Merry Christmas, Blessed Urbana, and Happy New Year!

At twentyonehundred we're anticipating not only the anniversary of the birth of our Lord, but the continuance of his mission here on earth. So along with baking cookies, trimming trees, giving gifts to each other and singing the wonderful old carols, we're organizing schedules, reviewing videos, outputting final files and packing trucks---We're anticipating Urbana. This Urbana's recruitment call is "It starts with 12" and our onsite theme is "The Great Invitation." So, as much as it's hard that Urbana takes me away from my family during the holidays, it's appropriate it falls in the season of new beginnings, the beginning of our redemption and the beginning of a new year. Urbana is the start and the invitation to many, many people's beginnings of a career path, of a mission, of a new vision. Here are a few stories of Urbana alumni, and here's a few photos of our preparations:

My rehearsal and show schedule at Urbana.

Loading our cameras, computers, signage, lights and a whole lot more on the truck.

The truss for our stage goes up in the dome.

The stage, already almost in it's final form!

Would Jesus Eat Frybread?

Once again I've updated the Native Ministries fundraising case (they have new potential major donors!), and in the meantime they've had their first national conference, called "Would Jesus Eat Frybread?"

What kind of a name is that? Well, it's one that gets at the heart of questions Native students are asking. Frybread is a traditional dish for almost every Native American nation--it's a part of native culture--but that's because it was made from the rations distributed by the US government as tribes were forced on long journeys leaving their lands and homes. So in asking about frybread, we ask simultaneously: would Jesus accept native culture as it really is, and is Jesus willing to dwell even in consequences of oppression?

The questions and the answers don't just relate to native students, they relate to us too. A Chinese American alumn working in the Navajo Nation was invited, too, and her reflections from the conference might strike a cord with many of you.

You can read her whole blog entry here, but I've included an excerpt below:

"...somewhere between learning a haka, cooking frybread, absorbing stories, and learning at the feet of elders, God chose to speak directly to me – a first-generation Chinese American with napa cabbage and a jar of chili paste snuggled in the fridge between some jicama and hummus.

God told me that it was time to reclaim my culture. Like every culture, mine reflects a part of His character: He created us all in His image, and while we can’t encapsulate His entirety, we each have the honor of reflecting one facet. In the end, we will all worship Him in our own languages, dance our own dances, and sing our own songs. I don’t know what He wants me to do with this: maybe someday I’ll help build His kingdom in China. Maybe He just wants me to honor my family and honor Him by fully inhabiting my identity.

Reclaiming my heritage won’t be easy. Where is my history located, now? Where did I discard it? I need forgiveness from my family. I want to learn what I can about my lineage. I need to reacquire my language. I want to learn the dialects particular to my family. I want to love the things about myself and my people that I once despised. I have to repent for thinking that how God made me didn’t matter. After all, if I reject myself, I do not fully accept my Creator. I need prayer support, brothers and sisters. And to those in my faith family who are first-generation Chinese Americans, I need guidance and mentorship. If I’m to reflect one small pearl in the vast ocean of God’s glory, then I want to do it well."

Please pray that God would raise up native Christians from every nation! 

Red Cup: University of Chicago

Staff Barney Lin shares a story one of his students told:

We started off the year again with a push to engage the campus in spiritual conversations, asking students who didn't mind stopping by, "What are you thirsty for?" and proceeding to ask them if they're interested in what Jesus says about the satisfaction of ultimate thirsts. I was SO ENCOURAGED by how open students were to truly hearing, and dialoguing about Jesus and faith. Here is a short story from a student in InterVarsity who spoke to a militant atheist:

"I honestly believe God's Spirit was there with me, in particular when speaking with a 'militant atheist'. How did I know that? Well, for one, if you know me, you'd know that I'm quite shy, reserved, and absolutely hate conflict. Indeed I felt that the strength to keep the conversation going, though at times I did feel like a punching bag, was not my own. And more so the patience and the absence of hate. 'Cause I know that on my own, I would have been totally infuriated and personally offended, but God really enabled me to speak boldly but respectfully with love. And finally, I know that God was with me during the span of the conversation because I felt absolutely no stress while speaking with  him. It was only after he left that I realized that I was emotionally drained. I'll be honest - I kinda burst into tears. BUT I was confused 'cause I didn't know why I was crying, 'cause it wasn't because I felt personally offended/attacked (which is still mindboggling to me). I do believe it was the Spirit weeping for him. That he was so blind and hardened. I must say I've never so acutely experienced God's heart for His creation before. But yeah - what a truly blessed experience. And I think about how Jesus taught us to love our enemies (what a crazy teaching), and how He himself was scorned and shunned and CRUCIFIED by His own CREATION. It makes me marvel at our Savior that much more."

