The Heart of Racism: A Recap

A little over a week ago now, InterVarsity hosted an event on campus at SLU called "The Heart of Racism." If you've been keeping up with recent posts on this blog, you'll know that the issue of racism has been a pervasive and brooding presence on our campus over the past several months. My students and I have been talking as a community on Monday nights about the best ways to respond to this issue as followers of Jesus. We started with some Proxe Stations back in March that functioned as interactive surveys where SLU students could come and voice their opinions about issues of injustice in the world and on campus, their contributions to the problems, and even possible solutions to injustice. We were able to share the truth about Jesus coming to bring reconciliation between both humans and God and between people groups as well. We saw that students on SLU's campus are very aware of the deep hurts in the world - from sex trafficking in East Asia to violence in the West Bank to racism on their own campus, SLU students are well-informed. However, what they fail to realize is that the brokenness of the world starts with the brokenness in each individual human heart - that broken systems are made up of broken people. They don't see that all of the money and education and awareness in the world won't fix the problem. A broken solution cannot mend a broken system. As followers of Jesus, the only one able to mend broken systems, we knew we needed to find a place to give voice to the inadequacies of human solutions and to the full reconciling power of the Gospel.

On April 12th, InterVarsity partnered with SLU's Black Student Alliance to put on an event called "The Heart of Racism." We invited Elizabeth English, the Missouri Area Director of InterVarsity, to come and give a powerful talk centering on the idea of racism as an individual sin issue that infiltrates society. A few of us had heard her presentation back at our Spring Break project in March and knew it would be a welcome and much-needed alternative perspective to the dizzying array of panel discussions and heated debates that had engulfed the campus all semester. Over fifty SLU students (our largest IV event ever on campus) sat down together from a variety of backgrounds, both ethnic and religious. We began the night with small group discussions about our own experiences of race as taught by our families growing up and how these experiences have framed our perspectives and choices on campus. My table of 6 was made up of two Black students, two Latina students, one White student and myself. Though we were originally unsure of how forthcoming students would be in these discussions, I found this time to be incredibly life-giving and helpful. As a white male, it's been an incredible learning experience for me to realize that I don't have a universal perspective on the world - that there are fears and questions and hurts that go deeper and come from places that I simply cannot understand. I am learning to listen closer and ask better questions. Around the room, I could hear these sorts of healing, eye-opening conversations happening all around me. These conversations were truly a gift from God.

From there, we transitioned into Elizabeth's talk. It was fascinating to watch students from different backgrounds responding to the presentation as she called out the fears of both majority and minority cultures in approaching a conversation on race. In the middle of the talk, she allowed students to post their own contributions to racial injustice and brokenness on campus on a large poster along the wall. I want to share a few excerpts from students who attended in response to the question "How do you contribute to racism on campus?":

• "I decide that other minorities don't understand because they get treated a little better."
• "I find it REALLY HARD to let go of the racism I've been taught. I want to with all my heart."
• "I am afraid to tell my parents that their views on race DON'T SHOW LOVE."
• "I'm scared to initiate conversations with people who look different from me."
• "I refuse to talk in class because I don't want to be seen or known as the STUPID BLACK GIRL."

You can see that there was a powerful mix of emotions in the air as Elizabeth continued her talk. She led us through the story of the Good Samaritan and showed us that Jesus has a different definition than we do about what it means to truly "love our neighbor." She challenged us to acknowledge the sin of racism in our hearts and follow Jesus in his ministry of reconciliation. We ended the evening by giving students the chance to respond with feedback and take a next step in the conversation Sixteen students decided that they wanted to further explore their own ethnic identities and contribution to multi-ethnic community. Eleven students indicated that they wanted to explore Jesus and his solutions to brokenness further. In their written feedback, here were some thoughts from students on the event overall:

• "Wonderful! Excellent speaker who really made me think deeply about my decisions and actions on campus."
• "It really opened my eyes to the sinfulness of racism."
• "A great start to a big solution."
• "This was well-needed for this campus."

As we begin following up with these students and figuring out how to continue this conversation next semester, we're excited to see the doors that Jesus is opening on campus for partnership with ethnic-specific student organizations and future conversations about the healing power of the Gospel to bring true racial reconciliation. This conversation has been very new and unsettling for me at times, but after a semester of following Jesus into this dangerous territory, I can tell you for certain that there is something good here. He is doing something new and powerful on this campus and he has called us to follow him into it. Please keep praying for us as we seek to do just that.

