PERSONAL REFLECTION: Ministry Rollercoaster Experience

My intern year has gone by in a “whoosh!” and I guess I’m still a little dazed at the experience. “Whaa? Whaaat just happened? Am I still alive? Everything ok? Good. Ok. Good. How did I just get through that?”  Answer: God was holding us all the way.

Whenever our family would go on rollercoaster, my mom would be the one shamelessly stretching her arms high above her head and screaming “Whooohooo!” all the way down, trusting herself wholly to the hefty piece of plastic fitted around her torso. I however, would be a cautious kid who would progress from 1) sinking my nails into the restraint out of pure fear on the first hill, then to 2) sticking my hands up neck-height in an “I surrender” pose on the second hill, and then to 3) finally throwing the remainder of my fear to the wind, flailing my arms as we flew through the air.

In many ways, that movement from distrust to trust sums up how ministry has felt like so far. As I’ve followed Jesus and felt God’s heart and plan for the campus, I realized that I was being whisked me away on an adventure where life looked more and more like a rollercoaster and less like a walk down the beach.  God was on the move at Wellesley, and he was taking me along with Him!

At first, I fought to feel like I was in control. I doubted the Arms that held me tight. I doubted that He would move powerfully. I subconsciously made up Plan Bs in case God didn’t come through. But in more than one occasion, God lifted my eyes to the hills to see the harvest of whole-life transformation that He was bringing and He urged me to trust Him and take the plunge. Then my hands went up in an “Ok, I surrender”, but I was still cynical. When it felt like things felt more uncontrollable, I would throw myself to fits of planning, reorganization, despair and doubt. If things weren’t going “right”, I blamed myself and would push myself to “deliver”. Prayer would sound like this  - “AAHHHHH!”And yet despite my failings, I saw students transformed, a campus culture being renewed and world-changers developed. It was God who was on the move and He was using every step of faith we would take – each loaf of bread and little fish – in His plan. And because it was not my ministry, but HIS and always HIS, it was good, and God was faithful.

As we’ve been whooshing through the past year and into next year, I’ve felt God hold me close. I’ve felt His delight for me as a beloved daughter and His yearning for Wellesley to know Him. I almost feel like His eyes crinkle up in joy every time I gasp in wonder at the miracle in the transformation of students’ lives (or even in my life!) or when we as a fellowship take a deep breath and step out in faith to share the Gospel. Am I at the point where I can lift my arms to the skies and wave ‘em come hell or high water? Not completely… But I now have confidence in my calling in His mission and I know from experience that “His will, done His way, will never lack His supply”. As I prepare, plan and pray for next year, God is calling us as a fellowship to take more risks in ministry for His sake, and to keep our eyes on Him as we seek to know God and to make God known. 

The whole rollercoaster experience reminds me of a very familiar passage – Psalm 23, where the writer speaks of being led through valleys “of the shadow of death” and “green pastures”. Yet the “Lord is my Shepherd… what else could I ever want?” 

Thank you, my ministry partners, for being with us in this journey. In this newsletter, I’ve summarized a couple of ways I’ve seen God answer prayers this past year and how we’ve heard his call for next year. I hope you’re excited as I am!

Blessings and love,
Kat/KK Hampson

PERSONAL REFLECTION: Beloved and Learning to Love

(This was originally posted in my personal blog, kkatyrose.tumblr.com, where you can find my bric-a-brac collection of life’s photos, videos, short thoughts, quotes and the occasional long rant.)

=================================

Confession: I don’t think I’m a very loving person.

I know, however, that I used to be an affectionate, passionate kid with a heart of a care-bear-love-all-fighter-of-injustice. But lately, I’ve felt … lacking. Like there’s no more love in my system.

I would get uncomfortable when people called me a caring person or if they cited “compassion” or other such tender stuff as my spiritual gift. I would thank them, of course, for their earnest encouragement, but I’d feel like a kid who’s just received an “Upstanding Student” award yet knows very well that he’s the mystery thief who’s been swiping all the glitter glues from the supply closet. I don’t know whether or not it’s because I’ve become more cynical, critical or conscious of the world, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t love nearly enough to be called a loving person.