Who Will You Be: University of California, Davis

 A short dispatch from University of California, Davis: Seven students stood up during the call to faith at the very first large group [after the Who Will You Be outreach]! We were blown away and thankful for the response. Also, Lillie, who is starting an international ministry this year, has 85 contacts [from the WWYB booth]!

Who Will You Be: University of Montana

Here are the stories of 2 freshmen this year, as told by the staff at University of Montana:

Callie’s Story

To say Callie’s home life has been rough would be a drastic understatement. Tough medical issues, alcoholism, homelessness, debt, extreme bullying and teasing; the list goes on and on. Her dream was always to go to college. No one in her family has even graduated from high school, so her dream of college was a lofty one. But after a lot of hard work, she made it; her dream was fulfilled, but somehow it wasn’t what she has dreamed of. Instead of starting over, finding friends, and exploring the possibilities that lie ahead of her, she was met with extreme loneliness, girls in her dorm who drank all weekend, and even more hard times. Coming from a family who has dealt with alcoholism, she knows how destructive it is, so she didn’t want to go party with these new “friends” and would often sit in her dorm alone, crying, and wondering if all her hard work getting to college was wasted on one bad decision in coming to school at UM.

Then last Thursday, she ventured off to the school cafeteria to eat dinner alone. She saw her RA sitting at a table and went to eat with her. After dinner, her RA (not a Christian come to find out) said she was headed to check out this thing called InterVarsity and asked Callie if she wanted to go too. So they came together to Breakaway last week where I spoke about the Prodigal Son and the love of the Father for us. It moved Callie to tears. Not only did she hear about a personal relationship with God that night, but she found a community of people who wanted to be her friends, who accepted her for who she is. She also joined us for all the events we had going on last weekend (including the no hands spaghetti dinner in the picture). She told me today, “I was never the girl that got invited to do anything,” and that all changed after coming to Breakaway. She has been invited non-stop to everything we do!!

She sat telling me her story at a coffee shop today and she cried about how grateful she is to find friends, real friends. She said she feels hopeful that she didn’t make the wrong decision in coming to UM after all. I told her I think God has something big in store for her, and she smiled at me and said she was beginning to think so too.

 

Peter’s Story

Peter is from the Helena area and grew up in the Church. He came to college looking for a Christian group and found us the very first day of classes during our free BBQ outside the dorms, and he’s been with us ever since.

Last week on campus we did an evangelistic outreach through a tent called a “proxe.” The whole goal of the proxe is to get into spiritual conversations with people in a very non-threatening way. (The theme was “Who Will You Be?” and we were talking about how identity and spiritual combine.) Peter came and signed up for an hour slot to stand at the tent and talk to people about God. He was scared out of his mind, but he stuck with it, took a risk, and did a great job—and even got to share the Gospel with several people during the hour. (That’s him in the picture talking about the Prodigal Son story and the love of God the Father with a complete stranger!) He said, “I hope I was able to make an impact,” and he told me as he was leaving that he hoped to stop by the tent the next day even though he hadn’t signed up because he loved doing it so much.

Freshman doing evangelism and sharing their faith within their first 4 weeks on campus, freshman finding real community and friends for the first time, and finding God along the way—WOW!

Calling Students Out of the Trap

Liz, staff at Chico State, championed the Red Cup outreach campaign and wrote a Bible study series for it. She wrote a post back in the early fall that I want to share with you (though I'll abbreviate it here). It made me understand why she's so passionate about Red Cup...and why we should be too:

"Chico State is a well-known party school, and the typical Christian response to the party scene here is some combination of hiding, and misunderstanding/judgment. Despite the reasons to keep our distance, our chapter has felt led to pursue the party scene as a place of ministry. We have prayer walked weekly around the main downtown house parties for five years, and IV students intentionally go to parties and bars to build evangelistic friendships w/their partying peers (of course, modeling not drinking or responsible drinking). Four years ago we began handing out water and offering rides during the annual Labor Day float down the Sacramento River next to campus, which draws 15,000-20,000+ drunken students from all around.