March Proxe Stations: A Recap

As I sit looking out on downtown Marion, IL on this warm and breezy Good Friday, I feel like I am pausing to catch my breath halfway through a distance run. This weekend comes as a gift after the crazy, risky schedule of March and leading up to the inevitable whirlwind of an April laden with campus events, investigative Bible studies, traveling, visioning for next year, and prayerfully ending this one well. A weekend to pause and reflect, not only on the year that has been and the month to come, but on the reason why we continue to labor in Hope and Anticipation, is a tiny reminder of the Gift that stood before the executioners he came to save so long ago.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

As promised, I wanted to give you an update as to how last week's Proxe Stations went on campus. Overall, I would tell you that we were extremely satisfied with the week. We were given a prominent and public space on campus even during a campus-wide, event-heavy social justice emphasis week. A few administrators and faculty members went through the station with words of encouragement and gratitude that we were engaging the campus in this fashion. Several young leaders in InterVarsity received significant experience in sharing their faith, many for the first time. My staff partner and I walked away with an invaluable deepening of our understanding of students on campus - from their unflinching hope in education and awareness to fix the world to their difficulty in naming their own personal contributions to injustice. Our chapter was united and emboldened by the opportunity and many of them are hopeful that we will do another similar station next semester. For those of you who like numbers (as I do), here's a breakdown:

• 16 - the number of SLU IV students who gained significant experience sharing their faith (around 70% of the chapter)
  
• 163 - the number of students who went through the Proxe Station in 4 days (15 total hours)
• 67 - the number of students who indicated that they would like to further investigate Jesus with folks from InterVarsity
• $716 - the amount of money raised at our adjacent table which sold jewelry handmade by former sex slaves in Nepal, all of which will go into their hands to provide a dignified income for themselves and their familes (check out the incredible Christian Foundation for Education for more details)

I want to end this update by thanking you so much for your prayers, encouraging e-mails and text messages, and other support that you poured out on us last week. My staff partner and I were pretty drained by Wednesday morning and I have to believe that it was your prayers that carried us through Friday. I am beginning to understand more and more why Jesus prayed that we would be one, even as he and the Father are one. I can't imagine doing this without you. In the spirit of our unity, the healing work that God is doing on campus at SLU, and especially in light of this holy weekend, I leave you with a passage from John Stott's Basic Christianity that I have been meditating on today. Peace to you dear friend.

Paul described his work as a "ministry of reconciliation" and his gospel as a "message of reconciliation." He also made it quite clear where this reconciliation comes from. God is its author, he says, and Christ is the one through whom he brings it about. "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ." Again, "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ." Everything that was achieved through the death of Jesus on the cross had its origin in the mind and heart of the eternal God. No explanation of Christ's death or humanity's salvation that downplays this fact does justice to the teaching of the Bible. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Again, "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether thingss on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
But what does this "reconciliation" mean? The answer is that it indicates either an action by which two parties in conflict are brought together or the state in which their oneness is enjoyed and expressed...Sin caused a separation between us and God; the cross, the crucifixion of Christ, has brought us back together. Sin made us enemies; the cross brought peace. Sin created a gulf between us and God; the cross has bridged it. Sin broke the relationship; the cross has restored it.

Heavier Things

I shared some great news with you in my recent newsletter about a student committing to following Jesus at SLU this semester. My staff partner and I have been praying for months that we would see people become true followers of Christ on our campus and we are truly excited to see how God is beginning to answer those prayers. However, at the same time, we are also being made more and more aware of the depth of the brokenness that exists on our campus and in our own hearts. The truth is that though we have had reason to celebrate this semester, we have also been overwhelmed at times with reasons to cry, to shake our fists, to feel helpless, and to ask God some big questions.

Back in January, I arrived on campus and was shocked to hear about one of the most explosive and heartbreaking acts of discrimination I have ever heard about in my nearly 5 years on campus that had occurred the night before. Without going into too many details, a couple of guys spent an evening getting drunk and then returned back to an apartment complex on campus. When they arrived, they pounded on the door of two African-American girls and began shouting racist insults and threatening them. The two guys were white students who lived in the complex. The next morning, the campus was electric with the news of this horrible incident. Over the next few weeks, it would prove to be the spark that started the fire of reports coming in of similar incidents that had been occurring all over campus, from the classroom to the dorm room, since the beginning of the school year. To make matters worse, SLU's administration appeared to have little experience dealing with racism and its feeble attempts at damage control ranged from ineffective to causing further damage. Some students were outraged. Others were defensive. The administration was confused. No one knew what to do.