I’ve tried hard to like people, and sometimes there’s a spark of real care and affection, but on the whole, people can be frustrating, bothersome and boring. On many occasions with people in general, I find myself holding grudges, ignoring needs, occupying myself so I’m too “busy” to care, being superficial, looking in the other direction, avoiding others and taking the easy road of minding my own business. I’ve caught myself thinking on a number of occasions that I would be better off unbothered by their concerns. Yet, as someone calls herself passionate about Jesus and following Him, I know that I’m doing a terrible job of loving WWJD-style.

In the Gospels, you see Jesus caring holistically for every person – physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. He teaches us to love our enemies and those we may not naturally want to take care of. He challenges the hypocrisy in “serving God” without having love for His people. He touches and heals. He deliberately goes out to the underdog to show them His love. He serves sacrificially, dying for love of God and the humankind, and resurrected to redeem and renew our relationships with God, with each other and with the world around us. (Note: Too many Jesus-stories to reference! Talk to me if you’re curious about them! I love Jesus stories!)

And here I tell people that I follow Him. Boy, do I feel like a hypocrite.

Considering that I’m in ministry, this not-enough-love situation would be a bit of a problem. What if there are students that I just can’t love? What if I just can’t love Wellesley? God, I want Your heart for them!!! Why is it so hard to love? 

I brought this up with God last week, at my wits’ end and feeling numb. The conversation went something like this.

• God, I’ve run out of love. I just can’t bring myself to love people. I SEE the need at Wellesley, but somehow I can’t bring myself to love deeply like you do. I want to, but I just don’t feel it. What’s wrong with me? Lord, give me Your heart for them.
• How can I give you My heart for Wellesley, when you don’t know My love for you?
• Uh, I already get that You love me. That’s not a problem. I just don’t know how to love like You do!
• How can I give you My heart for Wellesley, when you don’t know My love for you? I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU. YOU ARE BELOVED. There’s nothing you can do  - sins, “failures” – nothing can stop me from loving you and wanting to be your love and life. I died loving you. I rose to give you hope and a new life and a purpose and a joy! I see you for who you really are and were always meant to be – beloved. You are BELOVED.
• (*I hold my breath, silent, squirming a little, wrestling with the depth of this, and feeling BELOVED resonating n the innermost part of me*)
• You are beloved. And they, too, are BELOVED. Everyone you see and encounter, every man, woman and child – they are BELOVED. That passion I have for you, I have for them too. I LOVE THEM! I gave my life for them, because they are beautiful and special and they are mine. They are beloved and I meant for them to always know my love as a Father. 
• (*I try saying this out, almost as if I were conjugating French verbs*). I am beloved. You are beloved. He and She are beloved. They are beloved. We are beloved!
• You feel that you can’t love people, right?
• Right…
• You won’t be able to love them all on your own. The amount of love you can summon up on your own is limited, and you’ve realized that. But look at everyone you see and meet – and see them as BELOVED TO GOD.  I love them and value them - 
• - Yeah, that does make a difference in the way I would treat them! They are BELOVED. BELOVED!  But – But….wait, hold on a sec.
• Yes?
• What if there’s a sin in their life? How can I see and treat them as truly beloved if there’s a huge, obvious sin or something. I want to be true and genuine in loving them, but I don’t want to affirm sin and all. Y’know – I don’t want to say “God loves you no matter what the blah you do” because it seems like You’re just freebie-heaven-God, but I DON’T think “He loves you, but, hey, he hates your sin, so figure that out.” is right. This sounds so fake, but how do really “love the sinner and hate the sin”, like You do? (And by sin, I mean any sin in general)
• (*Chiding*) You’re trying to be difficult, aren’t you? 
• Yes, but I really want to know! I want to know how to love people well and love people like You do! And I think that “love the sinner and hate the sin” is technically what You do, but it sounds so fake because no one ever can do it. So how do I love people holistically but not affirm sin?
• Well, in all honesty, you can’t.
• What?
• You can’t “love the sinner and hate the sin”. As in, it’s impossible for you to do that. So don’t even think that you can. You’re right – when people think they can do it, it’s so fake.
• What do you mean?
• Sin is like a cancer, right? It comes from you putting yourself in the center instead of Me. So it comes from the inside. It’s something that is part of you, (developing from your very own cells) and yet not part of you (an ugliness mutating and developing for its own gain and purpose). And yet, you know that it was never meant to be a part of you – it was never meant to be there. Everyone has this cancer. And yet somehow this cancer wants to blind them to the fact that they each even have it in the first place! And everyone tries to measure and justify their cancer against each other’s. 
• So you, do YOU, with your own cancerous nature, think you can tell where another’s cancer begins or originates? On your own, can YOU tell the EXACT “dimensions” of someone’s sin enough to be able to completely “love the sinner but hate the sin”?  
• No. Point taken. So what do I do?
• You can’t tell where a specific sin stems from in a person’s life, but I can. And it’s ONLY in My light and love that a person can start to clearly see the cracks and the cancers in their own lives. And if you walk closely with them and Me, and they let you into their lives, then might you be able to see its true root too. If you try to play God and try to nitpick right away where sinner and sin splits up before even loving them or bringing them to me, you’re being a Pharisee – you’re just creating a barrier for them to know Me. So how can you love them? See them as my BELOVED, and lead them to me. Love them to me, because I can see, expose and heal cracks and hurts and cancers. I want to walk with them, wrestle with them, love them, fill them. This is not a bait-and-switch. They are, and will always be, in the deepest, truest part of their being (which is what I can see!), beloved.
• They are still beloved.
• Yes, so the most you can do to is just truthfully help them seek and find a relationship with Me, and encourage them along the beautiful (and at times, painful!) journey of loving and being loved by Me.
• (*Still sounding it out*) Beloved. WE ARE ALL BELOVED! The most I can do is keep showing people that to You, they are beloved, and keep walking with them as they understand more and more of what Your love (and light!) means for them. (*mind explodes for the umpteenth time*)
• Pretty much. (*amused, somewhat delighted, very loving*). You keep mulling on that.