I graduated from Chico State in 05 and came straight on staff, making this my 12th year in Chico, and I've mourned an alcohol/drug-related student death almost every year. I am heart broken to say that another student died this week. Brett was a 20-year-old Cal Poly student who came up with his friends to have a fun weekend, and was last seen at Beer Can Beach (yes it's really called that, because of the massive trashing that happens during the float) Sunday. By Tuesday his parents were on campus and around town handing out flyers, by Wednesday strangers were joining the cause. Then at 11:30 this morning [the next Sunday, Sept. 9th], it was confirmed that police had finally found his body in the river. His parents wept as they made a positive ID.

Days ago, while we were all still searching, our IV students prayed and we got a clear sense of spiritual warfare, it felt like Brett was somehow trapped. And for years as we have prayed about the party scene, we have known that the party scene is indeed a trap, or a slaughterhouse. Students go hoping to find deep friendships and have a good time, and it is fun enough to a point. But there is a line that gets crossed after a while, and suddenly it isn't just fun. People begin treating one another poorly, relationships are strained and abused and broken, hearts get hard. Then, if the partier keeps going, there is another line which is far easier to cross than the first and things go one of two ways: violence-- assaults, riots, rape; or isolation and death. It is a trap. The enemy lures students in with hopes of community, but I've yet to hear of a student to die in Chico with people around them, no matter how well-intentioned and loving their friends actually were. He/she is always alone.

We have students in our community who, like myself, have survived the party scene here. Who felt the emptiness after that first line was crossed, or survived the violence if we went past the second line, and decided to get out. Please pray for us as we live out our party scene ministry in this season of mourning. Please pray for the families of all the deceased students, because I'm sure the news of every student death reopens their wounds.

Please pray that we will be able to get more students out of the trap.

Who Will You Be: Milwaukee, San Francisco, Columbus

From Brittany, Staff in Milwaukee: 

"We did our who will you be large group last night and had 5 students made first time commitments! Praise God!"

And from this summer's design intern, Justin (pictured right), and his staff Carrie (left) at San Francicso State:

"... Since we're an urban commuter campus, we've experienced a lot of difficulty getting students who come through the proxe to come to our Thursday night Large Group. Many have to commute so far that they can't stay on campus late.

BUT this last Thursday we saw tons of new students come to our event! Many hands flew up for recommitment and 2 students made a first time decision to follow Jesus! Praise God for what He is doing on all our campuses."

Carrie and Justin are great Vanna Whites.

 From Erik, Staff Ohio State: 

"I did Who Will You Be pocket proxes with 3 students this past week. Each time, we ended up going through the proxe with the VERY FIRST person we approached.

After a total of 3 conversations, we had shared the Gospel with 8 people because people kept joining in during the conversation. My prayer beforehand was that God would prepare conversations in advance, and He certainly did!"

Starting Urbana12 Production

I'm way out of my depth here guys...

Any Hu, video team member, and I set up shots for transitional scenes.

This Labor day, instead of resting, I was working away. I spent most of the weekend vacationing with friends up at InterVarsity's camp Cedar Campus, but when my Urbana project manager heard we'd be there, he suggested we do a day of shooting backgrounds for a dance and theater piece  titled "The Deep"-- since, up there, Lake Huron is clean and clear and indeed deep.  Amy and I spent a full day shooting and at least 4 of those hours in a boat or up to our thighs in cold water. This being my first time directing a video shoot (I've directed photoshoots before) I felt in over my head. And now I'm further in, editing the clips together in Final Cut. Here we are filming (shots taken by our model Laura)...

Views from the shore...and from the water. (Sorry, none of us filming in the kayak.)

It's a hard balance to find the abstract in photos, and still hold to a concept. It's hard to even describe what you're looking for. We needed shots that felt like the viewer was on the shore, on a boat, and underwater with the fish, to be the set as scenes from Jesus, the disciples, and the abundant catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11) are acted on stage. A couple shots of the Real/Abstract look we're trying to achieve...