This hit our InterVarsity chapter particularly deeply as several of our students were (and are) intimately involved and affected by the discrimination that seemed to be sweeping the campus. We are a pretty diverse group, especially compared to the average SLU student organization. Of our 25 or so students, about 15 are from different minority cultures. In the midst of our tears and questions and frustrations, we felt like we couldn't just sit by as people transformed by the Gospel and continue to keep our mouths shut at the injustice going on around us. We knew that Jesus had something to say about this but we had no idea what the first step was in following him into the brokenness. So, we gathered together at our core group meeting one night and, after hearing Peter's sermon to the 3,000 people gathered at Pentecost in Acts 2, we made a list of evidences of our "corrupt generation" (Acts 2:40) that we could see on campus. From loneliness to academic idolatry to discrimination, our list got pretty lengthy. We observed the hurt, the sin, the shame, the guilt of our fellow SLU students and asked Jesus to show us what to do next.

That was two weeks ago. This past week was SLU's Spring Break. Esther and I loaded up seven SLU students and headed just a couple miles northwest of campus to join with several schools from around the country for City Lights 2010, an urban mission trip put on by InterVarsity in our very own city of Saint Louis. City Lights essentially seeks to connect followers of Jesus to their Master's love for the poor and neglected living in their own neighborhoods and city. Our students spent a week tutoring and building boxcars for inner city kids, moving furniture for newly-arrived refugees from all over Africa and Southeast Asia, and rehabbing a house for a man who had lived for the last two years without running water and electricity - all in the city where they attend classes everyday.

Beyond the daily work projects, City Lights also focuses on issues of reconciliation and justice. These reflections and conversations were incredibly healing and eye-opening for our seven students who were able to attend. One particularly insightful and honest talk on racism given by the Missouri Area Director of IV led to a long night of confession and forgiveness for everyone from SLU, including my staff partner and I. We felt as if Jesus was showing us a crack of light in the dark cloud that we saw lingering over our campus. Though we came from different backgrounds and were warring against the racism in our own hearts, we could feel the Holy Spirit drawing us together and bringing healing to our midst. We knew we had to take what we found back to campus with us, but how?


Robert, one of our student leaders, gave us our answer. He suggested that we set up an interactive display table on campus through which students could come by and have a productive conversation about brokenness on campus and possible solutions to the problems. This would be a great chance to share the Gospel and its power to bring healing to the hurt that starts in our hearts and spreads like cancer to our relationships. We call these tables Proxe Stations and Robert (as well as myself) first experienced them at a Spring Break project last year. The vote was unanimous - this would be how we would take the Good News back to SLU. In God's good provision, it just so happened that the same week we were looking at (next week) is also SLU's campus-wide Social Justice week. What a great chance for Jesus' followers in InterVarsity to speak up and have a voice of truth on campus!

So that's what we're going to do. We're going to set up a table in the most heavily-trafficked part of campus and ask students to tell us about where they've experienced brokenness on campus and what they think some possible solutions might be to those problems. Then we're going to tell them about a God whose heart breaks over racism and who came as a man and gave His blood to reconcile the people who bear His Image to each other and to Himself. Let me be honest with you - we want to see people meet Him. We don't want to just put up a little table and ask some tough questions. We want to see transformation. We want to see conversion. We want to see revival. We really need your prayers. Please pray for us. The schedule is Monday-Wednesday from 10am-2pm and Friday from 12-2:30pm. Would you be willing to pray for us each day within that timeframe? Write it in your calendar and intercede with us and for our campus. We're throwing ourselves out there and who knows what Jesus might do?

GC Indy 2010: A Recap

After the excitement of my last post, I'm sure you were curious to hear how this Greek InterVarsity Conference would go. Let me first start with a confession: I was nervous. Fraternity and sorority students are (generally) a pretty trendy bunch on every level and I am, well, not. Not really at all. Not only am I not particularly cool, I'm also not Greek. I was never in a fraternity. I was asked to lead a small group for the weekend as they were short on staff and volunteer help and I wondered if I'd have any perspective to offer the students at all. As we pulled up to the hotel in Indianapolis, I breathed a quick prayer for strength and walked through the door.

