Praying for GIGs...

Hi Everyone,

See the next post for an incredible story of God's work among Greek students at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, but for now, I wanted to invite you to be praying with me as we start this semester for a couple really key points. Perhaps you'd be willing to pray once a day for the following two things or on a particular day of the week (like Tuesday, for insteance) through the month of February and March...

1. One of our key initiatives on campus is to invite our current students to consider leading scripture discussion groups for their friends who aren't following Jesus (we call them Groups Investigating God--GIGs). Many of our campuses will be launching major GIG initiatives in the weeks before Spring Break. I'm praying for 30+ GIGs to happen all over the state, so please join me in praying that GOD WOULD SEND OUT STUDENTS INTO HIS HARVEST FIELD (LUKE 10:2).
   
2. GIGs are a terrific way both for students to own their faith with their friends, but even moreso for students who aren't following Jesus to see him in new ways that they might give their lives to him! Please join me in praying that GOD WOULD OPEN EYES TO SEE THE GOSPEL (II Cor. 4:4) of these students and that A GREAT NUMBER WOULD BELIEVE AND TURN TO THE LORD! (Acts 11.24)

Thanks everyone, I can't wait to share stories of how God answers your prayers!

With Great Expectancy,
Jon

UMSL?!?

Hi Everyone,

One of the unique privileges of my semester has been not only working on campuses across Iowa, but also getting the chance to coach a staff named Chioma Chukwu as she works to plant a new InterVarsity chapter at the University of Missouri- St. Louis (UMSL for short). We entered the year very uncertain about how things would go...UMSL is an almost entirely commuter campus, which makes it a very difficult place to start new ministry...sort of like trying to make deep friends at a truck stop (everyone is always on the go!)

Anyway, Chioma has been an absolute joy to work with, and God is blessing her efforts in dramatic ways. Here's an excerpt from her latest update about a move of God among Greek students on campus!!

As we entered last semester, Greeks were one of the target groups I was praying to reach and God has been answering that prayer! We had 8 students at Urbana and one of them was Emma, a sorority girl that grew up Catholic but had a lot of questions about her faith.... she was struggling with guilt for not knowing enough about God and scripture and also not being sure if she was a Christian...

At Urbana, we sat down to talk after lunch near the beginning of the week. She shared the same uncertainties she'd expressed earlier in the year that were being amplified. I asked her if she thought she had a relationship with Jesus and if so where it was at. She said she thought so, but was unsure. The next day when I had scheduled to meet with all 8 of them, one of the girls Haley ran up to me and said "Chioma, guess what? Tell her Emma!!" And Emma said, "I'm a Christian!"....We took time in our meeting to let her share her response to God...On top of that, she's totally willing to start a bible study in her sorority house! She's already made the announcement and there are girls that are interested in studying scripture with her....

Her good friend/sorority sister Kaitlin had come to our meetings too, but seemed uninterested in God. She is one of those girls that constantly makes fun of people and has an intimidating attitude, but God has been working in her. I was surprised she wasn't turned off by me and was open to deep conversations.

Since school started, I had been oddly nervous about tonight (Friday 1/22), our Back to School Party. I was not sure what to expect! I felt like it was going to be a bomb. Of course-God showed up hardcore.

I got in a group with Emma and Kaitlin. I asked them what was happening for them during worship and Katilin said "I just wish I could be a better person. I see all of the bad things I've done and I just feel so bad. It's so beautiful to see how people love God here." I got to share more about God's heart towards her as she teared up and I finally asked her, "Do you want to follow Jesus?" and she said yes!! So I told her what to ask Jesus for in her heart, I prayed, then she prayed and Emily was there too praying, and she became a believer!! We announced it to the whole group and everyone was SO excited! She burst out into tears, so we gathered around and laid hands on her praying for God's protection of her mind and heart... It was great that Emily was able to witness Kristen being lead to Christ. She told Kristen that she thinks "God did this on purpose. We were meant to be together on this journey." As she was crying too.

I LOVE that God is making UMSL an evangelistic community. It's honestly getting hard to have ANY meetings that involve only Christians because non-believers always want in. I also really love this because it reminds me of God's work of saving communities of people at a time and the power of prayer. He is SO good!!

HOW SWEET IS THAT?!

Grace and peace,
Jon

Urbana09

Happy New Year Everyone,

As I write, we're in the middle of yet another blizzard here in Iowa (ugh). It's seemingly increasingly likely that we won't see the ground again until March, but such is life in the Midwest. :)

Another part of winter for IV staff workers is the Urbana student missions convention, which gathers about 20,000 students and staff from around the world every three years to St. Louis to focus on God's mission in the earth and our part in it. Because my fall was so busy, I was given the year off, but there is still much good to report!

First, I'm proud to share that one of my staff, Sherami Hinders, was invited to speak in the main convention hall on the last night in front of 16,000 folks!! She did an incredible job, and it was a rich privilege to see one of my staff honor God in such a profound way! I've pasted the video here for you all to enjoy!