The shore and out to sea to let down nets.

Jesus: “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon: "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."  

Friends, I'm feeling like Simon(Peter) right now. I've been working hard, trying to find a cohesive look for the screens behind speakers, worship, theater, testimonies and transitions. One that honors the themes and stories of all, delights but doesn't distract, and brings them all together. Right now, my team and I don't know if it's working. We've run into so many fears (will the audience understand it?), limitations (time, money, personel) and creative hurdles (so...what does the 'worthiness of Jesus' look like?). But Urbana12 is the Lord's work. So, we'll let down our nets once again.

Please pray for an abundant catch. Pray that whatever our solution to these backdrops is, it will be fitting and beautiful, and that we will arrive at it soon!

Urbana12 Sneak Peak...Sort Of

Our scale model of the Urbana12 stage fits on a 6-foot table
top. This is my miniature domain, and the world I worry about.
Although they look final, it may be that no part of these
designs ends up on the real stage--and even the stage layout
may be changed. This is why we have a model--but I'm not
used to playing with it so much this late in the game.
Please pray for the progress of this project!

Who Will You Be: U of New Mexico

U of new Mexico Who Will You Be tent on campus.

 

From Rachel Rollefstad, new staff at University of New Mexico: 

"Last week, a few students and I carted a blue pop-up tent, some colorful poster boards, and a bunch of name tags onto a busy sidewalk on the UNM campus.  This was our "Who Will You Be?" proxe station: an interactive booth with eye catching graphics, designed to engage students in spiritual conversations about identity.  We talked with a wide spectrum of students, asking them questions and listening to their views of God.  I was particularly impressed with an IV student who is a new believer.  Every time I turned around he was sharing his testimony or talking about Jesus' redemption of the world in a personal way with someone!  A few students now want to investigate Jesus for themselves as a result of our conversations.  Hopefully, they will be spending a few weeks studying Jesus in the Bible with us."

Red Cup: UT Austin

Staff from UT Austin IV wrote: "2 new believers last night! Both came to the fellowship meeting through the Red Cup Proxe Station that asked the question 'What are you thirsting for?' "

The two student holding red cups in the middle came up to the front to accept Jesus!

Who Will You Be: first reports from Denver, South Dakota, & Baltimore

CU Denver's Who Will You Be set-up

Kristin Wright, Staff at University of Colorado Denver reports: "Who Will You Be Proxe is amazing! So far 85 students heard the gospel. Missional freshmen are wanting to join in. One new believer so far. IV students feel conversation has been honest and authentic. CU interns did a great job teaching WWYB at pre-fall. They are coaching and debriefing with students at the proxe. They are becoming missional leaders of leaders."

South Dakota State InterVarsity talked to 500 students at the Who Will You Be proxe this week!

26 names! (I've removed last names & campus details to protect privacy.)

 From Staff in Baltimore: "This is a picture of students who responded to the invitation to follow Jesus for the first time or as adults at our large group last night. I asked them to write their name on a name sticker and put it on the poster in the back of the room. We're in the process of following up with each of them. I spoke about the younger son and the Father [from Luke 15:11-32] and used the name tags as the response. It went really well!"

Who Will You Be: Northern Arizona University

Students at Northern Arizona University trained on the Who Will You Be at a nearby church yesterday-- looks like they'll be using it on campus soon!

Red Cup: Jackson State

Yes, Red Cup is being used for NSO (New Student Outreach) this year on the campuses that didn't use it last year and one of those is Jackson State, where a student became a christian today at the Red Cup proxe station. Praise God with us!

A (very sharp-dressed, if I may say) InterVarsity student shares the gospel at Jackson state.

Who Will You Be: It's Go time!

Hey everybody, it's here, it's finally here! This week is the first week of New Student Outreach on campuses across the country! Our Who Will You Be campaign finally gets is debut with real, brand-new freshmen on campus. And boy is it ever: we've printed more than 300 panels (there are 4 in a set) and sent then to 57 different campuses. Courtney (our newest designer) and I have been working hard posting supporting materials on the web, answering phones and emailing staff. I can't wait for stories to come in!

