The annual event offers a unique chance for the freshmen to lead as well as an opportunity to invite non-Christian students to share a meal and hear the Gospel. With this year’s challenges due to COVID-19, the freshmen pulled off an impressive and impactful event.
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I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.— 1 Corinthians 1:10
This continues to be a most unusual year! Out of an abundance of caution, Brown decided to return students to campus in waves. Just recently, a second group of students moved back, while many more have chosen to study remotely this semester. In a normal year, we’d be sharing updates about our Leaders’ Retreat on the Cape, welcoming freshmen to dinners at the Judson Center, and giving away coffee on the Main Green. Nonetheless, we are thankful for those students who were able to return this semester and grateful for the technologies that enable us to move forward with online meetings!
On behalf of all the staff and students at Christian Union Lumine, let me wish you a Happy New Year. We pray you had a restful holiday. At present, Columbia University is on break and the spring 2021 semester begins on Monday, January 11. It’s a very short break — about 2 weeks — but a needed break for the students, nonetheless.
We’re wishing you a happy new year from snowy Ithaca! Thank you for your continued prayers for our staff and our students. We are trusting God and praying for a fruitful 2021 filled with Christian growth and maturity, new faith, and revival on our campus. We are happy to report that the students are doing well, and over the winter break, we have had several new students show interest in joining Bible courses and leadership for the upcoming year. Our staff and student Bible course leaders are preparing to teach Acts, Sex and Spirituality, and Seeking God Bible courses during the spring semester, which we pray will fill our students with truth that will empower their witness for Christ at Cornell in 2021, and we look forward to starting a new prayer meeting this spring that one of our amazing new freshmen has volunteered to lead!
Hello and Happy New Year from once snowy and now grassy Hanover. It's been a restful and celebratory month and I am excited to have the students returning to campus in early January. While the calendar has turned to a new year, the focus here continues to see students growing in their relationship with God and for revival to spring forth from Dartmouth. To that end, here are a few ways in which you can pray for Christian Union Vox:
Dear CU Gloria Cornerstone Partners and Friends,
It is hard to believe that 2020, a truly eventful year with all its ups and downs, has finally come to an end. God has seen CU Gloria and our students through all the unexpected turns that met us this year like needing to shift early on in the spring semester to Zoom Bible courses and Zoom Doxas (our Leadership Lecture Series) and maintaining that momentum through the fall semester as well.
As we begin a new year, we at CU Nova hope that your Christmas holiday was one of joy and fulfillment, even if it was different from previous years. CU Nova took the holiday time to relax, refresh, and recall how the Lord has been faithful within a wild year. Even through a global pandemic, our Heavenly Father has proven and will continue to prove that he is a faithful God who is sovereign and does not change. We worship him for he is worthy.
Welcome to 2021!
We’ve been reading 1 Samuel over Zoom together during the break. The faith of Hannah, the intimacy between God and Samuel, the failures of Saul, God’s incredible promises and grace to David, and so much more have been instructive and encouraging.
Dear CU Martus Cornerstone Partners and other friends of the ministry,
This story of the shepherds and the angels has always been a favorite. Maybe because the scene is so vivid. Or because it was such a stark contrast between field work and supernatural glory. This is definitely a season where we needed the reminder of God’s Advent power amidst the extraordinary ordinariness of Covid-tide. Of course, it would look a little different: God’s power breaking through a Zoom call, or an angelic host gathering above a rather lonely Franklin Field. God’s breaking into history is our hope. He came through 2000 years ago in the birth of Christ. He is trustworthy to come through again when Jesus will return and bring restoration and renewal to all things.
All of us are prone to forget the things God has done for us. We need reminders. When Joshua led God’s people towards their new home, they had to cross the Jordan River ( Joshua 3:15-16). God parted the waters, and His people walked through on dry land (v. 17). To create a memorial of this miracle, they took twelve stones from the middle of the riverbed and stacked them on the other side (4:3, 6–7). When others asked what the stones meant, God’s people would tell the story of what God had done that day.
