December 19, 2019
Merry Christmas from Palo Alto!
Our meditation as a ministry recently has been on Colossians 3:1-4:
What has struck me is that Paul does not say, “Set your mind on ‘the Thing’ above (namely God), not on things that are on earth.” Had he said that, he would be distinguishing between Creator and creation (an admittedly important distinction). But to read the passage this way would be overly simplistic, in part because “the things that are above” which Paul mentions are plural. Therefore, “the things that are above” must include more than God alone.
Our meditation as a ministry recently has been on Colossians 3:1-4:
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
November 21, 2019
Grace and peace from Palo Alto!
A common refrain that we hear about this point in the fall quarter is, “Sorry, I’m too busy this week!” or, “I don’t know if I can meet with everything I need to do.” And it’s true, the weeks prior to the end of the fall quarter are rough, and the students—especially the new freshmen—struggle to keep above the waters. Sometimes I’m tempted to break it to them that life doesn’t slow down after college either! But part of our calling as ministers on these campuses is not to compound the issue with more events and more obligation. Our calling is to point them to the One who sustains them, the One who is our very peace in the midst of the storm:
What a privilege to know a God who enters into our storms and reaches out to us with a strong hand! Join us in prayer this season for the work on this campus:
We remain grateful for your prayers and your partnership.
In Christ,
Garrett Brown
Ministry Director
Christian Union Caritas
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
A common refrain that we hear about this point in the fall quarter is, “Sorry, I’m too busy this week!” or, “I don’t know if I can meet with everything I need to do.” And it’s true, the weeks prior to the end of the fall quarter are rough, and the students—especially the new freshmen—struggle to keep above the waters. Sometimes I’m tempted to break it to them that life doesn’t slow down after college either! But part of our calling as ministers on these campuses is not to compound the issue with more events and more obligation. Our calling is to point them to the One who sustains them, the One who is our very peace in the midst of the storm:
Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
What a privilege to know a God who enters into our storms and reaches out to us with a strong hand! Join us in prayer this season for the work on this campus:
- Pray for strength and endurance as the students head into the final stretch of fall.
- Pray for the upcoming Thanksgiving break, that they are refreshed and reconnect with family.
- Pray for our ongoing Bible Courses, for community and fellowship to flourish through them.
- Pray for our CU team at Stanford: Abigail, Garrett, Jim, Justin, and Susan.
- Pray for Jesus to be lifted up throughout this campus through the words and loving actions of his many followers in Palo Alto!
We remain grateful for your prayers and your partnership.
In Christ,
Garrett Brown
Ministry Director
Christian Union Caritas
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
October 31, 2019
Greetings from Palo Alto!
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel” (Colossians 1:3-5)
What has struck me most this quarter as we revisit Colossians in Bible courses and one-on-one meetings is the relationship of faith and love to hope which Paul here describes.
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel” (Colossians 1:3-5)
What has struck me most this quarter as we revisit Colossians in Bible courses and one-on-one meetings is the relationship of faith and love to hope which Paul here describes.
September 26, 2019
God’s grace from Palo Alto!
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
(Romans 15:1-7).
This passage is our theme as we turn our efforts toward welcoming new students. As I write this 1700 freshmen from around the world are wrapping up several days of orientation and settling in for their first classes this week. We are excited to meet them and welcome them as Christ has received us!
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
(Romans 15:1-7).
This passage is our theme as we turn our efforts toward welcoming new students. As I write this 1700 freshmen from around the world are wrapping up several days of orientation and settling in for their first classes this week. We are excited to meet them and welcome them as Christ has received us!
August 29, 2019
Greetings from Palo Alto!
Students are gearing up to return, or arrive for the first time, to Stanford’s campus toward the end of September. We would love for them to benefit from your prayers!
January 31, 2019
Greetings from Palo Alto!
“Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Hebrews 13:9).
Students in our Bible courses meditated on this verse recently as we concluded our Bible course on the book of Hebrews. The author’s teaching certainly includes the temple sacrifices which, after the sacrifice of Christ, had become obsolete.
December 20, 2018
Merry Christmas from Palo Alto!
As I write this, our students are in the final stretch of their fall quarter, laboring over exams and papers, counting the minutes until they can walk away from all of it for a few weeks. For busy students (as well as the rest of us) exerting so much energy and focus on finishing the task during this time of year can certainly take them out of the season of Advent—a season of expectation, waiting, and reflection. In light of this, how refreshing it was recently when one of our students led a prayer time on campus using the words of a great old Christmas hymn to focus our devotion and prayer:
As I write this, our students are in the final stretch of their fall quarter, laboring over exams and papers, counting the minutes until they can walk away from all of it for a few weeks. For busy students (as well as the rest of us) exerting so much energy and focus on finishing the task during this time of year can certainly take them out of the season of Advent—a season of expectation, waiting, and reflection. In light of this, how refreshing it was recently when one of our students led a prayer time on campus using the words of a great old Christmas hymn to focus our devotion and prayer:
September 27, 2018
Hello from Palo Alto!
