Friends,
Since students have not yet returned to Brown's campus from Winter Break, this prayer email will be short and sweet. Would you please join us in praying for the following:
The Semester Ahead
This prayer request seems obvious, but please pray for this upcoming semester. As usual, we have several Bible studies, large group gatherings we call The Anchor, conferences and several other events to offer for students' continued growth in the faith. It's a lot to balance while continually pushing the ministry forward and loving/serving our families. Pray that we would lean on Christ and that his Spirit would give us strength and endurance to finish strong to the end of the semester.Bible Study Workshop
We will be offering a workshop on February 3 in which we'll explore how to study scripture using Genesis 1 as our case study. Pray that Laurel Copp, Ministry Fellow here at Brown University, and I would prepare well for this workshop and that students would walk away from it with a better sense of how to approach the study of scripture and a deeper love for God's holy Word.Nexus 2018
Every year we join hundreds of other students from across the Ivy League and Stanford for "a life-changing weekend of worship, prayer, speakers, small groups, fellowship, seminars and more." This year we will gather over February 23-25 in New Brunswick, NJ, and the theme will be, "Turn the World Upside Down." Please pray that this will be a transformative weekend for our students (so far, we have over 30 students registered to attend), that they would fall more in love with Jesus and bring that passion back to campus with them!I promise to have more updates in my next email. Until then, may the peace of Christ rule in your hearts!
In Christ,
Justin Doyle
Ministry Fellow
Christian Union at Brown University
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Brown, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
The first day of spring term began on January 24th! Our students have been on winter break since December 14th and we miss them terribly. (Because of winter break, this prayer letter is a bit shorter.) We value your prayers for a successful launch into the spring term.
This December we and our students have been reading a new Advent devotional—Come Let Us Adore Him, by Paul Tripp—which we gave out at our Christmas party at the beginning of the month.
Friends,
I pray this Advent season has been full of Christ’s presence, joy and peace!
It’s hard to believe, but this semester has already come and gone! It’s been a semester full of God’s goodness and faithfulness meeting students in their everyday lives – the highs and lows and every place in between. I could share many stories of God’s work on campus over the course of the Fall Semester, but I’d like to tell you about a large outreach event we organized earlier this month.
Greetings,
We’ve seen God work wondrously here at Columbia; we have so much to be thankful for. Both the staff and the students are excited about the acquisition of a new ministry center one block away from campus. Our biggest need as a ministry at Columbia is space, and God has made provision for that need in a significant way. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported the effort through prayer and financial giving. An incalculable number of lives will be blessed through this ministry center because of your support.
We are deeply grateful for your partnership in prayer!
Our Lord has been faithful, good, and gracious to our community here at Cornell this past semester. We have much to be thankful for.
Praise the Lord for the closing of a wonderful fall term at Dartmouth. We ended the semester with our annual Thanksgiving dinner, which the freshmen (‘21s) did a fantastic job planning and putting on. We enjoyed delicious food and fellowship, but I have to say the highlight of the evening was hearing the testimonies of three ‘21s. They each opened up about a difficulty or sin struggle in their past and how the Lord used it to grow them in their faith. The final testimony included a very clear and powerful gospel presentation, which brought tears to my eyes and thanksgiving to my heart. Join me in praising God for His powerful and intricate work in the students’ lives and for the ways He is using hardship to mature them in the gospel.
As always, thank you for your commitment to pray for the Christian Union ministry at HLS and our student group, Coram Deo Law. The Lord has provided according to his abundant wisdom and grace. And we rejoice with you that his work continues to bear fruit on the HLS campus and in the lives of our alumni.
As our students’ minds turn to prepare for finals, final papers and holidays, we ask for continued prayers for the gospel’s introduction and discipleship of Penn students to grow as followers of Christ in the world. As the semester is sunsetting, pray that students will persevere in both trust in Christ and studies.
Thank you for your faithful partnership in the gospel ministry at HLS. Please know that every moment you seek the Lord on our behalf is precious to us. And we trust the Lord along with you for his abundant grace to accomplish all of his plans on the HLS campus and beyond.
Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for your continued prayers for our students, our staff, and Yale University as a whole. As we’re wrapping up our study of Paul’s letter to the Philippians this week and next, I’m reminded of Philippians 1:3-5 that we “thank God in all our remembrance of you … because of your partnership in the gospel”. Both through your prayers and the help of Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:19), we are confident in the Lord that He will continue to build his kingdom here at Yale.
We are over halfway through the term and have been enjoying a beautiful, mild fall in Hanover. Bible courses have been going very well and the new freshmen (‘21s) are quickly getting plugged into the community. Many have already joined a ministry team and are weekly showing up to our Friday Leadership Lecture Series (The Vine).
It has been a great start to the school year at Penn. Thank you for your continued prayers for this ministry as we continue to proclaim the Gospel and develop our students to transform the culture of Penn for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Friends,
I pray this email finds you well. The Lord continues to show himself faithful to us here at Brown University, where our ministry has begun its fourth year on campus. For the first time ever, we have a graduating class, which means there are, also for the first time, four classes of students – freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors; four classes of Brown students that we have the incredible privilege of walking alongside as we all follow after Jesus. Praise the Lord for his goodness!
Greetings,
Christian Union at Columbia continues to experience God’s grace as we minister to the students on campus. We recently wrapped up a successful Freshman Campaign, in which we attained all our goals for the new freshman class. These students are enthusiastic new members of our family here at Columbia. We also had an impactful Fall Conference. For the conference, the staff chose to focus on the topic of wisdom, giving a series of talks from the book of Proverbs. Feedback from those in attendance was that it was one of our best Fall conferences yet. The students loved the talks we gave, and we were privileged to see one Freshman give her life to Christ during student prayer after one of the main sessions. We were also told that the conference was successful at causing friendships to form among students who usually don’t have much interaction with each other.
Dear friends and family of HCFA,
First, my name is Tyler Parker and I'm the Harvard College Faith & Action (HCFA) intern for this year! Some of you may know that Anne Kerhoulas usually writes these messages, but this month, we're trying out a little bit of a fresh perspective on things. As an HCFA alum, I'm truly honored and excited to be serving the organization that transformed my college experience and gave me my first true experience of spiritual family. With that said, here is the update for the month of October:
As I write this email, it finally feels like Autumn in Princeton. We are enjoying the cool mornings, warm afternoons and the start of fall foliage. It’s a beautiful time of the year. We are so thankful for your faithful prayers, support, and encouragement as we adjust to the rhythms of the new academic year. We are off to a good start and I’m happy to share with you the following highlights and updates from the past month.
