Florida

Seen like Israel: More Than a Middle Child

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 20:27:58 +0000

Emily Baez

Seen like Israel: More Than a Middle Child

Israel always felt like God’s middle child. Being the fifth eldest in a family of nine children makes him an actual middle child, but with how he felt towards God, the title cut deeper. He struggled to feel seen. “I wondered if I really mattered to God,” Israel said.

But then Israel met Jon, an ��ñ�� small group leader at his school, Hillsborough Community College. While Israel grew up in a Christian home, he felt connected to God only through his parents’ relationship. So he jumped on the chance to go to Jon’s bible study to figure out how to know God himself.

Overcoming Anxieties

When he was invited to attend Focus Week, a regional camp at the end of the school year, a few months later however, Israel was more hesitant to go and had no idea what to expect. On top of that, he was intimidated since he had yet to meet everyone in his ��ñ�� chapter, much less students from other Florida schools. “Social anxiety is real” he said. But some of the leaders of his ��ñ�� chapter told Israel how transformative their Focus Week experiences were, so he decided to give it a chance.

“I went into Focus Week feeling heavy and burdened. I wanted God to fix everything, but I didn’t really believe he could do that in just one week,” he said.

The first few days of Focus Week eased some of Israel’s anxieties. He noticed the intentionality of everyone there and valued the diverse group of people around him. It didn't take long for him to feel a part of the community and to feel at home. Israel loved the multilingual worship, conquered his fears on the screamer (a giant swing on the campground), and enjoyed playing volleyball with other students.

Delivered from Doubt

But Israel still hadn't started experiencing the spiritual breakthrough he was wanting. Did he actually matter to God? And if so, could he be honest about where his heart was and what he struggled with?

Finally, during a retreat of silence, Israel addressed all the doubt that weighed on him throughout the semester. He went to the chapel, and instead of saying his prayers out loud, wrote them down. Holding nothing back, he confronted the tension he had long felt between him and God. “I thought, It’s just you and me, God, and I told him my fears, what I wanted in life, and why I was angry at him,” he said. It was in that space that Israel felt the burden being lifted.

He spent the last thirty minutes of the silent retreat reading Psalm 25. The last verse of the Psalm, “Deliver Israel, O God, from all their troubles,” really hit him. He saw that the nation of Israel was cared for by God and felt in that moment that he—Israel—was also cared for by God. He knew now that his life mattered and he no longer felt like an overlooked child, but one whose troubles were of deep importance to his creator. Israel took refuge in that truth.

After over a month since Focus Week, Israel remains trustful in Jesus. He’s grateful for the community at Hillsborough Community College that he’s grown close to and wants to stay connected to them through their summer Bible studies. He knows he has people who care for him, and he can now be himself with them and with God. “I never really had community outside of my family,” he said. “It’s good for me to have a group of people to relate to and keep me accountable.”

Israel is excited about his future. He hopes to eventually become a leader with his chapter and even someday do missions. “I know God has good plans for me,” Israel said. “And I’m not afraid to be who he made me to be.

Throughout May and June, ��ñ�� students across the country attend end-of-the-year Chapter Camps--times of fun, worship, and deep Bible study away from campus. For being such a brief part of our ministry year, Chapter Camps play a powerful role transforming students' lives, catalyzing new relationships with Jesus, and propelling students for ministry on campus in the coming fall semester. Please pray that Chapter Camp experiences would have lasting impact for students like Israel. And to receive email updates with other ways to pray for ��ñ�� students, sign up for the Intercessor by clicking the button below.

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Hillsboro Community College

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 22:23:45 +0000

Emily Baez

Good Gifts: Emily’s Story

I sat down at a table in the dining hall and texted an old friend from high school. “Are you at orientation?” it read. Waiting for a response, I looked around the room to see groups of people sitting together and joking about their dorms, majors, and what they did last summer. I wondered how they connected so quickly. Was there a team-building exercise I missed? Did everyone coordinate with their childhood pals to go to the same college? Lunch ended, and I decided my goal that weekend would be to make a few lasting friendships, people who could accompany me on smoothie runs or free movie viewings on campus. But I left orientation with that goal unfulfilled.