Today is a big day for students at Stanford, especially for our new freshmen. As I write this, today (Monday) is the first day of the fall quarter. I think about these students stepping into a classroom for the first time, a launch of a four-year journey that started years prior for most of them as they strove hard to enter their top choice schools. As we have prayed and prepared to meet these new students, I also think of the spiritual opportunities ahead of them. For some, unfortunately, their faith will be shaken and they will exit Stanford not walking with Jesus and out of fellowship with His Church. But for some (and we pray for many!) this will be the season they will look back on the rest of their lives and say, “This is where God met me.”
Today is a big day for students at Stanford, especially for our new freshmen. As I write this, today (Monday) is the first day of the fall quarter. I think about these students stepping into a classroom for the first time, a launch of a four-year journey that started years prior for most of them as they strove hard to enter their top choice schools. As we have prayed and prepared to meet these new students, I also think of the spiritual opportunities ahead of them. For some, unfortunately, their faith will be shaken and they will exit Stanford not walking with Jesus and out of fellowship with His Church. But for some (and we pray for many!) this will be the season they will look back on the rest of their lives and say, “This is where God met me.”
August 30, 2018
Warm greetings from Palo Alto,
As a novice parent trying to figure out how to raise three young children (and making many more mistakes than I thought I would!), I often find myself saying inside my head, “What matters most in my relationship with my kids is that I love them, and that they know it.” Until recently, I found myself focusing on that first element: that I love my kids. After all, that’s the element in my control, right?
As a novice parent trying to figure out how to raise three young children (and making many more mistakes than I thought I would!), I often find myself saying inside my head, “What matters most in my relationship with my kids is that I love them, and that they know it.” Until recently, I found myself focusing on that first element: that I love my kids. After all, that’s the element in my control, right?
July 26, 2018
Grace and peace from Palo Alto!
As we settle into different rhythms for the summer, I reflect on our students spread around the world: New York City, Dominican Republic, Kenya, India, among other locales. It is encouraging to think of these students being challenged in so many ways, exploring their faith in new contexts, sharing the hope of Jesus with others. Yet we also miss the daily interaction with our Christian Union students and look forward to reconnecting in a couple of months.
As we settle into different rhythms for the summer, I reflect on our students spread around the world: New York City, Dominican Republic, Kenya, India, among other locales. It is encouraging to think of these students being challenged in so many ways, exploring their faith in new contexts, sharing the hope of Jesus with others. Yet we also miss the daily interaction with our Christian Union students and look forward to reconnecting in a couple of months.
June 14, 2018
Greetings from Palo Alto!
Students at Stanford have just finished their spring quarter exams and are beginning their summer adventures of internships, volunteering, travel, time with friends and family and more. Please pray for these more than 18,000 students, that God would make himself known to them through his word, through the world he has made, and through the body of Christ!
Students at Stanford have just finished their spring quarter exams and are beginning their summer adventures of internships, volunteering, travel, time with friends and family and more. Please pray for these more than 18,000 students, that God would make himself known to them through his word, through the world he has made, and through the body of Christ!
May 24, 2018
Grace and peace from Palo Alto!
In what has become his classic work, The Reason for God, Tim Keller offers a compelling picture of the nature of faith: “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
In what has become his classic work, The Reason for God, Tim Keller offers a compelling picture of the nature of faith: “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
April 30, 2018
Warm greetings from Palo Alto!
“You are what you love.” Or so claims Christian philosopher James K. A. Smith (in his book by that title), which we recently considered together as a community.
I don’t mean you are the things that you love, but you are the sum of your loves—your actions of loving and desiring. You are not primarily a “thinking thing” (a res cogitans, in the language of Decartes), but a loving and desiring thing. Our thinking is no doubt crucial to who we are, but it is subservient to our loving. Our thoughts are means to the end of—and culminate in—our loving.
“You are what you love.” Or so claims Christian philosopher James K. A. Smith (in his book by that title), which we recently considered together as a community.
I don’t mean you are the things that you love, but you are the sum of your loves—your actions of loving and desiring. You are not primarily a “thinking thing” (a res cogitans, in the language of Decartes), but a loving and desiring thing. Our thinking is no doubt crucial to who we are, but it is subservient to our loving. Our thoughts are means to the end of—and culminate in—our loving.
