Hard to believe it's November already; the fall has literally flown by as we've seen God continue to move on campuses across Iowa in powerful ways. Since I last wrote six weeks ago, WE'VE SEEN ANOTHER EIGHT STUDENTS START TO FOLLOW JESUS(!), the latest being an Asian international student at the University of Iowa last week!
Here's two stories from Drake University where I spoke on 9.30 (I asked you to pray for this night at the end of my last post...God answered your prayers!) Both stories are told by Amy Schoepf, our staffworker at Drake:
the first student who said yes is SALLY. 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?" 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 callie (brand new christian) to come with us. callie shared with sally 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, sally''s life will never be the same. and callie is ready to lead more people to jesus. :)
the second student is one who's been coming all year so far. KELSEY. 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...KELSEY WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE BEEN IN THE ROOM.... wow...God's timing in so incredible huh?
UNBELIEVABLE HUH?! It's stories like this that fuel us through the ups and downs of campus ministry. God is so good.
There are more stories to share (in fact, what's happening in Iowa is starting to get national press...no really!), but I want to get to a couple special opportunities for you to join in with what God is doing through InterVarsity in Iowa.
- First is a special event called $20 FOR CHANGE that we're going to be doing one week from tonight (11.11) at Central. The idea is simple: as a way to demonstrate the grassroots nature of God's Kingdom, we're going to be giving $20 bills to 100 students (think reverse offering), and asking them to commit to investing that money in the work of God's Kingdom on Campus. I can't wait to hear the stories.
- Second is a scholarship program called REYBANA that we are running for Central students. Every three years, InterVarsity hosts a missions convention called Urbana (http://www.urbana09.org/) for 20,000 students from around the globe. This year, we're partnering with Campus ministries at Central (sponsors of a Christmas break mission trip to Reynosa) to offer a "2 for 1" deal to students who register for both experiences so they can have the experience of learning about missions and then doing missions in the same Christmas Break!
Thankful,
Jon
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