The fall semester has begun here at Brown University and we’re well into our Freshman Welcoming Campaign (our effort to love, serve and welcome freshmen into our community during the first four weeks of the semester). It’s been a flurry of events, conversations and the beginning of our normal rhythms of ministry. There’s so much I could share, but I wanted to briefly share one story.
Friends,
It’s the end of August, so you know what that means – students are getting ready to head back to campus! This is one of my favorite times of the year. Lots of energy on campus, excitement among the student body, and sense of God’s Spirit working in our midst. Please join us in prayer for the following as the semester begins:
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I pray your summer has been full of fun, rest and, most of all, Christ. Campus here at Brown has been quiet since graduation back on Memorial Day weekend. Outside of a few students who have remained in Providence for internships, research and/or work, the majority of our students are dispersed around the globe. Matt Woodard, Ministry Director of Christian Union at Brown University, Laurel Copp, Ministry Fellow, and I have been busy catching up on some professional development and preparing for the fall semester. Additionally, we have gathered the few remaining students for a study of the book of Revelation. Though we haven’t been able to gather as often as we had hoped, the times we’ve gotten together have been fun times of catching up and trying to wrap our minds and hearts around this crazy book of the Bible. We’d love your prayers as we meet a few more times between now and the beginning of August. Please pray that God would not only enlighten our minds but encourage our hearts and empower obedience as we finish up this final book of the Bible.
Friends,
It’s June and nearly all our students have left Brown’s campus, including our first-ever graduating class. As I’ve said in past prayer emails, this senior class that has just graduated was the first class of Brown students that Matt Woodard, Ministry Director, and I gathered together in the fall of 2014. In those first few months of their freshman year, these students trusted God with a vision of a community that was yet to be formed. They risked their time, energy and resources to gather friends for Bible Courses, retreats, campus outreach events and so much more. And you know what? God rewarded their faith. Over the course of their four years at Brown, God used these students to form a Christ-centered community on campus to help encourage Christian students while also witnessing to the hope of the gospel to the wider Brown community. If it weren’t for these students, these recently graduated seniors, and their love for Jesus and others, we definitely wouldn’t be the ministry we are today. Praise be to God for these young men and women that He so faithfully raised up for such a time as this!
Providence, Rhode Island
Click here, to read our yearly financial update for Christian Union at Brown University. The Lord is moving at Brown. With your help, we believe God will do much more. The ministry needs to raise $72,630 for its ministry at Brown by June 30th. Your gift, of any amount, will help to make Christ known at this wonderful university. Please prayerfully consider becoming a financial partner today.
If you have already made a gift, thank you! Would you consider a special, additional gift to help the ministry reach more students with the Gospel?
Make a Difference
1) Click here to give online2) Charge by phone or give appreciated assets: 609-688-1700 X915
3) Pray to see God glorified at Brown
4) Join our prayer email list by emailing: prayer@christianunion.org
Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I pray this email finds you well! April has been a busy season in the life of our ministry here at Brown University. We have officially transitioned student leadership over to a new group, who is excited to come together and dream of what God might do on College Hill next year. We had the opportunity to take our first graduating class of seniors on a retreat, April 13 - 14, to celebrate their four years here at Brown and the fact that they are the first group of students to ever be involved with our ministry, a ministry which began the fall of 2014. Much of what our ministry is today has to do with these graduating seniors’ involvement, leadership and vision for what God could do in and through them in their short time in Providence. This is definitely a milestone to celebrate!
Friends,
Students are currently scattered around the globe enjoying some rest and relaxation during Brown University’s spring break. Once they return to campus, we’ll have four more weeks with them before they move into reading/exam period. Hard to believe the end of the semester is so close at hand!
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.
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.
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!
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Friends,
By God’s grace, we have officially finished up our third year of ministry here at Brown University. As you read this, students are traveling across the world to visit family and friends, beginning internships, continuing studying and enjoying the rest that the summer months bring.
Friends,
On March 15 we had the privilege of partnering with Aletheia Church here in Providence to bring Dr. Brian Miller, Research Director at Discovery Institute, to Brown’s campus to talk with students on “How Science Points to a Creator.” Dr. Miller, a physicist with degrees from MIT and Duke, presented a 45-minute-long lecture, which covered everything from cosmology to physics to biology in his attempt to show that science and faith are not at odds. His lecture was followed by a time dedicated to allowing the audience to ask Dr. Miller follow-up questions as they processed his presentation.
Friends,
Spring semester is well underway here at Brown University, and we are keeping plenty busy with Bible Courses, our weekly lecture series, The Anchor, community and outreach events and much more.
Friends,
I pray you had a blessed Christmas and New Year as you celebrated with family and friends. As we, the Christian Union ministry staff at Brown University, enjoyed hosting out-of-town family and enjoying the normal seasonal celebrations, all has been pretty quiet on campus. All this will be changing now as students have just returned to campus and began classes on Wednesday. Given that students have just returned, I don’t have much to share, but I would ask that you pray for this upcoming semester.
Friends,
It’s hard to believe, but we’re already at the end of the semester here at Brown! These past few months have flown by as God has continued to work in the lives of so many students. Through our study of Mark’s Gospel, students have given serious thought to what it means to truly follow after Christ. Our weekly large-group gathering, The Anchor, has fostered space for healthy, Christ-centered dialogue on the topics of sexuality, politics, race and mental health – complex issues with which students at Brown are constantly wrestling and seeking to navigate as faithfully obedient and thoughtful Christians.