Testimony: Sherami Hinders from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

Yesterday, I got an email from a fellow staff worker and dear friend named Fred Wagner. Fred has given his life to college students around the world, and was known affectionately during my time as a student at Central as "the living legend". He led my first trip to Mongolia, and he's been a rich blessing to my life. His email gave profound testimony to God's work at Urbana (300-400 students became Christians, and 4,500 pledged to invite a non-Christian friend to study the life of Jesus through John 1-4--unbelievable stuff!), so rather than try to reproduce it for myself, I asked his permission to share some excerpts, which he graciously granted. I've embedded a number of the talks he mentions in his report for your enjoyment! Here are a few highlights from the conference:

Dear Partners,

I doubt that any of you included the St. Louis water department in your prayers for Urbana, but, on the human side, the fate of the convention lay in their hands.

After a rousing first day a water main just outside entrance A of the Edward Jones Dome stadium burst. For the nearly 17,000 delegates the only obvious effect was longer exiting and entering lines via one less doorway. For the 24 hour prayer team it was a call to arms after learning that the water main serviced the entire sprinkler system in the stadium and the fire marshal decreed that "unless the pipes can be repaired within 10 hours I will have to close the stadium."

"Prayer is an act of spiritual defiance of what is, in response to what God has promised. The shape of the future will be determined by those who can survey all its possibilities and by faith grasp one as possible. History belongs to the intercessors, those who believe the future into being."

Sundar Krishnan, a pastor from Ontario, Canada proclaimed those words in what to me represented the meatiest address at Urbana….two days after faithful intercessors defied the broken pipe and believed that God wanted the Urbana Missions Conference to continue.

Pray Big and Pray Bold: Sunder Krishnan from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

If you have time for two webcasts then click on the address by Oscar Munriu, pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. "He dwelled among us" was the theme of Urbana 22, words from John 1:14, and Oscar unpacked the meaning of Jesus’ incarnation with a scorching comparison to the ways we do mission today. In 1910, 80% of Christendom was Caucasian. Today, 60% is non-white and we who have come to ascribe Divine sanction on our ways of doing mission need to hear from our African brethren if we ever hope to experience true partnership with the Church in developing nations.

Money and Power: Oscar Muriu from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

York Moore grew up in Detroit, met Jesus as an atheist philosophy major at the U of M and now serves as a national evangelist for InterVarsity. He was chosen to exposit John 3:1-21 on the third morning and he aimed his address at those who had not yet experienced new birth. (You might wonder why they would attend a missions conference. It is a part of the growing trend of spiritual journeying that first leads unsaved people to connect with a body of believers before they connect with Jesus). York spoke succinctly and powerfully and then asked those prepared to embrace Jesus to stand to their feet. Angels must have partied at the sight of between 300 and 400 on their feet….including some of the stadium workers who served as ushers. Later York asked those who stood to walk out to another room for ‘follow-up’ and 250 did so.

Altar Call: York Moore from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

There were other measurable evidences of God’s Spirit at work. Jim Tebbe challenged students to give sacrificially to an offering for God’s work outside of the US (and outside of IVCF). Students responded with an offering of nearly $900,000. For this Urbana the Missionary Decision Card was redesigned from a long list of commitments to just six; but, as always, there was a commitment entry to "join in God’s cross-cultural mission long term," and 2,500 students marked that category. In response to what has proven to be the most effective evangelistic tool throughout InterVarsity’s long history, there was a new entry, "I will invite a non-follower of Jesus to study John 1-4 with me." Over 4,500 students pledged to that step of action and I suspect that that number will easily double because on the last night, one day after the commitment service, IV president, Alec Hill, put the cookies on the bottom shelf.

"Don’t think you can defer being a missional Christian until after graduation. If you try, I guarantee that your passion will atrophy, your vision will blur, and your fire will burn low. God is less concerned with the commitments you made this week than your obedience right now….Let’s talk about your neighborhood….Sharing the Good News with a fellow student may be the most significant action you will ever take."

Alec then profiled four examples of IV students who shared Jesus with a fellow student and then revealed the long-term, ripple effect including the story of NYC pastor Tim Keller who 40 years ago was an obnoxious frosh (his words) at Bucknell and the IVers put up with all his questions and loved him into active faith.

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

Year-End Giving

Just a quick note for those of you who would like to make a year-end gift to support my ministry...

This fall has been an incredible season of fruitfulness, but I've done little by way of working on my funding base, so I'm hoping to help bolster by funding with some special year-end gifts. If you're interested in making a gift, you can do so by clicking on the link below, thanks in advance!

https://my.intervarsity.org/e6f16593fc5ac099cc27bf20c9014ead/designate.php?_qf_chooseAmount_display=true

I'll let some other folks do the talking...

Hello again everyone,

The semester is winding down and the snow is piling up (ugh), but there's some more cool stories to share...this time written by other folks! Here's a few quick links of stories that have been written by/about our work across Iowa this fall!