A week later, someone stopped me before entering the student center. She asked if I heard about ��ñ��—which I had because my brother was a part of it—and handed me a list of small groups. “Thanks,” I said, but no thanks, I thought. I didn’t come to college to go to church. Plus, growing up in church meant I already knew Jesus. Why would joining some group further establish that? I left her with an “I’ll try to make it,” but knew it wasn’t going anywhere near my calendar.

Instead I spent the next two years joining and quitting student clubs, dodging invitations from my brother to come to Bible study, and applying to transfer to another university because I thought it had “better student life.” It became apparent that nothing was fulfilling me. Instead, I envied those who were having the coveted college experience, the years that were supposed to be the best of my life. They weren’t—they were boring and lonely.

When I moved into a student apartment my junior year, I thought I found the remedy. But then, a toxic sense of pride and independence started to consume me. I was convinced I didn’t need anyone else to be content and that happiness was as easy as living closer to campus and going to parties.

But when the novelty of all that wore off, I couldn’t ignore the fact that something was still missing. I couldn’t admit it, but I wanted to connect—to others, to something or someone greater than me.

Making New Discoveries

It was in that place of desperation and failure that I finally gave in to going to an ��ñ�� conference (called “Sonburst” at the time). Even though I didn’t want to go—considering how uncomfortable it would be to hang out with a bunch of strangers for a weekend—I pressed that register button and felt a strange mix of urgency and confusion. Isn’t this what I wanted? Friendship? People to grab smoothies with? But I didn’t want it in a faith-based context. I know about Jesus and don’t need this, I thought. I really did think I knew him—even without prayer, without being challenged or studying who he is and why it matters. But at Sonburst, for the first time, I realized how wrong I was.

That weekend, I discovered a community I never knew I needed: a group of people that genuinely cared for me and wanted to understand who I was. We gathered in small groups one morning and someone made a confession with complete vulnerability. The way others responded made me realize I could be honest and vulnerable too. I didn’t need to hide any part of me. For the first time since starting college, I was connecting in a way that surpassed small talk and group projects.

I also discovered a new knowledge of who Jesus is. I realized that the gospel was this radical, redemptive truth, and I was excited about it. I wanted to find out what it meant to be “missional.” I wanted to dig into scripture and learn as much as I could. I wanted to know Jesus and to have the closest of bonds with him. Because as it turned out, there was more to Jesus than what I thought I knew—more that needed to replace whatever I settled for before.

Saying Yes

On the last day of the conference, a feeling of peace and belonging overwhelmed me as we met in campus groups to make “I will…” statements. In that moment, I was ready to erase the boundaries I spent years drawing between myself and others. I was ready to surrender my overzealous need for independence. I was ready to accept the love I was experiencing and reject the notion that a superficial relationship with my maker, and with everyone else, was somehow enough.

When it was my turn, the words “I will commit to Bible study and embrace this new group of friends” spilled out. The room cheered. I was saying yes to community. More importantly, I was saying yes to Jesus.

Committing

The commitment I made four years ago meant I had to adjust my schedule to go to small groups. But sometimes, committing to Jesus meant living in places or cities outside my comfort zone. Other times, it meant staying put when I really wanted to go or leading a small group when I didn’t feel equipped. Last year, it meant volunteering to lead another chapter in my hometown. It’s meant and continues to mean trusting Jesus in every decision and every step I take post-college.

Now, I’m reminded constantly that we have a good Father who wants to give us good gifts. The gifts of understanding, community, and a promise between a Savior and his people, were offered to me time and again. For too long, I said no to those gifts. Finally accepting them meant finding what I was missing. It meant I wasn’t alone.

There are many students just like me who enter college thinking they know who Jesus is but pursue other things over him. But ��ñ�� wants every college student to have the opportunity to experience God's good gifts of community and a deep walk with him. Find an ��ñ�� chapter near you by clicking the button below.

