Tom and Nancy Lin

I’m officially two weeks into my new role, about to head out on my 4th trip and my first InterVarsity Board meeting.  I was encouraged by my initial meetings with Missions Department colleagues, who share a passion for missions and for engaging college students in missions.  I also felt like a rookie staff again as I got “oriented” to my new office at our National Service Center (where I had not stepped foot into since the mid-1990s)! 

I’ve also been inspired and encouraged by my leadership team, of whom I’ll share more about in a post next month.  Thanks also to many of you who have shared their URBANA and IV Missions testimonies with me.  In one evening alone, I received 25 Facebook responses/messages filled with testimonies!  Several wrote posts such as:

• “[After decades], I still keep my laminated Urbana Decision Card in my purse.”


• “Urbana permanently changed my view of the world and myself.”


• “I don’t think I would be serving in this ministry now, if it weren’t for [Global and Urban] Projects.”


• “I still use things I learned [through IV missions training] in my relationships with both friends and strangers. And especially at work!”

With 45+ staff gathered in Missouri, I gave my last address to my team last month at our Regional Staff Conference.  It was an encouraging time of celebrating God’s work in the Central Region, and a meaningful “send-off” for Nancy and me.  Some reflections are in our recent Prayer Letter DECEMBER 2010. We also celebrate stories in InterVarsity’s 2009-10 Annual Report. On page 1, one of the chapter plants I supervised is highlighted – Creighton University.Creighton represents our Region’s first foray into Nebraska since 2000, an intentional goal I had as I began my Regional Director role in ‘07.  As I now transition into my new role as VP of Missions and Director of Urbana on Feb. 1st, I look forward to working with a new and gifted team focused on the same compelling vision of InterVarsity.

It’s been over a week since I returned from the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, perhaps the largest and most diverse gathering of church leaders ever, leaders from about 200 countries.   The spotlight was on one thing: the global church engaging in global mission in the 21st century, or, “from everywhere to everyone.”

There’s too much to share in one blog, so I’m grateful that the schedule and videos of almost the entire Congress have been posted online.  Personally speaking, here are a few of my takeaways and reflections:

• InterVarsity’s emphasis on inductive Bible Study and my service on Wycliffe Bible Translators’ board made me excited when I witnessed all 4,400 delegates participate in inductive small group bible study in Ephesians every morning as well as seeing a video on “Eradicating Bible Poverty” every morning.  Scripture in mission is a significant missions issue in the world today.


• Even though the term “unreached people groups” was coined around the time of the 1st Lausanne in 1974, more than a thousand people groups have never been engaged with Gospel and over 2,200 language groups don’t have the Scriptures in their own language.  More importantly, the high commitment to reaching this student generation and youth in the West was striking.  Many Brazilian, Indian, Korean, and Nigerian missionaries shared their heart to come to our country to proclaim Christ to our American students!  It truly was humbling.


• John Piper’s challenge to give weight to both “eternal suffering” AND temporal suffering in the world today.  If you’re missing either one, you either have a “defective view of hell” or a “defective heart.”


• There’s a spirit of collaboration and openness to global partnerships (as well as partnerships between U.S.-based missions agencies!) that I have not witnessed before.  It was also encouraging to see this diverse gathering rally around the Chinese Church and the Chinese delegation that was unable to come to Cape Town.


• The inspiring testimonies from leaders of persecuted nations and stories from the suffering Church presented a healthy challenge for the Church in the West.


• One of my biggest encouragements was seeing IFES staff from around the world in leadership positions at Lausanne and several speaking at plenaries up front.  Former Urbana speakers and friends spoke, and IFES alumni and IV alumni made up a significant number of the global delegates.  My former Associate Regional Director Lindsay Olesberg had oversight over morning plenary sessions, and the Urbana drama team and Urbana program team also has significant roles.  Fun to see them at work!


• There’s so much more I can share, but I’ll stop here.  For more, check out our InterVarsity @ Lausanne blog as well as Christianity Today’s blog.

I’ve posted my August 2010 Prayer Letter online, which includes a short 2009-10 annual report from the Central Region.  Enjoy!

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.

 

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 theAmerican 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.”

Lots to celebrate this past fall, and please keep Urbana 09 in your prayers!  Click here to view our December prayer letter.