• A story off our national InterVarsity website about Ethan, a student at UNI who gave his life to Jesus in September: http://www.intervarsity.org/news/forgiven-in-full
• A story off the website of 24.7 prayer (i.e., Red Moon Rising for those of you who have read that book), about our chapter at Central: http://campusamerica.org/stories/18
• A story from the student newspaper at Drake University about our staff (Amy Schoepf) and chapter there: http://www.timesdelphic.com/2009/12/09/intervarsity-leader-uses-faith-in-work/
• A collection of stories written by students from Central about how they used a $20 "reverse offering" (yes, we gave everyone who came $20!)...some very cool stories! http://20forchangecentral.blogspot.com/

It's actually been pretty rare that we've had other folks writing about God's work through our ministry so it's been a unique blessing to get to have our story be told on a greater scope, enjoy!

Grateful,
Jon

PS...One of my staff, Sherami Hinders (planting at the University of Iowa) will be giving a testimony at Urbana09 (http://www.urbana09.org/home.main.cfm) to 20,000 students on New Year's Eve (talk about pressure!) I'll post the video link of her testimony here after it's available! :)

KEEP COMING!

Hello again!

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.

1. 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.
2. 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!

As you can imagine, these ideas are in need of some financial backing, so if you'd be willing to give $20, $50 or $100 to help us build the Kingdom through these programs, please let me know me at jon.hietbrink@gmail.com, and I'll get you more details!

Thankful,
Jon

A Jesus Outbreak

Hello everyone!

I've never experienced a month quite like this one. Across the country, folks are worried about virus outbreaks on college campuses, but across Iowa, we've been experiencing an outbreak of a different sort- Jesus on the move! Here's the story...

After a first few weeks of class filled with meeting new students and caring for the whole campus, the movement got started in earnest at Drake University on September 5th...

That night, I had a text conversation with our staff, Amy Schoepf that went as follows:

Amy- "A student just became a Christian!! She agreed to share at IV on Wednesday"
Me- Wow!! That's awesome! What's her name?
Amy- Callie. Sweet story--she was really close in the spring but didn't fully commit. She and Audrey and I hung out last night-I brought it up and Audrey led her.
Amy- New Christian (Audrey stared following Jesus last spring) leads new student to Jesus :)
Me- So great-I'll look forward to hearing the full story!
Amy- Yep and she has three girls that come to IV with her who are all nominal Christians--so keep praying!!

Obviously, a great way to start the year, but this was only the start. On 9.9.09, (the same night Callie was sharing at Drake) at Central College, the story I've already shared below went down. I was speaking on the Prodigal Son out of Luke 15, and invited students to make a decision to follow Jesus. To my utter shock 30 students stood to signify their desire to follow Jesus. (Check out the "Unbelievable" post below for the whole story, it's worth a read!) The fruit of these decisions has continued to play out over the last two weeks in new Bible studies being started and additional outreach happening on campus (more on this below).

The next stage in the journey happened on 9.14 at the University of Northern Iowa. After hearing about what had happened at Central, our staff at UNI, Rachel Danley, invited me to make another call to faith at their Large Group, which I was happy to do. When I did so, another student (Evan) stood to mark his desire to give his life over to Jesus! (More on Evan Below!)

That weekend, on 9.18-20, my area staff team hosted FC09: Family Vacation (our annual fall student conference) for 130 students from around the state. I spoke on the final morning, again to give an invitation to faith, but as I was praying about it, I felt like I was supposed to ask Evan from UNI to give the talk with me (he had, after all been following Jesus for 5 days at that point!) So, I approached him to see if he'd be willing to share his story, and though he was a bit shell-shocked at first, he agreed. Sunday morning, Evan did a fantastic job of telling about what Jesus had done in his life, and I again made an invitation for students to give their lives to Jesus for the first time, and another 20 students stood to mark their decision from almost every school represented! Five of these students were from UNI and were inspired by Evan's testimony of receiving Jesus' forgiveness, and several were friends of Callie's, the student from Drake I wrote about above!

Then, on the following Tuesday, 9.22, I got two emails from one of our student leaders at Central, Aaron Jones. The first was a message that he had received over the weekend, it read like this:

Hi, I was in your small group for Vintage community 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?

Aaron asked Jessica if she'd be willing to meet to talk more, and she agreed. Later that night, we got word from Aaron again...

Jessica 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 (girls' dorm on campus) 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.

So, in the space of a few short weeks (22 days to be exact), we've seen 24 STUDENTS START TO FOLLOW JESUS FOR THE FIRST TIME, and another 21 RECOMMIT THEIR LIVES TO JESUS! I wish I had the space to tell you the stories of these 45 students, because Jesus is meeting them in incredible ways as they take steps of faith in following him (students experiencing physical healing, being challenged by parents angry at their desire to follow Jesus, and door after door opening for Jesus' gospel) They are following Jesus immediately into ministry and outreach to their friends, and we are TRULY WATCHING A JESUS OUTBREAK SWEEP THROUGH THESE CAMPUSES!

