��ñ�� alumni

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 16:37:23 +0000

Gordon Govier

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

Starting new things with God in difficult places is “our heartbeat,” says Area Director Beau Crosetto. Six years ago, Beau and his wife, Kristina, moved from San Diego to Los Angeles to focus on Greek students who were not being reached with the gospel. In 2018 Beau and Kristina are trying something even more ambitious: moving halfway across the country to replant ��ñ�� in Louisiana.

Louisiana has 39 campuses and nearly 300,000 college students, but it’s the only state with no ��ñ�� undergraduate ministry and no ��ñ�� staff. Six of the 10 campuses in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans area are majority Black, and two of them have the biggest Greek systems in the state. “What does it look like to start a movement that reaches high identity Black students and high identity Greek students?” Beau queries. “This is where we’re going to start!”

God was already at work opening doors for ��ñ�� in Louisiana through long-term prayer and alumni cultivation by Bill DePury, Area Director in nearby Florida. In March, Smiley Abrams of Mississippi and Chelir Grady of Texas—two veterans of ��ñ��’s Black Campus Ministry—brought teams of students to help Beau and Kristina make connections on several campuses and plant seeds of ministry. During one visit more than 100 students at Southern University expressed interest in campus ministry involvement.

In April ��ñ��’s team of Evangelism Champions visited three campuses—Louisiana State University (LSU), Tulane, and the University of New Orleans—and connected with 120 interested students, including two new believers. The outreach at Tulane was assisted by an ��ñ�� alumnus from the 1960s who has been praying for ministry to return to campus for many years. Another alumna at LSU guided the team down Greek Row, where they found several students who were already involved in Bible studies and interested in ��ñ��.

Beau was cautious about visiting Loyola University New Orleans, as he had heard they were leery of outside groups. But he met an administrator there who had also been praying for ��ñ�� to come to her campus. She introduced him to other administrators, including the Directors of Greek Life, Athletics, and Student Affairs. They welcomed him to campus and even talked about giving ��ñ�� office space.

In his planting ministry in Southern California, Beau learned how to start chapters on multiple campuses at once and network them together, raise up staff and volunteers, create advisory councils to resource the campus mission, and design tools that help spread the gospel on campus. These tools, lots of prayer, alumni involvement, and much more are being put into play now in Louisiana.

This fall as classes begin, Beau and his team have ambitiously identified five campuses for planting: LSU and Southern in Baton Rouge, Tulane and Loyola in New Orleans, and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Allison Allred, another campus ministry veteran, has joined the team, moving with her family from Arizona to Baton Rouge.

“The state of Louisiana is the leading edge of our new 2030 Calling, of reaching every corner of every campus with the gospel,” says Jon Hietbrink, Vice President, Central U.S. “I’m so excited about what God is doing in Louisiana.”

_{^{Photo: Students Lauren and Mark at Tulane University}}

News Keywords

Southeastern Louisiana University

Evangelism

Greek Ministry

Black Campus Ministry

Creating a Faith Foundation for Life

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 20:08:33 +0000

News

R. York Moore

Creating a Faith Foundation for Life

��ñ�� puts a high value on connecting new believers not just with the Bible and a Christian community, but also with a local church—resources that lead to lifelong discipleship. For over 20 years, I’ve met people all over the country who have said they came to faith through ��ñ�� and that their training and discipleship in ��ñ�� has made all the difference in their lives, marriages, and careers.

Michelle is just the latest face I can put to this experience. Michelle came to faith in Christ while an undergraduate student at Michigan’s Oakland University. She immediately grew as a believer, getting involved in training and service opportunities, and joining the student leadership team in reaching her campus for Christ.

After her graduation, she married and went to grad school out of state. Upon landing a dream job in a non-profit in the Detroit area, life seemed good. And then she faced the crisis of her life.

Her husband became addicted to prescription drugs and was admitted as a patient in a yearlong program at the very non-profit treatment center Michelle was leading. In sharing her story, Michelle said, “The thing that kept me from divorcing my husband and throwing in the towel during those dark days was my training and discipleship in ��ñ�� as a student.”

Michelle went on to share how her conversion and mentoring in ��ñ�� had prepared her to succeed at every step of her life. Currently serving at the executive level in a major global secular not-for-profit, Michelle and her team are providing critical resources during times of regional and national catastrophe. Few would know her story is rooted in ��ñ��, but she routinely looks back to her time as an undergrad student as the time that prepared her for what she is doing now.