Long story short: I don’t consider myself a very loving person. My love-tank (baby, love-tank!) is limited, but I know that we are all beloved by God. When it comes to the Wellesley students, in seeing a glimpse of His love for them, I can value and honor and reach out to and care for them – all of them and each of them – with a love that only comes from Him alone. I can bring them to Jesus’ love. That’s what it means, I think, for me to have a glimpse of “God’s heart” for Wellesley, and for God to use me as a way to show Wellesley His love.

Yes, even the most annoying, obnoxious, pushy, demanding people – the “enemies” – are dearly, deeply BELOVED! The poor are beloved. The sick are beloved. The “least of these” are beloved. And that changes how I treat them  - Jesus loves them holistically, genuinely – therefore, so will I. Isn’t this how Christians – followers of Jesus – are meant to act? (John 13:34-35)

So here I am, beloved, and learning to love.

TUFTS: God’s movement in Tufts’ InterVarsity’s Chapter Building

See what God has been doing at Tufts University these past few years! (**Note: I graduated from Tufts in 2010 and served part of my InterVarsity intern year there, so I’ve been part of their chapter building journey for quite a few years now!**)

A huge thanks to InterVarsity’s 2100 Productions team who made this video possible, along with the staff and students in the video and photos, and the people who supported us along the journey. Glory to God.

==========================================

A Thriving, Missional Community

The InterVarsity chapter at Tufts is currently a thriving missional community of over 110 students from a variety of cultures and places on their spiritual journeys.  It is a community that welcomes seekers and skeptics, challenges those who have committed their lives to Jesus to grow deeper in their faith and engages with the campus culture and global issues.  This year, we saw 9 students make first-time decisions to follow Jesus.

Once A Holy Huddle

But the chapter at Tufts was not always this way.  Only a few years ago, the fellowship would best best be described as a holy huddle, a safe place for Christians to hide in the midst of a secular campus and it was majority white.  As the fellowship attempted to move toward being more outward-focused, it reduced drastically in size.  At one point, there were only 10-12 students at our Large Group meetings.

The Faithfulness of God

The road has not been easy, but God has show himself to be faithful.  I am thankful to have been apart of this journey at Tufts since I came as a freshmen in 2006 and am excited for where God will take this community in the coming years.

I am thankful for the ways that we have seen God at work at Tufts. And I am reminded of Job 1:21 - “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

WELLESLEY: Looking Forward – The Vision for Next Year

To Grow as a Witnessing Community

This love for the campus started taking on a new meaning after the Katrina Relief Urban Plunge service trip. The women in WIVCF wondered what it would look like if they, as a community, could reach out to the college – not just as individual members to their friends, but as a Body of Christ to their campus context as a whole. A witnessing community would be one in which students can both see and experience the Gospel lived out in the way the fellowship encourages one another, learns from God’s Word, practices missional living and loving, and advances the Kingdom of God in word, deed, and prayer.