And, I believe that God isn't done yet. This Wednesday, 9.30, I'll be speaking again at Drake University, and I'll again be inviting students to follow Jesus for the first time (and join the other 5 Drake students who have already made that decision this year!) so I covet your prayers, and can't wait to tell you the next chapter in this crazy story God is writing.

Thank you for your support of this ministry, it's one of the deepest privileges of my life to watch God move in these ways on campuses across the state, and it's your prayers and support that make it possible.

Trying to keep up with a God who is most certainly on the move!

Jon

Bibles for New Believers

As you'll read below, it's been an incredible week of ministry, so I've got a special request...

I've purchased Bibles for each of the 30 folks who stood up to mark their decision to follow Jesus for the first time or rededicate their lives to Jesus to get them started on the right foot.

I was able to negotiate a discounted rate for some study bibles (with explanatory notes), which means I was able to get them for $40 a piece, but with 30 folks, that still works out to $1,200!

So, I'm putting out a call to anyone who'd be willing to spring $40 to give a Bible to a student who just started following Jesus. If you are interested, please contact me at jon.hietbrink@gmail.com or 641.780.6670.

Thanks!
Jon

Unbelievable!

Greetings friends,

I've got an unbelievable story to share, I hope you are blessed by it! (Sorry for the length, I think it’ll be worth your time to read it...)

I was set to speak on Wednesday night (9.9) at Central’s LG and was planning on giving a call to faith out of the prodigal son, but the story really gets kicking early that morning...

I awoke at 4:30a sweating like a pig and with our bedroom spinning all around me. The only thing that made the spinning stop was when I laid on my right side (even on my back, it was out of control). I was able to get back to sleep until about 6:30a, when my daughter woke up. I tried to walk to the kitchen to get her some milk, but was on the floor by the time I got back to her room. I woke my wife up, and tried to get back into bed, but was so nauseuous that I detoured to the toilet. I eventually got back to bed and slept till about 7:45 when I started texting people to pray. At that point, I still couldn’t do anything but lay on my right side, and even then, my head was spinning a bit.

So, things were not good. I couldn’t even sit up, let alone be able to give a talk. My wife spent some time praying for me (along with those I had texted) and very quickly, I started to feel some relief. I was able to sit up in bed within a few minutes and walked out to the living room. Gradually, I regained equilibrium to the point where I took a shower and went for a walk around the block at about 11am. I continued to improve through the afternoon to the point where I felt pretty much normal (although very tired) by about 3pm.

So, I went into the night thinking that God might have some big plans given the morning, but I never would have expected what happened...

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."

There’s more where those came from, but at the end of the day, I think about 14 folks gave their lives to Jesus for the first time and another 10 recommitted their lives to Jesus; 2 more folks said they wanted to explore more in GIGs!

It was unbelievable. I was driving to Iowa City this morning and crying like a baby thinking about how good our God is that he steps into students’ lives like this, and that he gives us the chance to be a part of it.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for the night (and for my dizziness). God answered in a resounding way.

Beyond grateful,
Jon

9.9.09 @ 9pm

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend. Two stories (couldn't help but share the second, it just came in!) and a prayer request for you today...

The story comes from Sarah Plowman at William Penn University--

"Jen is one of our leaders. She was hanging out with one of her suitemates, Abby, and one of Abby's friends, Nate. When the subject turned to spiritual things, Nate told Jen, "forgive me if I laugh," saying he didn't believe in God. Somehow in the conversation, Jen got Nate to open up more to her as they shared about different family stuff. At one point Jen invited Nate to do a Bible Study with her, saying, "why don't you just do a Bible study with me and let Jesus define himself?" Nate's response? "Ok." Last night during our leadership meeting, Jen got a text from Nate asking, "hey, when are we going to do Bible study?" Cool! Pray for Jess as she prepares to do a GiG with Nate, and for Abby as well and the conversations she and Jen have. "


Here's one from Amy Schoepf, our staff at Drake University--

"So Callie 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 Annika--who became a Christian last year. Long story short, Callie, Annika, 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 Callie 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. Annika jumped in and started sharing her testimony and telling Callie she just needed to "go for it." Callie agreed and then Annika and I led her in prayer to commit her life to Jesus. I could literally see Callie'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. Callie 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 Annika 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."

The prayer request is for me--

Tomorrow night at 9pm, I'm going to be speaking at our gathering on campus at Central (called NINE) out of Luke 15, "The Prodigal Son". At the end of my talk, I'm going to invite students to make a decision to follow Jesus for the first time, so I'd love for your prayers on a few points:

1. Pray that God would draw the "right people" to come
2. Pray that God would give me the "right words" to speak
3. Pray that tomorrow night would be the "right time" for students to make a decision

Thanks Everyone!
Jon

FirstFruits

Hello again everyone!