Please pray for staff and students arriving on campus this week-- that new students would consider finding their identity in Christ and serving his Kingdom, rather than in empty and ultimately unfulfilling ways. Campus can become a difficult place for those who've built their identity around smarts or success or how many friends they have. Like the prodigal son, the sooner we realize we have a father who's love doesn't change, the better. Let's pray that, as freshmen leave physical home for the first time, they gain a spiritual one this week.

The mountain of trimmings from the edges of panels.

InterVarsity's Year in Numbers

It looks like now is one of the most exciting and dynamic growth periods in InterVarsity history! Campus staff sent in their end of the year reports and the information has just been tabulated in our Annual Field Report (AFR). Take a look: 

• Overall student participation at 37,936 is up to the highest level since tracking began in 1970, growing for the fifth consecutive year.

• The number of undergrad chapters grew by 23, the strongest gain in more than a decade. We now have 893 chapters on 576 campuses. (Thanks chapter planters!)

• The largest campus ministries are: James Madison University with 575 in the undergrad chapter and 84 in Greek chapter, for a total of 659 students, followed by UNC-Chapel Hill, UIUC (Illinois), UT-Austin, and UW-Madison.

• Conversions totaled 3,354: the highest number ever and double what it was seven years ago.

• The number of chapters with ten or more converts is double what it was five years ago.   

In fact, one of our 2100 interns this summer, Gisella, became a Christian just last year through friends in (what is now) her InterVarsity chapter! What a privilege to put a name, a personality, and a story to one of these numbers. Thank you for your prayers and resources, that make the growth of God's Kingdom possible. Glory be to God for His work on campus!

Who Will You Be: Evangelism in Madison

Our new staff used the Who Will You Be Pocket Proxe, about God and identity, to guide their conversations during evangelism training. They actually go out in twos (contact evangelism style) and have conversations about Jesus with different people on the streets of Madison (yes, that's here where I live!) and the University of Wisconsin campus. 120 staff went out and overall there were 12 people that decided to follow Christ 2 weeks ago today!

Two stories of decisions for Christ:

One ONS pair approached a man sitting on a bench. The pair started the conversation with the Proxe and the man read the story of the prodigal. When he did he began to tear up and said that his father had abandoned him. The Spirit moved him using the Proxe and he made a decision for Christ.

Another couple approached a woman sitting on a bench. She was reading a book. Turns out the book was a self-help book on identity. The woman exclaimed, "I have been thinking this week about the connection between spirituality and identity. Amazing you should approach me on this" (paraphrase). She also made a decision to follow Jesus.

Praise God for his work in people's lives, preparing them and calling them home to his love. He uses us and what we make, he uses scripture; he gets through to people. God's power is amazing.

Orientation for New Staff: Let's Talk Design

This year at Orientation for New Staff (ONS) my co-worker Laura and I gave a talk about designing ministry updates and prayer letters. I've never spoken in front of that many people before (almost 150!), so I was nervous, but lots of staff came up to thank us later. They said we were clear and concise and they were blown away by a few tips we gave about photos (tip: have the people in your photos looking towards your content--readers will look that way too.) The words "design ninjas" and "rockstar" might have been tossed around too. We were pleased to help and happy that it gave us connections with staff later. Now, when they call the design room for help, they will already know who they are talking to; there will be more trust from the start. More trust will make better projects, all for the glory of God. Here we are speaking on stage at ONS:

Laura introduces a staff prayer letter we are going to 'makeover.'

I ask if anyone wants to see the redesign...

"It looks pretty good, huh?"

InterVarsity Staff Class of 2012!

Orientation for New Staff has been last and this week, and the new staff are making themselves known. Here's an infographic to introduce you to them:

Who Will You Be Goes to Camp

This year's New Student Outreach about identity is ready to be used on campus, but it won't be used if staff and students don't know about it! So...we sent it to camp. Chapter Focus Week, that is, where staff and student leaders gear up for their next year of ministry. Staff who champion evangelism in each region (or most regions) brought the Who Will You Be panels to the retreat centers for students to see first-hand and decide to run them (or not run them) on campus next year. Above is Terry Fischer, third from right, with other staff showing off the T-Shirts at InterVarsity's Cedar Campus.

