It is exciting to write this inaugural prayer letter! Please praise and thank God along with us for what has happened so far this fall:
Greetings from the campus of Harvard Law School!
Famous for its fall foliage, the bright colors that once hung so magnificently in the New England autumn sky now drape the ground in subdued and faded shades of brown. Like life, fall foliage reminds us of the cycle of birth and death that marks our own journey through the present world to the heavenly Zion.
Dear friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and encouragement to all of us who labor for Jesus Christ on the campus of Princeton University. As you know, Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton has a goal of developing Christian leaders to transform culture; we seek to never lose sight of this goal, as we teach students the Bible, train and mentor young men and women, and do our best to equip them for lives of service, leadership, and influence in our world for the glory of Jesus Christ and the good of all people in Him. Below, I offer you a few brief updates on various aspects of our ministry at Princeton.
Dear Prayer Partners!
Thank you for your prayers and support of Christian Union at Yale. Shortly after I sent the last prayer email, one of you encouraged me to keep on spiritually “mothering,” and later that day a student confessed some sin to me, asked for my advice and help to get out of the situation and then said to me, “Thank you for being my mom that I can tell things to” (as opposed to her mom that she can’t tell things to).
Dear Friends and Partners of Penn,
My family is new to Philadelphia and Christian Union at the University of Pennsylvania, and at times it seems as though we’ve crammed 3 years into our 3 months here. But what a joy it has been. We have seen God working in the students of Penn, in the churches of Philly, and in the ministry team here of which I’m overjoyed to be a member. Thank you for your continued prayers for myself and my family, and the prayers for the other new Ministry Fellow, Kelly Schaaf, and her family, and Ministry Director Justin Mills and his family.
Thank you for praying for students in our ministry in November—the time to focus on answers to prayer with thanksgiving!
Dear Prayer Partners,
Thank you for your ongoing prayers and support! The semester is officially at its midway point, and that means many tests, papers, problem sets (“p sets”)…and lots and lots of stress.
Hello Prayer Partners,
This has been a pretty big month for the Christian Union faculty here in Hanover. The Albanese family welcomed a new beautiful baby girl named Hazel Rebecca Albanese. She arrived on September 25th at 3:22am and is doing very well. In addition to this, Ministry Fellow, Kristen Ottaviano, was engaged to be married to Dominic Sylvester on September 30th! Also, Chase and I are happy to announce that we are expecting our own little bundle of joy in April! Exciting times for our team here and we would cherish your prayers for all the wonderful gifts and changes to life that are happening.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