As promised, here's a few stories from the "front lines" over the first days of the semester...God has been at work!

As many of you know, we are planting a new chapter at the University of Iowa, and the stories coming out so far have been unbelievable. In the first week...

1. Our staff have networked with several "power players" in different groups on campus and have either been invited or are exploring leading bible studies for the African-American Greek Union, the Black Student Union, and the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) cultural center on campus. Unbelievable!
2. Already, the staff have connected with a handful of multiethnic and mission-minded students who want to be a part of owning the chapter at Iowa, praise God! This is in addition to the hundreds of others who are interested, but who haven't signed on just yet...
   

At Drake, we are also off to a great start. The chapter has connected with almost 100 new students who are interested in joining the community's mission, and our chapter plant at DMACC is officially underway!

Our chapter at the University of Northern Iowa has a blossoming ministry among ethnic minorities--there were about a dozen new Latino students at their first large group, and their multi-ethnic leadership team already making inroads among the black student population on campus!

Coe College decided to try a new outreach to international students by hosting a "Target run" for students who needed to stock their dorm rooms...to their shock, 25 international students showed up! They were literally calling in friends with cars to handle all the students!

Our chapters at William Penn, Grinnell, and Drake International will have their first major gatherings this week, so they are hard at work connecting with new students and inviting them into their communities...more stories to come on these chapters later!

At Central College, we've been blessed to connect with almost 150 new students who are interested in joining our ministry. One of them "Will" was talking with one of our staff at our first worship service. Their interaction went something like this...

Staff- "So, what's your name? Where are you from?"
Will- "I'm not religious."
Staff- "That's totally fine, no problem."
Will- "I'm really curious about Christianity though, I'd like to learn more about it."

It's for students like Will and hundreds of others across the campuses of Iowa that we labor. Join us in thanking God for his faithfulness to us, and continuing to ask him for divine appointments with both mission-minded and seeking students over these next days!

Grateful for your partnership!
Jon

It begins

Hello again everyone,

It's official, the year has begun!

Over the weekend, thousands of college students moved into dorm rooms and apartments all across the state. Some are coming back to a place they love, some are leaving home for the first time, and in the midst of it all, God is at work calling students to himself and transforming them to live missional lives.

Quite simply, this is the time of year that we InterVarsity staff love: the energy, potential, and excitement on campus is palpable, and each year, it's fascinating to watch God work through simple things like info tables, knocking on doors, and "chance" meetings in the union.

Just today, I was on campus at Central and walking to my car at a place I've never parked before to head home for lunch...a student (obviously lost!) approached me and asked where the gym was, so I offered him a ride. Turns out, he's a new freshman from Cedar Rapids, knows next to no one on campus, but was very interested in hearing about our ministry...

Jesus said the kingdom of God is "like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants..."

This is exactly what the job of my staff is over the next few weeks...to plant hundreds and thousands of mustard seeds in the hearts of students and watch God do the unthinkable--bring forth the fruit of transformation and mission.

Please join me in praying for two things over these next days:

First, please pray that our staff team would connect with MISSIONAL STUDENTS who follow Jesus and want to live for his purposes on campus.
Second, please pray that God would give us "divine appointments" with SEEKING STUDENTS who are exploring what it means to follow Jesus and live a life of faith.

I can't wait to share the stories in the upcoming weeks...

With great anticipation!
Jon

Year in Review

Hello again everyone,

Once again, I need to apologize for my delay in posting, but thankfully, I've got some great updates to share now that we've reached the end of the school year.

As folks have asked me over the last few months about how the ministry is going, I've said some variation of the following: "In all honesty, this has felt like the most fruitful year of my experience on IV staff" (!), so as we came to our year-end, I was hoping that the measurable results would live up to my expectations.

Of course, I had been hearing stories all year long of God's work on campus, but the end of the school year provides a unique opportunity to take at a "cross section" of our ministry, and I'm so thankful to be able to share some of the results with you all, so I've got a few snapshots and a few stories...

Join me in praising God for...
* Our area growing by 76 students this year to a total of 493 "members" (18% growth)
* 51 students (!) choosing to follow Jesus for the first time (113% growth)
* Students planting 77 missional communities (aka "cells") on campus this year, an increase of 28%!
* 1,240 students attending at least one of our events (32% growth)
* 139 Non-Christian students involved in our ministry (25% growth)
* Five of our seven chapters set new records for overall involvement!

Now for some stories...

Double Dip at Drake
About this time last year, I talked with our two staff at Drake (Steph Schmaltz and Amy Schoepf) about trying to plant a new chapter for international students at Drake University. It felt like a risky move, as neither Steph/Amy had been "solo staff" for a chapter before, but we felt God inviting us into the challenge, so we went ahead. I'm so glad to report that both chapters have experienced tremendous fruitfulness this last year.