This is the most conversions (over 16) that Central College’s InterVarsity group has seen annually, and it’s only October!  Here’s the story of another new believer, as emailed real-time by a student leader at Central College:

A freshman girl Jennifer from Graham came to our small group as we studied Mark 4. She asked honest questions but was really not understanding what was going on in the passage. We talked through a couple of things but then she left. This weekend I received this e-mail from her:

”Hi, I was in your small group last Wednesday night. I don’t know if you can help me but I don’t know who to ask about faith. I am new to being a Christian and new to the bible, and have grown up in a home with atheists. I have had a rough past and am ashamed of it, and am looking to find some guidance for my future. I have been told that I can never be forgiven by God for what I have done in the past and I am scared because if that is true I am afraid what my life has in store for me. Can something from my past be so bad that God can never love me?”

I feel like God is going to absolutely bring new life to her and I’d love if you’d be in prayer. We’re going to meet tonight at 7, so pray for the Spirit’s leading and God’s love for her to be clearly expressed.  Thanks!

Here’s the second email from that student leader on the following evening:

Jennifer and I just got done talking, and she prayed tonight to accept Jesus as her savior!! She asked a lot of good questions about forgiveness, prayer and church. I made sure that she knew that she just wasn’t accepting my beliefs, but was beginning a relationship with a living God. She prayed for forgiveness and to receive the Holy Spirit and said that she felt amazing! I went with her back to Graham as she shared with some girls what she just experienced, then I left as she went to a prayer meeting that another girl in Graham had already set up.

I can’t say anything else but praise the Lord!! Thanks for praying!

 

I’ve never seen anything quite like this in less than 30 days time:  27 students decided to follow Jesus for the 1st time in Iowa alone, and 15 students responded to a call to faith at the first large IV event at Harris-Stowe State - a new IV chapter plant!  Staff Ashley Smith blogs about the Harris-Stowe event online.  I’ve also included below the latest story from Drake, where 2 students said “yes” to Jesus for the 1st time last week at an IV gathering… From Amy Schoepf, IV staff at Drake:

jon came last week and finished up our series on the kingdom—speaking on the pearl of great price and hidden treasure. after his talk, half the room stood up to exchange more of their “stuff” whatever that may be, for more of the kingdom. SWEET! i’ll hold them to it! :) and… TWO STUDENTS STOOD TO SAY YES TO JESUS AND HIS KINGDOM FOR THE FIRST TIME! woooohoooo!! right?? now do a little dance or something.

the first student who said yes is sam. she emailed me 3 weeks ago and said “i’m a freshman. i’m missing God in my life. can you help me find him?” hahahahahahahhaha.

anyway, she’s been coming to all of our stuff since then and getting connected. 3 weeks later, she stands at an invitation to follow Jesus for the first time. i got to follow up with her after, and asked courtney (brand new christian) to come with us. courtney shared with sam how incredible it is to say yes to Jesus and how she’ll never be the same and then she and i prayed with her to comitt her life to Jesus. also, she doesn’t know any christianese yet—so her prayer was so delighfully simple. courtney is right, sam’s life will never be the same. and courtney is ready to lead more people to jesus. :)

the second student is one who’s been coming all year so far. katie. she comes with her crew of friends and does the christian thing. to be honest, i didn’t really know where she stood and her friends just assumed she was a christian (let this be a lesson to you amy schoepf and friends!). but she stood to say yes to Jesus for the first time. she was followed up with her friends after and when i arrived home from our large group that night i had an email waiting in my inbox from her. she explained that after jon’s message she finally figured out “why” she’s been coming to intervarsity. she explained that she’d never comitted her life to Jesus and saying yes to Him was “the most powerful feeling i’ve ever felt.” and here’s the crazy part. that same morning she accepted a bid from a pharmacy fraternity on campus that meets every wednesday night at 9pm—beginning the very NEXT WEEK at 9. she’s also an RA so she can’t attend any small groups, etc. bc of scheduling. if jon had not been there that night, if he wouldn’t have given the invitation he did…if it had been just one week later…katie wouldn’t have even been in the room. in fact, she’ll never be back to intervarsity. wow…God’s timing in so incredible huh?

so, take a minute and tell Jesus how sweet He is.
ask Him if there are katie’s in your chapter who you assume are christians but simply need an invitation.

keep it coming Jesus. you’re amazing.
amy

University of Missouri-St. Louis is a new chapter “plant”, but in our very first week on campus,  2 students made 1st-time decisions for Christ.  Drake University also celebrated one student’s conversion, and a big evangelistic night at Central College in Iowa resulted in 14 students giving their lives to Christ for the 1st time!  The stories are encouraging, so read on…

*From IV staff Chioma Chukwu (U of Missouri-St. Louis): “…I was SO close to going home because I was tired and it was Friday, but for some reason I started prayer walking again by myself. So glad I stayed. I ended up just getting on one of the shuttle buses to see what happened. Turns out there was a girl on there that I met last year with Jordan when we were doing some evangelism at UMSL. We shared our stories with her, but she said she was still searching last year and wasn’t ready to say yes to any kind of religion. The shuttle was going to the grocery store, so I walked and talked with her as she told me the abusive relationship she just got out of and the loneliness she was having now that her boyfriend had moved out. I asked her what role she felt God had played in this process and she realized that He protected her and gave her strength to get out of the relationship. She had been asking God that if He was real, would He give her strength through the process and He did.