To See and Seek Whole-life Conversion

We believe that lives are transformed as students encounter and follow Jesus Christ. We hope and pray to see God move students from cynics to seekers to followers to leaders to world-changers. Through evangelism and spiritual formation, we want to see more students drawn into an eternal relationship with God, committing their lives to serving God’s purposes and delighting in Him forever.

 Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek the Lord’s guidance and His direction as we plan for the upcoming year.

WELLESLEY: Looking Back – Answers to Prayers

In April, I shared about Wellesley InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s (WIVCF) “net” vision – a vision to be a witnessing community to the campus and the world. This vision has spurred many of the women in the fellowship to grow in both aspects of witnessing and community. Given that WIVCF has had a rough time in the past with the staff and exec team transitions, this year’s transformation in the deep love in community and in the unity in their calling to God’s mission, is most certainly an answer to prayer.

Strong Community – Growing in Love for God’s People

Not only has the fellowship grown in number but they have also grown in their genuine, deep love for Jesus, each other and for the women of Wellesley. We focused this year largely on the incoming First-Year class. The upperclasswomen and I intentionally cared for the First-year students, encouraging them and walking alongside them – choosing to be vulnerable with our own testimonies of God’s healing in our lives so as to disciple and encourage. Some non-Christian students even considered WIVCF as a community where they felt safe to ask hard questions, to seek, to explore the Scriptures fully for the first time and learn more firsthand about Jesus and Christian life.

Bold Witnessing – Growing in Love for God’s Purposes

Through evangelism training, outreach events and missional Bible studies, the women are also growing in God’s love for the campus, and are seeking His heart for their friends, their teachers and the greater Wellesley culture. How encouraging it is to see the campus engaged more and more with the Good News of Jesus’ transforming love! This evangelistic push is not done out of a feeling of obligation, but out of a place of being loved by Him. Just like the Samaritan woman at the well, they witness to finding their healing and identity and love in Jesus. And this year, because of their faithfulness and God’s grace, two women have become believers and at least seven have grown immensely in their faith and have (re)committed their lives to serving God and bringing His Kingdom to world. Praise the Lord!

WELLESLEY: Students Transformed, a Campus Renewed, World-Changers Developed

(This is the blog-version of my Year-in-Review document that I created for my ministry partners)

———————————————————————————————————-

WELLESLEY INTERVARSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP (WIVCF)

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2010-2011

Walt (my supervisor) and I reflecting together with Wellesley students on the "roadmap" of where God has led us over the course of the year

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

STUDENTS TRANSFORMED

Through growing closer to Jesus and encountering the Holy Spirit

Seeking “whole-life transformation” means that regardless of where we are in our faith journeys, we are being continually transformed by Jesus and His love as we grow more and more in love for Him, His Word, His people of every ethnicity and culture and His purposes in the world. This affects how we view our own spiritual formation and growth and how we introduce others to Jesus and the Gospel message and invite them to faith.

It is powerful to see God moving in students’ hearts as they seek Him in community! Two women have made decisions to follow Jesus, many have made commitments to seek Him for the first time (especially at KRUP – Katrina Relief Urban Plunge), and a number of students have felt God’s healing in areas of hurt and brokenness in their lives.

Praying for each other and for the campus

Through studying and applying Scripture to our daily lives, and through inviting others into engaging with Jesus

Our First-Year Small Group focused on regular community scripture studies and asked the questions, “How does this apply to me personally?”, “How does this apply to the communities that I am in?” and “How does apply to the campus and the world?”. God spoke to the students through His Word. Studying the Gospel of John opened the First-Years’ eyes to the power and reality of the Kingdom, the need to let Him pervade every fiber of their lives and the need to share Jesus and His love with the campus.

Scripture Study

A CAMPUS RENEWED

Through engaging the campus and speaking into its culture

We wanted to be intentional about engaging the campus and showing God’s heart for its renewal. At various times during the year, we addressed issues relevant to students: sex and relationships, parties, love, life choices, vocation and time management. The fellowship also sought to engage the academic/intellectual side of the campus culture. We hosted a Veritas Forum –  “Is Justice Blind?” –  on  Jesus’ view of justice and what our response should be.