Find an ��ñ�� Chapter

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Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:46:11 +0000

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Gordon Govier

Accelerating Mission Through Video Coaching

In the early days of ��ñ��, field staff itinerated from campus to campus by train; they were assigned to regions, not campuses. In order to reach every corner of every campus, a goal to which ��ñ�� aspires, we may be returning to a semblance of those days with staff once again mentoring student leaders on a number of campuses.

In fact, it’s already starting. But instead of trains, staff use Zoom and Google Hangouts.

Zoom is a California-based company that offers remote video conferencing services. In the last few years ��ñ�� staff have been using Zoom more and more to hold virtual staff meetings with colleagues across the country. Arul Karunanidhi, an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister in Florida, wondered, “Why can’t it work with students?”

Arul discovered ��ñ�� as a sophomore at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and joined ��ñ�� staff at UCF upon graduation. Three years ago, he began to visit nearby campuses that didn’t have an ��ñ�� chapter. “That was a big part of my heart, to do ministry with students who don’t have a witnessing community or don’t have access to the gospel,” he said.

Working with his staff supervisor, he created the position of “itinerant planter.” His first-year goal was to work on three campuses in Orlando. But then God started opening doors not only in Orlando but also in nearby Lakeland. Arul was making connections through students who wanted ��ñ�� on campus, or an alumnus who knew a Christian student on a campus, or a Christian faculty member who had an ��ñ�� connection.

By the end of the year two chapters had been established and two more had active ministry. And Arul had a vision for planting 10 more chapters on 10 new campuses in three years. “God’s been opening doors and now I’m working on nine campuses; we planted ��ñ�� on seven of them,” he said.

Zoom was an experiment at first; it seemed like it might work with student leaders as well as ��ñ�� staff. But has turned out to be a critical component. Orlando is a big, spread-out city and Lakeland is a 90-minute drive away. “There was no way I could meet with people face to face and still have any other life,” he said. “But now I can do Scripture studies with them, I can do training, I can debrief events, all through Zoom.”

At one media-focused school, students changed schedules every month and finding a time for Christian students to all meet in person was nearly impossible. “Let’s try things over Zoom and see what happens,” Arul said. Now the students are doing video conference Bible studies together. “It feels completely natural for them,” he added. After all, the students are already used to a lot of screen time on their smart phones and through online courses.

NaKhia Grays, Black Campus Ministry (BCM) coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region, faced a similar dilemma. After becoming involved in ��ñ�� as a student at Bucknell University, she joined staff as a volunteer in 2001, and became a full-time staff member two years later. When she transitioned to part-time with the arrival of her baby, NaKhia wanted to keep mentoring students who were initiating BCM small groups in Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Delaware. So she began a monthly Google Hangout video conference. “I was trying to streamline my work and figure out the best way to influence the most student leaders with the least amount of time,” she said.

The first Hangouts were early in 2016. After maternity leave she resumed Hangouts again in February of 2017, following the Black Student Leadership Conference, RELEASE. Within another month, two of the students had started a BCM small group on their campus. “Who launches anything in March of the school year?” NaKhia laughed. “The students were either eager to create a space on their campus that hasn’t been there or they experienced something at the BCM conference that they wanted to replicate on their campus.”

The students share prayer requests and pray for each other during the call. NaKhia teaches about leadership and other relevant topics, fields questions, and then they close in prayer. “The students get to know each other pretty well,” she said. They are encouraged to be connecting with others like themselves on other campuses.

Arul found the same response. “We were creating a community across campuses,” he said. “It really felt like the original ��ñ��—a Christian fellowship between the universities.”*

Arul’s hope is that each campus represented on his calls will eventually have their own staff person—perhaps one of the students he’s now mentoring by video, so that a sustainable ministry can start at each school. “They just need vision, support, and coaching,” he said.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, NaKhia is hoping to see Black Campus Ministry continue to flourish through Bible studies and BCM chapters. Some of the students NaKhia has been coaching have become accountability partners to strengthen their faith. Long-term relationships are being built.