• The international chapter (under Steph's leadership) grew from 6 to 44 members and saw over 110 students (that's about 33% of the international population on campus, the vast majority of which are not Christians) attend at least one event.
  
• The undergrad chapter (led by Amy) grew to involve over 90 students, and saw 10 students decide to follow Jesus for the first time!

The University of Iowa- "God will plant"
Mid-way through the fall, our regional leadership team sensed that God was leading us to plant a brand-new chapter at the University of Iowa in the fall of 2009. We had previously had a chapter until a few years ago, but as we heard that there were over 29,000 students on campus who weren't involved in any kind of campus ministry, we felt compelled to try and start something new (even though we didn't know who would lead the plant). In distinctly supernatural ways (I wish I could tell you the whole story), God called Sherami Hinders and Tony Gatewood to be co-planters for the chapter next year. Our only expectations for this Spring were for Tony/Sherami to get situated and to prepare for the fall, but almost every time I talk with them, they have a new story of how God is opening doors for them on campus, and students expressing interest in being mobilized as missionaries to the campus. The chapter plant at Iowa will be among the highest profile plants in the entire nation, and I can't wait to see what God has in store next year!

You want us to plant in Omaha?!
As the spring progressed, I honestly thought we had taken enough big risks, but God had a different idea. Slowly, but surely, he made it clear that he was inviting us to plant not just at Drake, not just at the Univeristy of Iowa, but at Creighton University in Omaha. Initially, both my boss and I thought we needed to wait another year, but through the perseverance of Rachel Lenox (staff at Coe College), and the workings of the Holy Spirit, it became clear that the "time was fulfilled" to plant at Creighton as well! (Again, I wish I could tell you the whole story...the movement of God is all over it!) So, as I write, Rachel Lenox is moving to Omaha, and will be planting a brand-new chapter at Creighton next fall!

Sending and Receiving
A year ago at this time, our ministry was made up of six chatpers involving about 400 students. Before the end of this calendar year (by God's grace), the Iowa area will have been a part (either by planting them ourselves or sending planters) of six different chapter plants (University of Missouri- Kansas City, Johnson County Community College (Kansas), Drake University- International, the University of Iowa, Des Moines Area Community College, Creighton University), involving over 600 students. God has been so faithful to involve us in his purposes, and I'm so thankful!

With Great Joy and Expectation!

Jon

Walking by the Spirit

Hello again everyone,

It's been so long since I've written, I thought I better put up a couple posts to keep the masses happy. :)

As you've probably read above, it was a fantastic year of ministry across Iowa; we saw growth at virtually every level, and I find myself so grateful (and humbled) for God's movement through our ministry this year.

At the same time, Steph and I have found the going difficult at home as we work through parenting two young children and trying to stay deeply connected in marriage at the same time (hard as it may be to believe, these often feel like competing values!)

While all this great stuff has been going on in my world as an area director, I think God has been speaking to me with regard to my posture as a husband and father: he's been challenging me to "walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh".

At a recent area team meeting, we were studying Galatians 5, where Paul is admonishing the Galatian church to avoid giving into the temptation to self-justification through the law in favor of continuing to walk by faith in the power of the Spirit. In his teaching, he references back to the Old Testament story of Sarah and Hagar, the soap opera of a story out of which God begins to establish the nation of Israel as a people.

Sarah and Abraham had received a promise of a child in their old age, but in her impatience for the promises' fulfillment, Sarah chose to take matters into her own hands and "make it happen". Though God ultimately fulfills his promise anyway, her refusal to stand in faith introduces incredible strife and pain into her family.

I'm seeing with more clarity that we too have received promises from God over our marriage and our kids, but all too often in experiences of "barrenness", impatience, or frustration, my response is anything but confident faith in those promises (aka, "walking by the Spirit"), instead, I choose the way of blame, manipulation, and anger to either push down or avoid the experience of barrenness altogether.

What I'm seeing is that these "experiences of barrenness" that each of us face are none other than invitations to choose the way of faith again, more deeply. The hurdles or problems of our lives aren't merely hurdles to be overcome on our way to a happy existence, they are the crucible in which true faith, patience, and love are formed.

I long to be the kind of husband, father, and leader that bears real fruit, "fruit that lasts", and who knows what it means to walk by the Spirit, not just when I'm a "professional", but in the nuts and bolts of life, at 3am holding a crying child, or in the chaos of preparing dinner with the woman I love amidst the chaos of two toddlers!

Praying for eyes to see the invitations...

Jon

PS...As you'll see from the videos, family life isn't always difficult...

God is Good!

Hello again everyone,

So much good news to report, so I'll jump right in!

* The headlining news relates to staff hiring and placement (thanks so much for praying!) I'm super excited to report that we've decided to hire 10 new staff and will be accepting another transfer, which means that our Iowa Area staff team will more than double next year from 9 staff (currently) to 19 staff serving across Iowa next year! I'm so grateful to God for his provision, and can't wait to turn these new folks loose on campus!