Wellesley's Veritas Forum

We also connected with many students from different places in their faith journeys over large interactive displays called “Proxe Stations” (pictured below). Topics ranged from the problem of evil, a comparison of worldviews and one’s sense of purpose.

Proxe Station at Wellesley

WORLD-CHANGERS DEVELOPED

Through facilitating and equipping students to serve, and challenging them to think about how the Gospel impacts a hurting world

Our annual service trip to New Orleans (KRUP) brought twenty-three students down for one week for intense service and spiritual discussions. Students worked on multiple houses with organizations like Habitat for Humanity. This trip is a reflection of our desire to live out Jesus’ command to serve the poor. The students were also taught how God is deeply concerned with poverty and injustice, and how He challenges us to care for the poor.

Painting a House in New Orleans

In the spring, several IVCF students felt that God had placed a passion in their hearts for social justice. As one student (currently an intern with World Vision) reflected, “The Spirit reminded me of one huge mission in my life: to be a catalyst of change in any community I find myself. I know that only Jesus can truly transform hearts (…), but He has invited us to be part of that revolution.” (read the whole article here)

The Class of 2011: Being Sent Out

Eight WIVCF seniors are graduating this year, each of them passionate followers of Jesus whose lives have been shaped by the Gospel during their time at Wellesley. Each of them have made a profound impact on campus and the world in different ways (Read Amanda’s story here), but we’re now sending them out to continue being culture-shapers and world-changers and delighting in God and His mission!

Wellesley InterVarsity Senior Class

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Looking Ahead for Wellesley

I’m thankful that God has called me to full-time at Wellesley for the next two years and I’m excited to see where He will move the fellowship and the campus. I know that God is faithful, and He is continuing the good work He began at Wellesley a long time ago (Philippians 1:6).

• Pray for the new believers this summer, that they would continue to grow in faith and find support in Christian community
• Pray for discernment of His vision in planning for next year and for the student executive team: Cory, Yogha, and Charleen
• Pray for the outgoing senior class, that they would continue to fervently see the Kingdom of God in whatever community or vocation He calls them to.
• Pray for the current Wellesley students, especially those who have been seeking, the the summer would find them drawing closer to Jesus.
• Pray for the incoming First-Years, for fertile soil and open hearts and minds, that we would be able to welcome them well and invite them to seek Jesus and His Kingdom with us.
• Pray for Ben and I and the Wellesley fellowship as I transition from serving as an intern at Tufts and Wellesley to being a full-time campus staff at Wellesley.
• Pray for the fellowship as it continues to press into the vision of being a witnessing community - a Christ-centered fellowship that boldly seeks whole-life transformation at Wellesley through encountering Jesus and seeking the Kingdom of God together. Praise God for the beautiful community that WIVCF has been year!

Called to belong to Jesus Christ; called to apostleship

^“5 Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. ⁶ And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”

- Romans 1:5-6 (NIV)

I came across these verses in my morning devotions today, and what an encouragement they are!

It affirms my (our) calling to apostleship, to witness to people from among all the Gentiles and to call them to the obedience that comes from faith in Jesus. That’s what I’m doing on campus, with students from different parts of the world!

It reminds me that EVERYTHING is through Him and His name’s sake. It isn’t through my strength, or for my own glory or my own success or popularity, but this ultimately through and for Him.

It reminds me of His gift of undeserved grace to me, and it reminds me that he doesn’t “need” me in ministry, but that He delights to see me partner with Him in His work.

And most of all, I am reminded that I am called to belong to Jesus Christ. I am beloved child of God in His family! Thank you, Lord!

WELLESLEY: “The Net” Vision

I met many of the woman from the Wellesley Fellowship for the first time at SUMMIT Chapter Camp (before the first-years’ orientation) last year. I knew that they had come out of a hard year of some division and disagreement in mission, and while I knew that God was calling me to help in the rebuilding process, I wasn’t sure how the students felt about it.

I remember doing group prayer with them in the evenings outside on the dewy lawn and inside in one of the meeting spaces of the camp – all of us together earnestly listening for God’s voice and seeking God’s vision for the campus, that He would show us how much He loved Wellesley, where He was at work within the campus and fellowship, and where He wanted to take us over the years to come. Oh, we spent hours!