Happy New Year! I want to begin by expressing our deep gratitude to the many of you who have participated in our ministry, attended our events, and have faithfully partnered with us financially to develop transformative Christian leaders. We serve a sovereign and yet merciful God who wants to break into our brokenness, and those of us who minister with Christian Union are blown away by the privilege of serving Jesus and His beloved people in this capacity.
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For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
— Isaiah 9:6
Christian Union Gloria Hosts Lecture with Ryan Gregg
By Kelly Parks, Staff Writer
This fall, CU Gloria, Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard, virtually hosted Ryan Gregg as a speaker for their Leadership Lecture Series, Doxa. As former co-president at the Harvard Graduate Christian Fellowship, Gregg discussed how to approach Christianity from an intellectual perspective.
Christian Union New York
Due to technical issues, the recording begins a couple minutes into the conversation.
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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
— Isaiah 40:4
Student Spotlight
The idea that faith and reason are opposing forces, enemies of one another that will never find common ground is a familiar concept in our increasingly secular society: faith is blind, reason is logical, faith isn’t academic, reason is scientific. Like many intellectually ambitious high schoolers, this was the thinking of Timothy Kinnamon, Columbia '20. But when Kinnamon entered Columbia and came across the CU Lumine community, he found these assumptions challenged and quickly overturned.
We hope you’ve all had a wonderfully refreshing and blessed Thanksgiving! Here at Brown, the ministry has so much to be thankful for this semester. CU Libertas continues to see the Lord work in the hearts and minds of our students. Despite the difficulties we’ve all faced during this abnormal season, students are seeing the fruits of faith toughened by extenuating circumstances, they’re sharing the gospel in creative ways with family and friends, and they’re relying on one another through prayer and new expressions of communal bond.
With Thanksgiving behind, the Christmas holidays ahead, and the semester coming to a close in a few weeks, we are grateful for the Lord’s hand that has guided CU Lumine this academic semester. As you may remember when the ministry reached out for prayer in September, there were so many unknowns. But in the midst of the unknowns, God proved Himself to be faithful.
Greetings from Ithaca! We appreciate your prayers and the opportunity to update you on the ministry at Cornell! Most of our students have returned home to complete their work virtually and as we reflect back on the semester, we praise God for his goodness and grace to us in the face of very difficult circumstances. Our Bible courses finished strong and added new members every week throughout the semester. The Gospel of Mark gave us the opportunity to draw near to Jesus and gain confidence in Him and his work for us on the cross. Our weekly prayer meeting also finished on a strong note, with one freshman committing to start her own student-led prayer meeting in the spring. Also, two freshmen had such a meaningful experience in their Bible course that they are feeling led to co-lead a freshman Bible study next year. The sense of community at the Mott center continued to build throughout the semester, with students congregating there for not only Bible courses and prayer meetings, but also small social gatherings and studying. While there is still a lot of uncertainty about the year ahead, one thing is for sure, the Lord is at work in these amazing students!
Thank you for praying:
- For student leaders, that more students will step up to lead with a willingness to serve their friends and the Cornell community in the coming year.
- For our freshmen, thanking God for them and praying they will continue to develop solid friendships and be encouraged by the ministry and the message of the gospel.
- For our students, that they will keep Jesus first in their hearts and minds, confident in Him as they finish their studies for the semester and get ready for winter break, and that God would bless them on their winter break and give them a vision for the spring semester.
- For Cornell University, that the virus infection rate would remain low, and that revival would come with many across the campus coming to know and trust Christ for salvation, and for wisdom in planning the spring semester with respect to Covid.
- For our staff, that we would have opportunities to encourage our students while they are away on winter break, and that we would prepare well for the spring semester.
Thank you for partnering with us in prayer for Cornell and the students of Christian Union Vita!
Blessings,
The Faculty and Students of CU Vita
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Cornell, please email prayer@christianunion.org.