Missions on Your Campus: Alec Hill from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

This week, as InterVarsity reaches out to 1,000’s of new students on over 30 campuses in the Midwest (about 600 nationwide), we hope to challenge mission-minded students toward seeing lives transformed, campuses renewed, and world-changers developed.  Please pray with us!

InterVarsity’s Global Urban Trek and Global Projects which took place over the summer have just ended, and amazing stories abound!  The Central Region sent a student team to Ethiopia, where we have partnered for several years with EvaSUE, Ethiopia’s student movement, to serve marginalized communities within Addis Ababa. Another team was sent to a university in East Asia for a cultural exchange project, with Americans sharing dorms and 24-7 interaction with the local students.  Last month, we had the honor of meeting that country’s Vice-Minister of Education who happened to visit that university!  Finally, our St. Louis Urban Internships just concluded — 30 students lived and worked among the refugee communities and the poor in St. Louis for 7 weeks.  Please continue to pray for continued fruit from these projects/internships.

“Tom is an entrepreneurial leader with rich experience in student ministry and missions, both in the U.S. and abroad,” said Alec Hill, InterVarsity’s president. “I am thrilled that he will be leading InterVarsity’s missions programming to challenge new generations of college students to invest their lives in the Great Commission and become a part of God’s global mission.”

Tom served with InterVarsity/USA from 1994 to 2001, planting new student chapters at Harvard University and Boston University, leading numerous student missions projects abroad and in North America, developing new national fundraising strategies and, designing national training for InterVarsity staff. From 2002 to 2006, Tom helped establish an evangelical student movement in Mongolia and served as the country director for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Mongolia. Since moving back to the U.S. in 2006, Tom has been an InterVarsity regional director, overseeing undergraduate campus ministry in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Tom has served as a missions consultant for various organizations and is in demand as a speaker and teacher throughout Asia and North America. Since 2005 he has served on the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators. He is also a trustee of the Leadership & Legacy Foundation.

Tom is the author of Losing Face, Finding Grace, published by InterVarsity Press (1997). He has a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University. He is completing an M.A. in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Jim Tebbe, the outgoing vice president of Missions and director of Urbana, will step down from his InterVarsity duties June 30, 2010, in advance of his new role as rector (president) of Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is an interdenominational ministry to students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses, with 36,000 core students and faculty on 673 campuses nationwide. InterVarsity is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in 150 countries.

InterVarsity’s Urbana Student Missions Conference has been held every three years since 1946. Through Urbana, more than 250,000 people have been challenged with their responsibility and privilege in world missions. The next Urbana conference will be held in St. Louis, December 2012.

Each typical cell has 3 components – intentional outreach, holistic worship, and authentic community.  Here’s a recent cell story from U of Missouri-St. Louis that illustrates our cell vision: This new IV chapter has seen 4 conversions in just the past few months, but more importantly, those new believers are already reaching their friends for Christ!  Ebony, Emily, Kristen, and Chelsea all became new believers in recent months, through the witness of IV students and Chioma, our IV missionary who is planting the new ministry.  Immediately after their decision, all 4 of them joined a cell group where they studied the Scriptures and gained a vision to share their faith with friends.  Soon after, Emily (who became a believer at Urbana) planted a new cell group in her sorority house and asked Kristen to help her.  Now Ebony has a vision to plant a new African-American cell group, to reach her African-American friends on campus.  And while they reach out with these new cell groups, these 4 continue to meet together in their original cell group for encouragement and their own growth as young believers!

One of the great privileges in my role as Central U.S. Regional Director is the opportunity to hear stories of what God is doing in our 27 chapters, 13 of which have just been planted in the past 2 years.  Below are 4 stories of great impact from this past February and March!

Story #1 from staff at U of Missouri-St. Louis (new plant):
“God’s blowing us away at UMSL. I’ll try and keep it short for you   Mark started the “InterVarsity Intramurals” volleyball team hoping to be a witness to the campus through the team. Monday night was the first game and there was a girl there, E, that didn’t have a team. They invited her over to play on theirs. I got there after this, and we went to McDonald’s after. It was a cool moment to see them being so invitational and welcoming into the group and E is African-American, so I’ve also seen them grow so much in inviting cross culturally (a lot of our students are white from VERY sheltered places).

