Plans and Purpose

Megan & I on a chilly evening
in August

      “I’ve been thinking more about service projects and volunteering,”  Megan said to me over coffee one afternoon in February. “I’m thinking about the Chi Alpha missions trip to Slovakia and the Czech Republic this summer.”
     “Really?”  I replied, quite surprised. 

Megan, a junior Math Education major, had been coming to Pursuit faithfully every Tuesday night since the fall semester, but she usually left as soon as the meeting was over, making few connections with other students.  I had started meeting with her regularly in October, encouraging her in faith and the fine art of juggling classes, friends, and her relationship with God.  A bright girl, she was driven in her studies, and spiritual things seemed on the side of her busy life.  That’s why I was so excited when she first told me she was interested in the missions trip. I began talking her through some logistics of the trip—fundraising, cross-cultural experiences, the dynamics of living and working in a team of 15 students for 3 weeks, etc.  In the process, I also discovered she had never even flown before.  It was all going to be quite new!

Megan & Bianca
working hard and getting dirty at a faith-based
drug rehabilitation center in the Czech Republic
(June 2010)

A hike in August was the first time I had a chance to ask Megan about her missions trip experience.  She said it really changed her life and gave her a whole new perspective of the world.  While she still plans to teach in rural Montana, serving God as a role model that can “be there” for high school students others may overlook, she now recognizes that God could call her to live and work elsewhere, and she’s open to His leading.  “I always thought that Montana was the only place I could call home.  Now I see that any place can be home.” 

More immediate impacts from the trip have been a renewed passion in her love for Christ and deeper relationships with other Christians. This semester she is co-leading a Chi Alpha small group, and she’s helped initiate and lead connection events with other girls.  Above all, I’ve noticed a shift in her from a life centered around her own plans to one centered around love for God and people around her.

I love that Chi Alpha can be in the middle of the university experience—helping students discover who they are, who God is, and the role and purpose God has for them.  Chi Alpha gives them an expanded world-view from God’s perspective.  In discipling these students, I get to see their growth up close, but all who pray for and give to my work here are partners in this ministry.  Thank you!


Prayer Request:  for this year’s upcoming missions trips (Spring Break and Summer 2011), that God will call more students to radical trust in Him & that they’ll get to see Him work through them in powerful ways.

Chi Alpha Team to Slovakia/Czech Republic
(May-June 2010)

Momentum

Jackie and I right after her baptism

  

“I personally accepted Jesus as my lord and savior almost two years ago… despite that, I have not felt that my life has really changed… God convicted me a couple weeks ago.  He made me realize that I have been trying to do things on my own and not depending on him.  I want to be baptized because I haven’t done it before, and cause Jesus said to do it, and maybe if I do this it will serve as a symbol that I am now an official member of God’s family.”

When I met with Jackie, a student new to Chi Alpha this semester, to talk about why she wanted to be baptized, she had no answer to the question, “What is different in your life since you became a Christian?”  Hearing this testimony a few days later, right before she was baptized in the river next to the University campus, I was thrilled to get a glimpse of God connecting the dots in her mind as she came to understand that the power to follow Christ comes from God instead of her own effort.  I pray that this realization is a turning point and she soon sees new spiritual fruit and transformation in her life.  

Josh & Kyle 

I’m sitting in the Chi Alpha office of our Student Center, overhearing the strumming of guitar chords in the background as students pray.  A few minutes ago, I closed out the last Pancakes‘n Prayer meeting of the year.  Most of the students who had attended left for their last day of classes, and I moved to the office to do some paperwork.   Kyle, one of the handful of students who stayed in the main room, grabbed a guitar and suggested those left pray a little longer.  So now they are praying for their friends’ needs, for each others’ finals, for God’s glory to be seen on campus, etc.  It’s a beautiful sound.

I wrote this note in May to help me remember the momentum we felt in Chi Alpha through the end of the Spring semester.  The last Tuesday of classes, we had our final Pursuit worship meeting, followed by baptism and after-party, and the whole evening felt like a celebration.  At our planning meeting for fall semester outreaches, student leaders brainstormed fresh ideas to raise awareness about Chi Alpha and present the Gospel to their peers.  Some of these leaders were also planning new ways to unite Christians in the different campus ministries to better reach the nearly 15,000 students at UM.  In Chi Alpha, we strive to be “a community of worship and mission.”  It’s been exciting to watch students catch this  vision.  I look forward to seeing how God uses them in the next year!

hanging out at the Student Center

Leadership and Influence

Cheesy grins and Apples to Apples with two students of influence: Jazzy, me, Rachael






One of our goals in Chi Alpha is to raise up young leaders who are able to reach others with the love of Christ. We challenge and encourage them in leadership as students in the hope that they will not only reach their classmates, but that in the process they’ll also discover the joy of seeing God at work through them and learn how to be people of influence wherever God places them after graduation.

The process can start simply. Rachael is a freshman and a future student leader who got involved with Chi Alpha last fall. This semester she invited her roommate to our weekly worship meeting, Pursuit. This roommate is an international student from a Southeast Asian religious background. She is a spiritual seeker and has become an integral part of our Chi Alpha community this semester. Please join us in praying that the Holy Spirit continues to pursue this beautiful young lady.

Alaina, a sophomore that I have been mentoring this year, is another emerging leader. Seeing that many students with meal plans often had money left at the end each week that they were wasting on junk food, she set up boxes in the dorms for students to donate non-perishable food instead. Every Friday, she arranges for the food to be delivered to the Missoula Food Bank. Alaina always wants people to know that God called her to do this project, and that it is her love for God that is at the center of her heart for community service.

Faith has served for nearly two years as the student president of ADSUM, a group that advocates for disabled students. As a young woman with physical limitations of her own, she feels God has placed her in a unique position to show His love and care for people that many overlook. She recently shared at Pursuit how two years of Chi Alpha student leadership helped prepare her for this position.

As we enter the month of April, we as Chi Alpha staff are being particularly intentional about recruiting and training new student leaders. Please pray that God will guide us to students eager to grow in Jesus and make Him known, on campus and around the world. Many thanks!

UM Chi Alpha Ski Retreat, February 2010