This year, Florida classes and scheduled events were thrown off schedule by Hurricane Irma, which moved through the state near the start of the semester. But Arul found that getting his students back on track was helped by the video conference connection.

It looks like video conference coaching will be keeping ��ñ�� on track for years to come.

*See how ��ñ�� got its name on our history page.

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Willing to be Transparent

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:14:38 +0000

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Gordon Govier

Willing to be Transparent

Jaded by the Church, was the topic of a seminar at Sonburst, the annual ��ñ�� Florida fall conference, held in Orlando in October. Area Director Steve Tamayo co-led the session, which was aimed at addressing unresolved issues that some people have with organized religion.

Steve calls spontaneous question-and-answer sessions with students such as this Confessional Apologetics. He desires to honestly address issues that keep young people from the Christian faith.

“I can’t speak for whole church, but I can tell you why someone like me does those sorts of things that might make people question our Christian commitment,” he said. “I talked about hypocrisy in my own life and how I don’t think that people notice when I say one thing and do another thing. I talked about my desire for comfort and how I was at times moved to put my desire for comfort above other people’s desire to hear about Jesus or experience the love of Jesus.”

Sidetracked by Scripture

Steve has been on staff with ��ñ�� for almost eight years, after first connecting with ��ñ�� as a student at Duke University. He had planned on joining another campus ministry recommended by his youth pastor when he arrived at Duke, but he got sidetracked by an ��ñ�� Bible study. “They studied Scripture more deeply than I had ever seen anyone study Scripture,” he said. “So I stayed.”

Steve became a student leader at Duke at about the same time more and more Black and Asian students students joined the chapter. “I started to see people who weren’t Christians coming and connecting with ��ñ�� because they were intrigued by our diversity,” he said. “I thought it was really exciting, that God would create a multiethnic community and use that as a witness to the gospel. I wanted to be a part of that.”

His own Latino heritage is not immediately apparent, with his blond hair and blue eyes, and lack of Spanish language skills. Steve is thankful for Joe Ho, his Campus Staff Member, who worked with Steve to help him better understand his own ethnicity and also how it could be used in campus ministry. “We Latinos can serve as bridge builders between folks who are white and folks who are black, because we’re kind of outside that historic racial tension,” Steve said.

Steve got his Psychology degree at Duke in just three years, then he went to Oxford University in England for a graduate degree, all the while staying active in ��ñ��. He filled out his ��ñ�� staff application while he was at Oxford.

The Process of Evangelism

As a staff worker Steve has discovered that he enjoys helping students discover the process of evangelism. “Those with a church background think evangelism is just about making an invitation to enter the kingdom,” he said. “And when they hear that there’s more to it, that it’s a process and not just a moment, it’s very relieving.”

An important part of the evangelism process is establishing trust. “I’ve seen students who would never have responded to a contact evangelism altar call, but over the course of several months they learned to trust us,” he said. “They moved in their faith from one step to another, becoming a seeker, and then into the kingdom. That’s been really fun – to see that God does that.”

Steve’s former staff worker Joe Ho, now a colleague, says that one of the things he appreciates most about Steve is his hospitality. “It’s this core quality in Steve that has allowed his ministry to touch a dizzying diversity of people — spanning every conceivable spectrum of spiritual interest, culture, class, and gender,” Joe said.

At the session on Jaded by the Church, a lot of the students who were comfortable in their local congregations learned why some of their friends have a problem with the institutional church. Steve also talked with two students who had bad experiences with the church. One was the son of a pastor who had lost his job, the other a woman who wished her church could be more like ��ñ��. “There was a lot of healing that took place,” he said.

A place for healing, learning to trust, transparent leadership, supporting the local church, ��ñ�� chapters find many ways to share the gospel message. Steve Tamayo likes to see the power of the gospel message transforming lives on campus.

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Florida

Duke