September to remember!


(above: our annual dumpling party for new students, over 280 students attend)

September is usually a crazy month and this year it was no exception. I was overwhelmed by the number of students that came out to our dumpling party. I found myself not knowing exactly what to do, besides meet people. It was hard, because there were just so many! The challenge was connecting new students with former students. How do we create bridges for students to connect? Some students told me afterwards that they were exhausted, even those who consider themselves extroverted. It was nice hearing that the VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) officers wanted to partner to do some local community service. It was great seeing people from every nation literally come. We put up a map of the world and had people put stickers up of their homelands, and they were literally scattered throughout. I've always wondered, what would it be like if our fellowship literally had people from every nation to worship God and praise Him?



(Large group meeting, get to know you!)


(Community dinners)

We've seen a fair amount of growth in large group meetings. We've tried out different formats for our meetings to bring new people into our community as well as share God's love with them. We've had class dinners (seniors & freshman / sophomores & juniors). We played a large game where students had to go around campus and trade 2 pennies for other materials. One group ended up with 2 t-shirts, 2 mugs, a person, food and 26$! The challenge of these large groups is to keep things fresh yet challenging and engaging for people of all backgrounds. As a Christian group on campus, the challenge isn't the programming, it is living and following God's leading on a daily basis. I remember when I was a student, I had always kept my faith separate from other parts of my life. My prayers and my hopes are that students would live out every day and see every day as an opportunity for God to work in them and through them.

(Large group meeting songs)

Please pray for the upcoming fall retreat on October 16-18th. We hope that many students would come from all over to investigate & learn & grow from the retreat. Please pray for the preparations of it as well. Thank you for all your support and partnership. God is definitely moving us, may He continue to move you as well!


Popular posts from this blog

The Battle for February

Image
MINISTRY UPDATE : The small group leaders are in for quite a battle this semester as they are trying new strategies and tactics to help students grow their relationship with God and each other. The men's group recently started a blog with topics such as, "what does it mean to be strong?", "what is passion?" and asking good hard questions about who God is and also asking about the societal view on these topics. The women's group had a recent v-day baking event for women at the Boston Rescue Mission. It's been great to see the variety of different groups that we have on campus. Please pray for future growth in our small group ministries as we are praying for over 15 new SG leaders next fall. The Community dinners have been going great! We've had two dinners already and we've already seen active discussion in the different topics of motivation, identity and relationships. Pray that there will be continued discussion of the different topics and al...
Read more

Seniors say Goodbye!

Image
(BU AACF Senior Appreciation) After four years of hard work, the seniors are finally finished with their collegiate careers. There are always nostalgic feelings when you see seniors graduate. I have personally seen them grow so much in different ways. I praise God that a lot of them have become men and women who desire to seek to make the world a better place. (Prayer & reflection weekend) A couple of weeks ago, I took the seniors to New Hampshire for a day of reflection & prayer. It was a good time to hear of the different trials and places where the seniors had been and where they are going. What I love about InterVarsity is that it reminds me that the seniors aren't a finished body of work and neither am I. The New England vision is to see students move from cynics to seekers to followers to leaders to world changers. Jesus does all the work and I'm just ...
Read more

Renewal

Image
Acapella group practices for Coffeehouse Renewal is a strange word to me. It can mean so many different things. Some of the things I think of are physical renewal, emotional renewal and spiritual renewal. But most recently, I've been wrestling with renewal of your purpose and calling. As an InterVarsity staff worker, I've learned so much yet there is so much more to learn. I've learned that every day I have to allow God to renew my focus. It's so easy to do things safely, but what does it actually mean to be on the forefront of God's mission to the campus? I think I was losing focus the past month. I struggled with being renewed on a daily basis. My sloth and pride caused me to do God's work without God. As I look back today, one day after turning 27, I realized God was right there waiting for me, standing there with his hands open. He allowed me to try it my way and as I look back it was so draining and it felt empty. Doing God's work does no...
Read more