The very next day, E saw me sitting at our table and sat down. We small talked, then I asked her what her spiritual background was. She said Christian, but currently not following Jesus. She said she’s not in relationship with God anymore. She sat at our table throughout the day as I made appointments with core team people when I saw them. She asked, “why do you take the time to meet with all of them?” I said to check in, see how they’re doing, and to equip them to live out their faith on campus the best way possible for who God made them. She was fascinated by how committed our group was to God and to each other. As we continued to broach the subject of spirituality, my core students were listening and participating until they had to leave for class.

The lunch hour passed and it was just me, Hannah and her. I asked her if Jesus was sitting right here with us and you could ask Him one question, what would it be? She said “would I go to heaven?“. Wow. Now that a couple hours passed she felt comfortable sharing with us. She said since she’s come to college, she had not been herself. She started sleeping around when she got to UMSL, and the crowd she rolls with treats her like garbage. She started crying and I started sharing some truth to her about her value in God’s eyes. Hannah caught onto what was happening and started sharing scripture and truth as well.

The funny thing was I had asked E earlier in the day if she wanted to follow Jesus again, and she said no, she wasn’t ready. But by the end of the day, God has really broken her down to see her need. As she was crying, I told her about God waiting for her to come back to Him without shaming or condemning her. But to love, protect and forgive her of her sins. Hannah is one of my core. She’s a gifted evangelist and she shared the beautiful story of Hosea. After lots of truth speaking, I finally asked her again if she wanted to commit her life to following Jesus again and making Him the Lord of her life and heart and she said yes. We prayed with her, and she prayed out loud with her head down, lots of tears and shaking as we held her on both sides agreeing with her prayer.

After that, lots of people came up and asked what was up and we had E tell them what had happened. “I just committed my life back to following Christ”. Hannah told me she gave her testimony at Women’s Bible Study the next morning. She also called her mom and told her. Her mom was thrilled and had been praying for her. She went back to church for the first time in months on Wednesday night. She came to our meeting on Thursday and we talked and prayed after about reaching the black community at UMSL. She has been SO warmly welcomed by all of our students and I’m so proud of them.

She came in contact with our group and less that 16 hours later she was following Jesus again. It happened about a week after Kristin. Our vision statement is that we’re bringing Jesus’ Revolution of Renewal to UMSL. Humbling much? I see it happening-God’s really good.”

Story #2 from staff at U of Northern Iowa:
“Last week Thursday, I asked you all to pray for a gathering at UNI where our staff, Rachel, was going to make an invitation to start following Jesus, and God answered!
•    10 students checked the box indicating they wanted to have a conversation about following Jesus
•    40 students committed to living for God’s mission on campus
•    28 students checked that they wanted to explore overseas missions
•    57 students committed to being a part of localized prayer groups across campus

We are in the process of following up with each of these folks personally to help them understand and follow through with the decisions they’ve made, but it’s safe to say that God was profoundly at work through your prayers, thank you!”

Story #3 from staff at University of Kansas

“Hi – a fun story from here at KU.  “H” is a new Chinese undergrad who became a Christian with us last semester.  He is full of enthusiasm and this semester wanted to begin a bible study in his dorm.  Last week as he sat in the cafeteria waiting for others, he decided to ask the American girl sitting a short way from him if she would like to stay for the study.  She said yes — and then she decided to follow Jesus during the Bible Study!”

Story #4 from staff at Forest Park Community College (new IV plant):
“‘So Allison…is it okay for me to just go and talk to people about Jesus? I know I don’t HAVE to. I know I have the freedom to not do it. I know I could go home and play video games but … I WANT to. It’s crazy. I just want to tell others about Jesus,‘ said a Forest Park student.  I replied with an enthusiastic “YES!” God does this marvelous thing of inviting people into his Kingdom work. It is a privilege to see God transform a comfortable and introverted person into someone that can’t help but share the Good News with his classmates.

‘Allison…when I am walking next to people, I think about their lives and have the urge to tell them about Jesus.’ As we see God more clearly, he begins to redefine the important things in our lives. He starts to give us desires and cares that we never imagined. Later that week this student took some friends around campus and started conversations with people, inviting them to an InterVarsity Bible study to look deeper at the life of Christ. A Buddhist friend joined Bible study that night. God is truly at work transforming lives and preparing a team of Forest Park CC students to love and reach out to their campus.”