What I found when I entered was overwhelming, but not in the way that I had imagined. I thought it would be high-energy, given the partying and excitement-fueled recruitment that usually go hand-in-hand with Greek life. What I found was a weekend long party that revolved around the transforming power of Jesus. Dance music pounded before and after every main session. Fraternity and sorority students screamed for their house brothers and sisters from different schools. Days started and ended a full two hours later than any other InterVarsity conference I have ever intended. Frat boys took the stage and shared how Jesus had completely wrecked and rebuilt their lives in the last year and how they were excited to see their brothers experience his love. Sorority girls cried and lifted their hands in worship and prayer. Then, on the last night, they had a huge dance party to celebrate. My students remarked that they had "never been to a party better than that one. And there wasn't even any drinking!"

To be honest, I have never seen a more celebrative atmosphere. Or a more affirming one. For the first time, my students felt like their Greek status was not a strike against their faith. They felt like God had actually called them to be Greek, not just permitted them. They were told that their mission field was valid and worthy in the eyes of their Savior, when they had so often been met with stereotypes and questioning eyes from their friends back home. At Indy, they were able to hear stories from other Greeks about starting Bible studies in their houses and what it means to be Christian and Greek at the same time. They heard incredible testimonies and down-to-earth strategies about reaching out to their brothers and sisters. Our car ride back was filled with excitement and planning for the rest of the semester. Our Greek students are pumped. In fact, one of them made an announcement less than 48 hours after returning home that she was going to be leading a Bible study in the house and, in her words, "It went really well - a lot of girls seemed interested!"

At Indy, we saw mostly Greeks from gigantic state schools (U of Illinois, Indiana University, etc.) that are the pillars of Greek InterVarsity. They brought lots of students from well-formed Greek IV chapters. They held chapter times in big ballrooms at the hotel. We brought 2 students and a non-Greek staff. But, we have a vision that we think is from God. Wouldn't it be wonderful if SLU became one of those foundational campuses at Indy in the next few years? Who knows what might happen? I have a feeling God has something up His sleeve for this community...

I'll end with some stats from the weekend - the Holy Spirit was on the move and a lot of great things happened even in those short 48 hours. Thank you as always for your prayers!

A Few Things God Did At Indy

• 99 Greeks made a decision to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior
• 223 committed to being an ambassador for Christ in their chapter, on their campus, and in the workplace
• 96 committed to starting or leading a ministry in their chapter
• 111 committed to keep seeking and pursuing answers to their spiritual questions
  

What Would I Do With 12 More Hours?

This is the question I woke up asking myself this morning. "Why is that Kale?" you might be wondering. Let me just tell you.

As you probably know, I've been asking for prayer for the past month (and for the entire time I've had this blog) for my fund-raising. It became especially pertinent lately as I was handed the opportunity to lead a Bible study for fraternity and sorority students at SLU, something that has never really been done before on my campus. God was opening up a door for this highly experimental but extremely exciting first step in Greek ministry. SLU's Campus Ministry Department was on board, even promising funding for the project. We had a core group of four students from four of the seventeen or so total Greek organizations on campus equally excited to move into this new mission field. Guess what was the only thing holding us back? Me.

If you remember from previous posts, InterVarsity staff are allowed to spend time on campus based on what percentage of their budgets they have fund-raised. 70% is the first marker to even stepping foot on campus and then a staff worker is allotted 16 hours per week to spend with students. The idea is that if a staff has limited time to be with students, they will feel more motivated to continue fund-raising and eventually hit 100%, which allows maximum time and financial resources to be used on campus. Trust me, it is a good system and it works. However, it is also frustrating when you feel stranded between boundary lines as I have for the past few months. In November, I hit 70% and began working on campus. Since then, I have slowly inched toward the next marker - 85% - where my time would increase to 28 hours per week to spend with students.

Flash forward to January when the Greek ministry idea begins to solidify. My supervisor and I quickly realized that in order to give my time faithfully to the Greek ministry and our other ministries on campus, I would need more hours. So we began to pray that God would allow me to hit 85% before mid-February when the InterVarsity Conference for Greek students was happening in Indianapolis - a conference that myself and two SLU students were scheduled to attend. If I didn't land at 85% by then, I would be unable to help with Greek ministry and we would have to postpone any activity until later in the semester, potentially losing whatever momentum and excitement the students have been feeling the past month. So we prayed and called and waited to see what God would do.