April 25, 2018
Palo Alto, CA
Click here, to read our yearly financial update for Christian Union Caritas -- Christian Union's ministry to students at Stanford.The Lord is moving at Stanford. With your help, we believe God will do much more. The ministry needs to raise $288,923 for its ministry at Stanford by June 30. 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 Option 2
3) Pray to see God glorified at Stanford
4) Join our prayer email list by emailing: prayer@christianunion.org
March 22, 2018
Greetings from Palo Alto!
I was recently rereading a book chapter that God used to get me through a very tough semester when I was a freshman in college. In the last chapter of The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee reflects on the story in the Gospels (only a few days before Jesus dies on the cross) when Mary comes to a dinner uninvited, breaks an alabaster jar of ointment—worth a staggering amount—and anoints Jesus with the jar’s entire contents (Mark 14:3–9). Even the disciples were indignant and cried out, “Why this waste!” Judas’s voice may have been the loudest among the disciples (John 12:4–6), but he was not alone (Matt 26:8–9). Nee remarks, “Human reasoning said this was really too much; it was giving the Lord more than His due.”
I was recently rereading a book chapter that God used to get me through a very tough semester when I was a freshman in college. In the last chapter of The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee reflects on the story in the Gospels (only a few days before Jesus dies on the cross) when Mary comes to a dinner uninvited, breaks an alabaster jar of ointment—worth a staggering amount—and anoints Jesus with the jar’s entire contents (Mark 14:3–9). Even the disciples were indignant and cried out, “Why this waste!” Judas’s voice may have been the loudest among the disciples (John 12:4–6), but he was not alone (Matt 26:8–9). Nee remarks, “Human reasoning said this was really too much; it was giving the Lord more than His due.”
February 22, 2018
Nothing is yet in its true form.
—C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
This short, but loaded statement from Lewis’ reimagining of the Cupid and Psyche myth contains a good measure of hope, but also a fair amount of challenge. We are creatures in process, striving toward Christlikeness, often stumbling along the way. As our students endure the midpoint of the winter quarter (and the school year!), they have a keen sense that their lives are yet not in a true and final form. God has begun a good work in many lives on this campus, and He will carry it to completion through His Son.
—C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
This short, but loaded statement from Lewis’ reimagining of the Cupid and Psyche myth contains a good measure of hope, but also a fair amount of challenge. We are creatures in process, striving toward Christlikeness, often stumbling along the way. As our students endure the midpoint of the winter quarter (and the school year!), they have a keen sense that their lives are yet not in a true and final form. God has begun a good work in many lives on this campus, and He will carry it to completion through His Son.
December 29, 2017
Happy New Year from Palo Alto!
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.
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.
October 26, 2017
Hello from Palo Alto!
We have arrived at the middle of the fall quarter for Stanford, and it has been an incredible first several weeks! Our Freshman Welcome fall kickoff resulted in connecting with a great group of freshman men and women who are exploring God and growing in their faith through the ministries of Christian Union Caritas -- Christian Union's ministry to students at Stanford.
We have arrived at the middle of the fall quarter for Stanford, and it has been an incredible first several weeks! Our Freshman Welcome fall kickoff resulted in connecting with a great group of freshman men and women who are exploring God and growing in their faith through the ministries of Christian Union Caritas -- Christian Union's ministry to students at Stanford.
September 12, 2017
Greetings from Palo Alto!
The incoming freshman class just arrived at Stanford on September 19th! Christian students across campus are pulling out all the stops to welcome these freshmen to Stanford and to the various Christian groups on campus. For many of these freshman, they will either get plugged into Christian community during the first few weeks of college, or they won’t at all during their four years here. These weeks are a pivotal time in their lives!
The incoming freshman class just arrived at Stanford on September 19th! Christian students across campus are pulling out all the stops to welcome these freshmen to Stanford and to the various Christian groups on campus. For many of these freshman, they will either get plugged into Christian community during the first few weeks of college, or they won’t at all during their four years here. These weeks are a pivotal time in their lives!
July 27, 2017
Summer greetings from the Bay Area!
The students and team in Palo Alto are in the middle of our summer rhythms, enjoying a slightly different pace and landscape. While this is a great time to refresh, we also expect God to continue His work in the lives of our students while they are away from the demands of school.
The students and team in Palo Alto are in the middle of our summer rhythms, enjoying a slightly different pace and landscape. While this is a great time to refresh, we also expect God to continue His work in the lives of our students while they are away from the demands of school.