* Because of this influx of new staff, we are planning on planting three new chapters in the upcoming year! We'll be planting brand new chapters at the University of Iowa, at Des Moines Area Community College, and one other school to be named. At this time last year we had 6 chapters, and in September, we'll potentially have 10! Unbelievable growth for only a year and a half!

* On a more micro level, witness and evangelism has been happening across our area in ways that are unique to my time on staff. Already this Spring, I'm aware of almost a dozen students who have made decisions to follow Jesus as LORD, and it's likely that dozens more are in the process of making that decision. (Often, we find that folks realize that they've made decisions over the course of the year in April/May, so we typically find out about that change about this time of year!

* Beyond this, our area has been exploding with new GIGs (Bible studies for non-christian students). We don't have firm numbers yet, but I expect that before the end of the year upwards of 25 GIGs will have been hosted across the state, many of which lead to students making decisions to put Jesus first in their lives.

As people ask me how things are going with IV, I tell them honestly that it's been as encouraging a semester as I remember on staff! "For everything there is a season" and we've seen our share of hard times, but I rejoice in the goodness of God for this season of harvest!

All praise to the one who desires transformation far more than we do, and may you be blessed knowing that you have played a role in this incredible outpouring of blessing through your prayers, support, and finances!

With deepest thanksgiving!

Jon

Now I feel a bit sheepish...

Hello Again,

Well, now I do feel a bit sheepish. :) Thanks to all of you who expressed concern over my failing health; I appreciate your care. Last night after I got home, I had this fleeting thought: "Jon, you probably shouldn't have talked in detail about your mystery illness...folks could get unnecessarily alarmed." But alas, I wasn't online until today and saw that in fact, that is what had happened.

Now, I have been sick for a couple weeks, but I'm by no means on death's door...it feels more like the cold and the flu at the same time; not pleasant, but more an annoyance than anything. All the tests that have been run have come back pretty well normal, so while we still don't know why I'm feeling the way I am, we are pretty sure it's just some random virus that my body needs to fight off, although a bit more sleep would probably be helpful. ;)

Anyway, thanks again for your care and concern, and do pray that God would deliver me from even this small health issue, as it would still be quite helpful to be at full strength for these next few weeks.

All for now!

Jon

New Staff Prospects!

Hello Everyone,

It's 60 degrees in Iowa on February 10th, can I get an "amen"?!

I'm sorry for not writing sooner, but as is typical, the beginning of the Spring semester has been rolling on at a breakneck pace! All of our chapters are up and running with some exciting reports already (I'll look forward to sharing these with you sometime soon!)

For now, however, I wanted to make a quick post to invite your prayers for me over the next few weeks on a couple points.

First, and most importantly, we are in the middle of "staff recruitment" season, and I'm so thankful to be working with ELEVEN total applicants for our work across Iowa (our current staff team is only 9!) We've already invited one of these folks to join our team, and am in process with the other ten helping them complete the application and preparing for interviews! As you can imagine, I'm thrilled not only to have so many folks applying, but in particular that a number of them would actually make great staff workers! So, you can be in prayer for me over the next few weeks as I interview these folks and make decisions about whether to offer them a spot on our team, and if so where...here's a quick interview schedule:

Thursday, 2.12- Brian

Friday, 2.13- Sarah W.

Tuesday, 2.17- Dayna

Wednesday, 2.18- Sarah B. 

Thursday, 2.19- Christina

Tuesday-Thursday (2.24-26)- Ryan, Sarah P., Brett, Nick

Friday, 2.27- Trevor

On a related note, I'd love prayers for my health. I've had a pretty odd set of symptoms over the last few weeks and am awaiting the results of some testing to hopefully figure it out. You can pray not only that God grants healing to my body, but that he would keep it from spreading through our family.

Thanks so much, may God's grace be upon you all!

Jon 

Year-End Giving

Just a quick note about year-end funding...

Thankfully, fundraising has been going very well this year despite the general economic climate, but I carried over about $2,000 of deficit from last year that I'm hoping to erase this December. If you would be interested in giving a year-end tax-deductible gift toward that shortfall, you can do so by clicking on the following link. Thank you in advance!

www.intervarsity.org/donate

Priority 1 :: Staff Recruitment

Hello again everyone!

I hope this finds you enjoying the Christmas season! It’s a busy time of year for us as we wrap up our work on campus for the fall, but the “halftime” of Christmas break is almost here!

As many of you know, staff recruitment has been at the top of my list of strategic priorities for our ministry this year. The year began with our sparsest staff:chapter ratio of my seven years on staff, with only seven full time staff for seven campuses, a long way from my ideal of having at least a pair of staff at each campus!

So, I’ve been spending a significant portion of my time working to recruit new staff for our chapters across Iowa. We’ve visited Christian campuses around the Midwest, posted openings online, and of course, talked with our graduating seniors about becoming missionaries to secular campuses across Iowa.