Flash forward again to this week. I was sitting at 82% and, though I was close, I wasn't quite there. I made some phone calls on Tuesday night but didn't get to talk to anyone. On Wednesday morning, I went and had breakfast with our men's group at SLU. Afterward, I went to the student center and opened up my laptop to check e-mail before I went to our daily prayer meeting. I saw that I had received an email from a SLU InterVarsity alumna that I had recently asked to pray about possibly supporting the ministry at SLU. In God's good timing, she was responding to that e-mail with the promised gift that would push me to 85%! I was blown away. Literally two days before we were scheduled to leave for the conference, God had provided through the generous heart of one of our own IV graduates.

So now, I sit with the question - What Would I Do With 12 More Hours? Or, more importantly, what incredible things could God do with that extra time that you have provided for me on campus? What students will I meet now that I have these hours? What doors will be opened during those extra couple days on campus? What will God do with the Greek ministry at this conference and after we return?

I can't wait to let you know.

URBANA 2009: A Recap

The State of Christianity from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

Hello and Happy New Year! 2010 is upon us and I am proud to say I have yet to accidentally write "09" in my journal, though "2010" still looks very futuristic to me. I feel like we should have flying cars and meals in pill form if we are going to be living in 2010. But, I digress. January is here and with it will come the new semester starting up next Monday. However, the biggest news around these parts is that Urbana 2009 has come and gone. Urbana is the missions conference for North American students hosted by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada. It is held every three years. This was the 22nd Urbana and the second one to be held at the Edward Jones Dome here in the friendly city of Saint Louis. Nearly 17,000 students descended on downtown Saint Louis from December 27-31st, flooding the streets, sleeping in hotels, severely inflating the late-December income of restauranteurs, and learning about God's heart for the world and His call on their lives.

Your Part In God's Mission: Jim Tebbe from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

The theme of the week was the "He Dwelled Among Us" and we primarily focused on the first four chapters of the Gospel of John. Each day would begin (as each day should) with Bible study. 250-1000 students gathered in each of 49 large meeting rooms in various hotels and convention centers downtown to study John together. After an hour and a half of what InterVarsity calls "inductive" or "manuscript" Bible study (the best method I have ever seen for studying the Bible in large groups), the students would return to the Edward Jones Dome for the morning session. These main sessions (morning and evening) included incredible and diverse worship, beautiful media and drama presentations, and powerful speakers. The afternoons consisted of optional seminars (40+ to choose from each day) on a wide variety of topics centering around taking the love of Jesus into difficult places on our campuses, in our cities, and around the world. If this wasn't enough content, there is also a gigantic book and resource store (courtesy of InterVarsity Press) and an overwhelming missions exhibition hall, filled with displays and volunteers from over 300 missions agencies, ready to help students process and discern what God's call might be on their lives. Thousands of students committed or re-committed their lives to Jesus. Thousands of students agreed to lead an evangelistic Bible study of John 1-4 for some of their friends who don't know Jesus. Thousands of students committed to at least short-term mission work around the world, hundreds of which committed to living among the poor and marginalized around the world long-term. The energy was amazing.

Suffice it to say, Urbana is an intense week for staff and students. But it is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. In 2006, God used Urbana to show me for the first time how BIG His Kingdom is. I worshiped in other languages for the first time. I spoke with missionaries who felt called to Native American tribes, fraternity students, impoverished people in Africa, and everything in between. I learned about racial reconciliation. I heard about Global Urban Treks for the first time and then found myself in the middle of a slum in Cairo less than two years later. It was a significant moment in my journey with Jesus and I was thrilled to have around 10 students from SLU experiencing it last week. I cannot wait to see how the Spirit uses Urbana to open their hearts to the poor and marginalized in our city, the broken hearts on our campus, and to our own need for Jesus to come and dwell among us at SLU.