The Everyday: Native American Ministry Fundraising Case

So, I'm very excited that I just (within the hour) received a call from Megan and Willie Kirschke that  they presented the fundraising case I designed for them to a donor who pledged to give a $1,000 dollars a month. A couple days of my time along with their hard work raised $12,000 for their yearly budget! They can now  minister full-time with Native students at Fort Lewis College, Co., and have benefits for their family, praise God!

When Megan called  two months ago asking for help with their fundraising presentation, I was excited. My family friends the Rendalls, who have "known me before I was born", helped pioneer InterVarsity's Native Student Ministries in the past decade. It's a new student group to reach, so there aren't many materials to use. And, just the day before Megan's call, I had signed up to join a potluck and worship time with a Native American church from Minnesota. Though my project schedule was full, the time seemed right--even overdue.

In the long view, ministry to Native American students is long overdue. The suicide rate among Native Americans 18-25 is the highest in the country. Tribes suffer rampant depression and alcoholism, and reservations lack not just jobs, but electricity and plumbing. The third world isn't overseas-- it's in our own backyard. Even well-meaning missions of the past have often torn families apart and stripped them of their traditions. They've shared the bad news of human nature instead of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Native nations need young leaders with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual strength to light the way, and InterVarsity can help raise them up. Indigenous students who make it to the college campus will be the leaders in their communities. InterVarsity can teach them to lead in Godly way. And did you know Native American missionaries shared Jesus with the Mongolian church--now one the the fastest growing christian churches in the world? Christ-following Native Americans have an important witness to the world that God loves people from every tribe, language, and nation, and we must empower them to live it!

So, I'm overjoyed we've raised $12,000 for the Kirschkes and the students at Fort Lewis. This is how your giving multiplies many times as I use my skills to help staff! Thank you so much! Praise God with us!

A Ft. Lewis College student celebrates his frybread-making contest win, with his prize IVP book One Church, Many Tribes.

The Everyday: Intercessor

Thousands of InterVarsity friends pray regularly for our ministry using the Intercessor, a prayer guide with timely requests from staff all over the country. This past winter I finally got my way (I'd been lobbying for years!) and redesigned it in with more color, photos, an easier-to-use format and a pleasing, current design.

I used my template to do the May-June intercessor, pictured here, and as you can see, featured Michelle French, a staff who supports a fledgling Greek student chapter at University of Cincinnati. We got to know each other while she was my right-hand woman putting up the stage at Greek Conference. Pray that her students would really "own" the chapter and make their own initiatives!

One of my donation services co-workers also passed on this message from a donor to the Campus Access Fund:

"We pray daily for InterVarsity and we like the new prayer brochure! IVCF touched my life years ago – I would not be where I am today if it were not for IV. Keep up the good work!"

Thanks daily pray-ers. LOVE. :)

Red Cup: Spring Break Addendum

Spring Break was a while ago, but I just discovered another story from staff Erin Foster that I can't help but want to share with you! During one of the beachside Red Cup events our staff met two girls, here's a excerpt:  

"I asked her what her tears meant and she began to cry even more. She poured out her heart with questions, “What are you doing here? Why did you drive us home? I didn’t expect this on my spring break trip. Who are you?” She told me she had just been in church on Wednesday before spring break and she simply cried through the service. She had pushed that out of her mind determined to forget it in the fun of spring break. But to me it was obvious that God was trying to get her attention..."

Read the rest of the story on Erin's Blog.

Who Will You Be: Reno Test

We've been testing our new campaign to make it the best it can be when many chapters use it to attract freshman this fall. Our first test was University of Southern California and the 2nd was University of Nevada--Reno, where we tested, especially, lines students might say to lead someone from one visual panel to the next.

We had alot of positive feedback, as well as constructive criticism. I'll share my favorite student response (of course positive):

"Do more proxe stations like these. I had such an easy time transitioning from one poster to another with this one. I thought this campaign was awesome and was quite successful."

Pics from Reno:

Panels 3 and 4-- voting on character traits and the story of the Lost Son

Panels 1 and 2--Celeb's real and stage names, Participant's posted nicknames

Panels 1 and 2

Look how many people participated: the nickname board is covered!

