Chapter Building

I have been the designated graphic designer for InterVarsity's chapter building committee for a few years now. I come to meetings (or listen to meetings), draw training and strategy diagrams, organize documents and information, and help support ideas the committee thinks will build chapters--like, for example, New Student Outreach campaigns. One of the chapters that has tested the committee's training strategies, University of California Davis, just made a little infographic of what God's been doing on their campus! I had to share it with you all! It's so great to see the 'small picture' of an individual campus. It reminds me why I'm drawing and redrawing diagrams--not beautiful things that I want to show you--but things with lots of arrows and jargon. But they help build chapters and small groups and communities that welcome students into faith!

I gear up for another Chapter Building 6-day training next month.

Resolve: Virginia Tech

Resolve, as you may remember, is our New Year's themed evangelism display that asks
"Do you think New Years Resolutions and spiritual growth go together?" Here's the story of a freshman, Josh, who had signed up to do Evangelism using the display, as told by national training coach Doug Schaupp, who leads my new student outreach projects. Josh's campus staff at Virginia Tech, Wes, was on hand too:

Josh showed up, wearing goofy glasses, and generally looking petrified. When Wes asked Josh how he felt, he said, "I'm so nervous I feel like throwing up." I could see from the sweat on his brow that he wasn't kidding. Josh had never done anything like this before, and I could see that this could be an epic day for him. Wes prayed for them, and sent them off with a practical challenge, "The goal is to get 5 contact cards in this hour." Josh started poorly. He just paced the union for the first 15 minutes, not daring to start any conversations. He finally gave it a try. He started a conversation with Nick about New Years resolutions.

Nick was pleasantly startled. He was a transfer student. Nick had actually made some New Years Resolutions, and one of them was to try to get close to God. As they talked, Nick opened up. He had been adrift and a loner fall semester. He was pretty miserable, and even considered dropping out of Virginia Tech. Josh invited Nick to his small group later that same night. Nick showed up and really liked it. In fact, he decided to come to the Large Group meeting the next night. At Large Group, I spoke on Luke 5, Jesus' huge catch in Peter's life. At the end, I gave several invitations to respond to Jesus, including those who want to follow Jesus for the first time. Nick came forward. Later during prayer, Nick started weeping. After having his own life transformed by God, he invited his friends to small group. Jared joined him the next week, and Jared loved it as well.
 

Josh and Nick shared their story a few weeks later at Large Group. Nick said, "At that Large Group meeting, I became nostalgic about feeling close to God. During the talk, I connected with the character of Peter. He didn’t have everything all together, but he was willing to take a risk and follow Jesus. In everything Doug said, it felt like he was speaking to me. I knew I needed to stand up and let Jesus change me."

Jesus used the Resolve display as a tool to help a student to reach a peer, and now both of their lives are different. Nick knows Jesus. Josh believes that God can work through him. Wes learned more about training and coaching students he might otherwise overlook. Doug has a the display and materials he can use while he focuses on teaching students and staff. And all of us are blessed to see God's power on campus!

The reason I do this job

"Its just a dilemna to be 15-20 years into a career and still feel inadequate--because I have to know about so many things. So, thank you for knowing about photos, newsletters, design, and all
that you do."  --InterVarsity Campus Staff in Pennsylvania

Urbana12 Commitments

Urbana 12 "Welcome to my Table" Worship Intros

Check out four of the videos I produced and directed, played to introduce ethnic styles of worship at Urbana 12 by comparing each to a family meal in Asian, African, Latino and European American cultures. Lucky for me and the rest of the crew, we got to have a taste of each meal after the filming was over. Because--be warned!--they’ll make you hungry.

 Korean American Family Dinner:
Worship Table Korean Tradition from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

African American Family Dinner:
Worship Table African American Tradition from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

Puerto Rican American Family Dinner:
Worship Table Puerto Rican Tradition from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

European American Family Dinner:
Worship Table White Tradition from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

My Urbana Photobook

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.