Bringing the Kingdom of God down to Earth: Shane Claiborne from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

While our 10 students were enjoying mixing in with the Urbana throng, I (along with all the other IV Staff) had a couple of jobs to attend to during the week. My primary Urbana job consisted of supervising all of the technical aspects of the morning Bible studies. Imagine this scenario: 49 large meeting rooms scattered all over downtown, each with a projector, several microphones, and a soundboard. In each room, one person I have never met is running a PowerPoint presentation through the projector while 4-7 microphone runners gather observations, questions, and analysis in the book of John from the 250-1000 students present. One teacher leads each room. If anything goes wrong with any of the equipment in any of those rooms, my phone vibrates with a frantic teacher or assistant on the other end. Sound stressful? Let me tell you - God was exceedingly gracious in keeping technical issues to a minimum at Urbana 09. For this, I am extremely grateful. In the evenings, I was an on-call driver assigned to help cart volunteers and speakers from their hotels to the Dome and back. This job was much less stressful, albeit the 1/2 zoo, 1/2 maze that is the one-way street laden downtown of Saint Louis. I had a blast meeting staff and students from all over the country, catching up with old friends who were in town, and hearing the fantastic stories from my students about their experiences at the event. Then, I crashed and spent the weekend recovering. Understandable, right?

Now that Urbana is over, my staff partner and I will be getting together this week to pray and continue discerning the next steps for SLU in the coming semester. We have a gameplan in mind but I can't wait to see how God shakes us up and leads us to go and dwell in those dark and unreached places on our campus. I am so thankful to have you along for the ride and I am excited to share the stories with you as we go. Peace to you in this new year!

Breakfast in the Evening, Breakfast in the Morning

The last 48 hours have been a blur. I guess my staff partner and I decided we wanted to be able to empathize with our final-exam-laden, stress-filled students when we planned the end of the semester. I feel a bit like we've arrived on the other end of a marathon that ended in a sprint to the finish. It's been a busy semester and, as our students hit the books extra hard this week, Esther and I can finally take a second to breathe (and update a blog!).

To get you up to speed, November ended on a high note here at SLU. Our month of investigative Bible studies (or GIGs) saw eight of our student leaders (around half of the core group) stepping forward to invite their friends to study Scripture with them, many for the first time. We are so proud of our students and the way that Jesus is calling them to take initiative on campus! All eight of these students are freshmen and sophomores which means that they have plenty of time left in college to be shaped by the Holy Spirit before heading out into the "real" world. It has been wonderful to watch our younger students step forward to lead the upperclassmen into mission on campus. How often the Kingdom turns our expectations and understandings of power and ability upside-down!

Now, on to the past few days. Last night was our annual Christmas party - Bacon 'n' Waffles 2009. As legend has it, the first InterVarsity leadership team at SLU was made up predominantly of men. When asked what they would like to eat at a Christmas party, these manly men responded "Bacon and waffles." And so it has been since before my time at SLU. The tradition continued this year as around 25 SLU students packed into my supervisor's house to eat dozens of waffles, seven pounds of bacon, and a myriad of toppings and side items. We saw familiar faces from years back and even from earlier this semester. We further developed relationships with newer students. We met a few folks for the first time. My students have become so invitational this semester and I am consistently blown away by how many new people I meet on a regular basis. They are so excited to see their friends meet Jesus and experience our quirky little community. I love it.

After the madness of last night and the subsequent clean-up efforts, I awoke this morning (barely) and headed to a brunch (yes, more breakfast food) that I co-hosted with one of SLU's Campus Ministry staff for students interested in Fraternity and Sorority ministry. Reaching out to the Greek organizations on our campus has been a growing seed in the back of my mind for nearly a year now. I was at a staff conference in December of last year when I first felt God compelling me to begin praying for the Greek community at SLU. I quickly texted one of my students who is in a fraternity to ask him to join me in prayer. A few months later, I gathered the students I have who are also in the Greek system and we began to talk and pray about what reaching out to the fraternities and sororities might look like on our campus. Another month went by and the Campus Ministry staff in charge of the Greek dormitory at SLU contacted me to talk about putting together a potential Greek Bible Study. As these opportunities to think and pray about this idea have continued to pour into my life, I have realized that God is calling me to further investigate Greek ministry. So, this morning, the Greek Campus Minister and I hosted a brunch for students in the Greek system that might also be interested in a similar ministry opportunity. Ten of us sat around a pile of muffins and I listened as they told me their stories of life in the system. I heard about their frustrations, their joys, and their hopes for a spiritual awakening in the fraternities and sororities at SLU. And I got excited. God is on the move here, people, and I think it could be really big. Keep reading next semester.

So the semester draws near to the end and our students get ready to head home for Christmas break. It's been a rollercoaster ride and I am so thankful to have you along the way with me. Blessings on you and yours this Advent season - may we all await His coming again resting in the grace and peace that His first coming affords.