One passage of Scripture that we were drawn to and that we felt particularly on our hearts (but we weren’t sure why just yet) was John  21

John 21

¹ Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.^[a] It happened this way: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus^[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

⁷ Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸ The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.^[c]9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

At first, I thought, “Oh, typical evangelistic passage about being a fisher of men, trusting Jesus’ timing, obeying His command, yada yada yada good stuff….” But the students really pressed into the passage, and, for some reason, kept marveling that “the net was not torn” (John 21:11). They, as well as I, wondered why they were drawn to that detail. Of all the cool things happening in the passage, why do we care that the net doesn’t tear?

That was September 2010. With the inflow of the first-year class, we grew a little as a fellowship. Through small groups, retreats and large groups, we started our journey pressing into what it meant to be a “missional, witnessing community” that engages the campus and the students with Jesus, His love and His Kingdom.

Fast forward to April 2010.

While many of the WIVCF students have their own “home-churches” in Boston, they sometimes like to visit each others’ churches every month (or every other month) or so. This one particular week, they went to Highrock Church in Arlington, which is where Ben and I and some of the students go. It was that week that Pastor Dave preached a sermon on the church being a net.

In the days that Peter and company fished, men didn’t sit lonesome for hours on their own little boats with their own fishing lines, drinking beer and waiting for unlucky fish to idly swim by and bite. No indeed. Fishing was a community effort, and what’s more, fishing was very intentional. Huge mesh nets were let down across two fishing boats in time to catch entire shoals, and then hauled up by the two boats. The nets had to be checked and repaired daily in order for effective fishing to happen.

In the same way, when Jesus calls His followers to be fishers of men, He isn’t calling us to be lone leisure fishers waiting for a fish to bite before we haul the line. He’s calling us to be a community of people invested in intentionally seeking and gathering fish – like a net, if you will. And in order to have a functional net, it requires constant reconcilation, forgiveness and peacemaking in the church body.

That struck the Wellesley women. While many of them were first-years and did not realize what had transpired at SUMMIT, the vision of being a net caught steam and we talked, prayed, dreamt and brainstormed over it as a fellowship in the weeks following. Part of our mission statement was to be a “witnessing community”, and this was what God has been leading us into all along!

In the weeks following, relationships have been strengthened even more than before within the fellowship and with people outside the fellowship. We saw two students come to faith as a result of relational ministry. The students not only share triumphs and struggles and hang out with each other, but they are starting to go out together as a community to share God’s love. We’re currently still brainstorming ways to engage the entire campus, but we’re excited for this vision that God is leading us with – a net that was not torn but that catches fish at Jesus’ command.

Please pray for the fellowship that we would  follow Jesus’ call to be real fishers of women! Please also pray for me and the Exec team as we lead and make decisions about the fellowship’s next steps in the upcoming year. 

WELLESLEY: United For Justice – Students learn about and join the fight against sex-trafficking

L, a student who attended the 2011 Franklin and Marshall conference, wrote an online article for World Vision ACTS describing her experience and what she brought from it.

“Heartbreak after heartbreak. Nonstop.

But imagine if it ended there – if there was no call to action, no hope. If we were all alone in trying to pick up every broken system, broken child, broken body.

Fortunately, we are not alone. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has given us the light of knowledge. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of our Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Corinthians 4:6-10).

Just as there were moments of raw anguish during the conference, there were also great commitments and recommitments to fighting injustice. World Vision D.C. advocates offered us tools and resources to effectively change policies and systems. We witnessed powerful reminders of God’s love and grace for each of His children, as well as tangible hope of healing the hearts of the both the victims and oppressors. Through awareness and education, we became empowered.

This inspiring community of college students wanted to selflessly dedicate themselves to creating movements on their campuses. After every statistic, photograph, and film, the Spirit reminded me of one huge mission in my life: to be a catalyst of change in any community I find myself. I know only Jesus can truly transform the hearts of traffickers, sex slaves filled with shame and anger, or even stressed and preoccupied college students–but He has invited us to be a part of that revolution.”

Read more here.

Thank you, God for the heart for justice, the oppressed and the poor that you’re cultivating in these women. Thank you for their testimony and their passion for seeing Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven. I pray that they would continue to see You as the Healer and Reconciler of all things, and that they would not lean on their own strengths to ‘save the world’, but that they would ultimately trust in You as the One who can transform people’s hearts and lives.

While doing Inductive Bible Study in WIVCF first-year small group…

Thank you Lord, for Your Word and for the chance for us to encounter You through Scripture!