Spring 2012: Students on Spring Break Mission

As it's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog, I thought I'd write a flurry of posts to give you a sense of what we've been up to on campus and what I've been up to personally as well. Happy reading!

As we all know, Spring Break is traditionally a time for college students to get away from campus and head to the beach or mountains or wherever they go to get away from the stress of classes and live it up for a week. Here in InterVarsity, we do that too...but ours looks a little different.

This Spring Break, we sent students out to live it up for a week of missional living, where they could really live it up. We sent 5 students to City Lights 2012, InterVarsity's Saint Louis-based urban project. At City Lights, students come from all over the country to spend their Spring Breaks learning about God's heart for the urban poor and why the Gospel calls us to work for the reconciliation of all people under Christ, even those who don't look like us or make as much money as we do. They spend a week working in areas of the city that SLU students would never see in our Midtown bubble. They work alongside refugees who are scraping together a living after fleeing their war-torn home countries and yet still find a way to find joy in being God's children. Needless to say, students almost always return from City Lights fired up to see the work God is doing on campus spill out into the city around us. I can't wait to see what this team does with that passion!

For the first time ever, our InterVarsity chapter also sent a student abroad to partner with our sister movement in Guyana. Ashley, one of our leaders, joined with students and staff from our region to participate in a campus evangelism partnership with the InterVarsity group at the University of Guyana. The team spent the week doing proxe stations (artistic displays that walk a participant through a series of spiritual questions) to build relationships and pique interest in exploring Jesus for students that they met. They partnered with and learned from Guyanese student leaders and together shared the Gospel with dozens of students on campus. Over the course of the week, LOTS of students either became Christians for the first time or re-dedicated their lives to following Jesus. Ashley was able to share her stories at the Edge on Monday night and it was such a joy to share in her experience. God is doing incredible things with these students!

Interested in seeing more? Here are videos made by each team that go a bit deeper into their experiences:

City Lights
Guyana