The Everyday: A Small Request Fufilled

Students wait in line to sign up for Urbana 12 at Catalyst

It's hard sometimes take care of the small requests, or the confusing ones, in time. With a designer leaving, one out part of last week, and a new one arrived today we almost missed printing a banner for Catalyst.

The staff had ordered one, and then two, banners of a design she sent, and had talked to the absent designer. When I got her phone call, by this time a last minute request, I printed and had them over-nighted. The pay-off? There it is in the photo, at Catalyst, Chapter Camp for students in Iowa, Missori, Kansas, and Nebraska. It arrived! 

And students are signing up for Urbana... so back to working on the big projects!

Introducing: Who Will You Be

This student at the USC test looks like she was the model for the T-shirt design!

It's the time of year when we come up with a brand new New Student Outreach Campaign ala Red Cup (last year) and Choices (two years ago). I've been working hard, brainstorming, drafting, writing, testing, with a team of 5 other staff including Doug Schaupp (Los Angeles)-our fearless leader, Beth Roselius (West Virginia), Sam Rizk (Los Angeles), Daniel Lui (SoCal) and Troy Tisthammer (Reno).

We've just completed our first on-campus test at University of Southern California...

It went well! The student leaders liked it and they had many curious visitors and good conversations. Lots of students heard the gospel.

The theme and title of this campaign in "Who Will You Be"--that is, identity. Students, especially freshman, are thinking about who they want to be: what image, and the character traits beneath, they want to create for themselves on campus, and in the world it prepares them for. Do they want to be the same person they are with their families? In high school? Do they like who they are becoming? 

Here's how conversation at the display (called proxe) goes....

We ask students to identify celebrities who have changed their names (Panel 1), and then ask students to share their own nicknames (Panel 2). Then (Panel 3) we ask them to think about and share what they want to be more or less of (more courageous? less fake?). In the test, once students talked about what character traits they struggle with, all of them were willing to read the story (Panel 4) of a Son who wanted to go off on his own... and the father who rejoiced at his return (Luke 15:11-32). What do they think of the character of father? Do they think the son did a good job forming his own identity? Who do they identity with? Who do they want to be like? Do they think that God, as Jesus said, is like that father? These questions and their answers lead a student leader to share the gospel, invite the person to a Bible study and pray for them.

The campaign's look and script are still flexible, but...

We are presenting it to field directors at Spring Meetings this Thursday night. Please pray that directors would be excited to use, and encourage the campus staff to use, this new tool! 

After this meeting the race is on to get everything online and printed for staff to share with their student leaders at Chapter Focus Week (retreat and planning time at semester's end).

Red Cup goes on Spring Break

We think of College students’ spring breaks as road trips, sunburns and partying on the beach. And the InterVarsity students that headed to Panama City Beach, Florida did that with a twist: they brought Red Cup along! Students participating in Soul Surf, InterVarsity's spring break evangelism trip, gave away free pancakes, threw pool parties and even hosted a live band. They used the The Red Cup display on spiritual thirsts to connect with the thousands of spring breakers holding red cups on the beach.

This led to spiritual conversations with people who wouldn’t go near a church. We brought Jesus to the same bar that hosted MTV’s beach bash of 100 kegs, 500 gallons of mixed drinks, and 1,000 pizzas the next day. This is a scene mostly missed by Christians, and our students reached out within it! This is incarnational ministry. We are called to “go and be" as well as invite people to “come and see"--on their own turf.

Mike Zientara, staff intern at Illinois State University, wrote about it on the InterVarsity Blog. Here's an excerpt:

 "One evening, after a long day on the beach, I saw students checking out the display, but nobody was working it yet. It felt like a ringing phone where I kept looking around wondering, “Is anyone going to get that?” God pushed me just a little bit farther, out of my own strength and into his, and I began talking with them.

 The conversation unfolded and I learned that two of the students believed in Jesus, but weren't committed to following him daily. I shared the gospel with them and asked if they would like to make that commitment right then.I was surprised when they said yes! I made sure they knew the implications of following Jesus, almost trying to talk them out of their decision. However, it was clear that the Holy Spirit had been working in their lives and they were ready. They stumbled through heartfelt prayers, and committed to following Jesus! Despite my fatigue, God did things through me that I was incapable of and he is able to get the credit."