“We talked at the store, split up to do grocery shopping and I was silently asking God to save her throughout that hour. I went back to her house and hung out with her and she told me more about her journey with God. She said she felt lost and confused but wanted to take the next step with God and commit her life to following Him and Jesus being her personal savior. I told her that it takes a simple prayer of just asking Him and inviting Him in because I think she thought there is this official process that she hasn’t “got down” or something. So we prayed together and she said she felt peace like she had not felt in a long time. She started crying when I prayed “Jesus, I pray that she would know that you accept and love her the way she is and no one will ever love her the way that You do.” A lot of people had treated her badly in the last year, and Jesus knew and wanted her to know that she was cherished by Him and His love would carry her through all things. She will also be attending our bible studies on Thursdays to grow in her walk with Christ.”

*From IV staff Amy Schoepf (Drake U): “Hey everyone. We have our first conversion of the year at Drake! YAY! Take a minute to shout or do a little dance or something… So Courtney had been a little bit involved in InterVarsity last Spring—and stayed in touch with some students over the summer. She had connected quite a bit with Atalie—who, if you remember—became a Christian last year. Long story short, Courtney, Atalie, and some other IV girls were over at my house Friday night. We were just hanging out and talking and I don’t know what got into me—I just looked at Courtney and blurted out “When are you going to commit your life to Jesus?”

“She began to cry (woops!) and share about the things that were holding her back. Atalie jumped in and started sharing her testimony and telling Courtney she just needed to “go for it.” Courtney agreed and then Atalie and I led her in prayer to commit her life to Jesus. I could literally see Courtney’s body react to giving her life to Jesus…her physical posture was relief. It was awesome. Then we prayed for her to be “sent” to her friends. Courtney has 3 friends who come to IV stuff with her and they are all culture Christians—probably very little if any relationship with Jesus. She was so excited and I asked her to share her testimony this Wednesday night at our weekly service! :) Pray for her.

“I drove Atalie home later and she was SO EXCITED! She said…”So Amy, that was my first?!! That’s the first person I got to see get saved!” And then explained that she “wanted to do it again!” Haha….ooooh I love it.”

*From Area Director Jon Hietbrink (Central College): “The night got off to a great start, and I felt good about how my talk was going as I headed toward the call. I had planned on inviting people to stand who identified with the younger son (irreligious, shady past, etc.) and the older son (cultural “christians”, pseudo-religious, etc.), and then I had about 15 student leaders/staff ready to follow-up immediately with whoever stood, thinking that maybe 5 or 10 folks might stand (not exactly “more than you could ask or imagine”, huh?!)

To my shock, when I made the call, about 30 people stood up, and instantly, I assumed I just hadn’t made it clear that it was a call for people to “follow Jesus for the first time”…I was later proved wrong! I asked everyone to come up to the front so I could pray for them (while the follow-up folks surrounded them), and then I invited them to break off into pairs/threes to talk about what God was doing and what decisions they had made. Here’s a sampling of the reports from the student leaders…

• Rick — Sort of knows a little about Church but stopped going in high school and has lived with no regard for Jesus since. Wants to follow Jesus but is scared that he wont be able to overcome temptations and not fall away.


• Karen — She said that she has never really been religious and doesn’t know a whole lot about Christianity/following Jesus, but she has been coming to the Calm and Nine and keeps just feeling like its right and keeps getting chills all the time when she’s there :)


• Amelia— She also has never been religious and did mention that she feels like she understands the younger son because she has done things in her past she isn’t proud of. She did however talk about her love for doing service work and helping people, and we talked about how she can continue to do those things and share Jesus’ love with people through it.


• Mia — This was something she was wanting for a while. She’s been looking to talk to someone about this for a while and it was for her tonight. Her legs were shaking the whole night pretty much, and she stood up and they stopped. I feel like I really didn’t say much but God was already doing stuff. She grew up Catholic and has struggled a lot with earning salvation and has come to the realization while here (she transferred) that coming to events and doing church doesn’t result in satisfaction/salvation. I talked with her how it is by grace we are saved- she’s said the prayer before, so we did not do it again- and that it is a gift we can’t earn. She seemed pretty excited about it all. She went for a walk afterwards to just “think.”