The process is in full swing now, and I’ve got some encouraging news to report! At this point, I’m expecting 10 new staff applications, and am in conversation with another 10-15 candidates! This represents potentially the largest group of new Iowa staff ever, so I am both so grateful to God for his provision so far, and mindful of my need for his continued mercy to both call these prospects to his work and to give me the wisdom I need to see his will clearly.

So, as the year winds down, I would covet your prayers for this staff recruitment process. Please join me in praying that God would call the right staff to be on our team, and that He would give me wisdom as I counsel and try to assess all these candidates.

Thank you for your partnership, and I eagerly anticipate introducing you to the fruit of your prayers in the Spring!

Why we do what we do...

Hello Everyone,

One of the luxuries afforded me by this job (and one of the critical disciplines for my success in this job!) is the freedom to withdraw from the "frontline" ministry of the campus and consider our work from a larger perspective. So often, our lives can become consumed with just "keeping the ship afloat": running our programs, recruiting for events, and doing the ins and outs of campus ministry, but the danger is that we lose the heart of why we are doing all this activity in the first place. I've been so thankful as of late for the clarity that I think God is bringing to my mind about both what we do and why we do it.

There's significant thinking going on in InterVarsity circles these days about conversion. For me, most of my staff, and likely many of you as well, we've understood conversion in very black and white, two-stage language: first, you are a non-Christian, and then you become a Christian when you pray the following prayer.

This way of thinking certainly has some merit, and is to an extent an accurate representation of what happens in conversion: we are transferred from the kingdom of the world into the Kingdom of God; we who were dead are made alive; we were in darkness but find ourselves in light.

The problem is that for many of us (and increasing numbers of students), their experience of their life with God doesn't feel quite this simple. As we train and inspire our current students to reach their friends with the good news of God, we have to acknowledge that under the heading of "non-Christian" there is an entire array of people: some are skeptical, some are indifferent, some are hostile, some are merely "enculturated" into Christianity. While the absence of a vibrant relationship with Jesus unites all these folks, to apply a "one size fits all" approach to witness with each of these subgroups would be painfully ineffective.

The other problem is that the language of "two-stage" conversion has no place for the ongoing discipleship of those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus; it can lend itself to the thought that, "well, I'm a Christian now, so my journey is complete" when we all know that choosing to follow Jesus for the first time is far more an inauguration than it is a destination.

As I reflect on my own life, I have a hard time pointing to "the moment" when I became a Christian. I remember praying for the first time on my parents' bed when I was about 6, but I didn't experience a radical life altering encounter with Jesus then. What I did experience was a steady progression of growing in love for God, and appropriating that love in my own life.

But something distinctly different happened to me in college. I didn't "become a Christian" again, but I began to experience a level of vibrancy and passion for God that I hadn't known before, and in retrospect, I think what happened was a "second conversion": I was transformed from being merely a follower to being a missionary sent by God to my campus. In many ways, this "missional" conversion has altered the entire trajectory of my life in a way that nothing else has (I'm not exactly designing golf courses, as was the original plan!)

As I've prayed and reflected on our work on campus, I'm seeing more and more that the driving motivation behind all of our labor is simply this: we labor to see students' lives transformed. But even more specifically than this, I think God is giving me greater clarity on two critical transformations that we witness God working in our students.

The first is the conversion from being merely "enculturated" into faith to actively, passionately following Jesus. In our midwestern context, students with no church experience or little awareness of Christianity is actually quite rare. Almost every freshman who steps onto the campuses where we work has either "done the church thing" growing up, or may even consider themselves a "christian" in a vague, cultural sense: their allegiance is to a cultural expectation, not to a living God. Our work and our passion is to see these folks "woken up" from their inoculation to the life of faith, by creating spaces where they can encounter a living, active Jesus, and by consistently calling them to make him Lord of their real lives. Not "Lord" in a prayer alone, but "Lord of what they watch, how they speak, and how they love their neighbors. Each year, dozens of students experience this transformation in our midst; it makes me smile just thinking about them.

The second is the conversion from merely "following" Jesus to being engaged in his purposes: a "missional" conversion. The vast majority of genuinely Christian students who show up on our campuses have a view of faith that centers on "their personal relationship with Jesus": worship serves to edify them, they want to "be fed" by good teaching, they are looking for Christian community to help them grow. All these things are good and important, but I would argue that they are missing the lifeblood of Jesus: "Go into the world and make disciples of all nations..." I believe this transformation from living a nice, personal, spiritual life, to living a life of radical mission, sacrifice, hospitality, and invitation is absolutely central to what we do on campus. Our goal is not to help people become better Christians; our goal is to release the next generation of leaders and missionaries who will sow themselves like mustard seeds into every corner of the globe that God's Kingdom may come.

This is why we exist: to see students converted from skeptical, selfish, indifferent lives to vibrant relationship with Jesus and then in turn transformed into followers who spend their entire lives for the sake of God's mission to a broken world.

May God grant us the desires of our hearts!
Jon