At the end of another school year, take a moment to pray for all the Michelles in ��ñ�� who have come to faith this year by the thousands! And please consider giving a generous end-of-the-year gift to help us continue to make stories like Michelle’s possible.

News Keywords

Choosing the Path that God Leads

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:42:23 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Choosing the Path that God Leads

The Chicago Public Schools’ February decision to make computer science a graduation requirement is a victory for a group of visionary teachers that includes University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) professor and ��ñ�� alumnus Dale Reed. Dale has a history of helping to launch new initiatives. He helped start one of ��ñ��’s first Graduate & Faculty Ministries chapters at Northwestern University.

After growing up in a missionary family in Ecuador, and getting an undergraduate degree, Dale arrived at Northwestern in 1985 ready to begin graduate studies and find fellowship with other Christian students. ��ñ�� was the second campus ministry he tried, and ��ñ��’s undergrad group was still not the best fit.

But he met other Christian grad students and veteran campus staff member Dave Ivaska suggested they pray about forming a graduate chapter. Soon a group of about 30 Christian grad students were meeting in resident adviser Kathy Tuan’s living room. “It was a dynamic and vibrant group,” Dale remembered.

The bonds that were formed in that fellowship were strong. A few years later, when Dale was despairing of completing his computer science PhD, some of the same people formed a dissertation support group to pray for each other. “That was the impetus, both spiritually and through tangible emotional support, to help me finish my degree,” he said.

The Fellowship frequently discussed how each of their vocations could further God’s redemptive work in the world. Dale recalled a Bible study of the book of Daniel by Dave Ivaska, which Dale referenced years later when he was invited to speak to some ��ñ�� students at the University of Chicago.

Dale saw firsthand how God could use a Christian professor to influence others when he worked with Eric Hamilton, a professor at Loyola University Chicago. With Eric’s guidance, Dale applied for education grants to reach out to high potential/low opportunity students in the Chicago public schools to help them understand the types of careers that are available in the computer science field.

He continued his outreach to public school students when he became a professor at UIC. Over a period of six to seven years Dale spoke to more than 10,000 Chicago high school students about computer science careers.

“This is both a justice issue as well as important economically in the U.S,” Dale said. “What we are trying to do for every CPS student is to give them a sense of the breadth of what computer science is about.” Students would be less likely to choose computer science as a career if all they understood about computers was learning typing skills, how to browse the web, play video games, and master Microsoft Office.

In 2007, Dale joined with some other educators to form the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) to improve computer science education. They realized early-on that the lack of a curriculum was a major problem. Their efforts started to gain traction when they discovered a UCLA-developed class called Exploring Computer Science (ECS), which turned out to be exactly what they needed.

“My involvement with ECS has revolutionized my own teaching as a university professor,” Dale said. Before ECS he would often pause to ask, “Any questions?” The response was usually a long pregnant pause. “Currently, if I'm explaining something in my class and getting some blank stares, I would say, 'take 20 seconds with your elbow partner and discuss your level of understanding from 1-5.'" The comments that follow give a much clearer idea of where the class is at in its understanding.

Dale calls ECS a “sandbox” for teaching students how to think better; it’s more than just about computers. Now the biggest challenge is how the cash-strapped CPS will be able to move forward with implementation of the computer science requirement. Dale often prays with Brenda Wilkerson, the CPS computer science program manager: “Lord, you can figure out a way to do this. We certainly don’t know, but we think this is really important for our kids to have this option in the future.”

Dale’s missionary-family background has made him a strong proponent of education. “I saw firsthand how an education could make a big difference,” he said. “Education can open doors that might otherwise be closed to people who grow up in a low economic opportunity environment.”

Dale’s achievements have led to his appointment as a clinical track full professor at UIC, not an easy accomplishment for someone who chose the teaching path instead of the research path. But he recognizes who actually has guided his career, starting with the fellowship of other grad students in ��ñ�� at Northwestern University: “The Lord orchestrated this because a person couldn’t make a plan to do something like this.”

News Keywords

Northwestern University

��ñ�� alumni

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Education

computers

Recovering Ancient Libraries

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:48:52 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Recovering Ancient Libraries

Brent Seales studied robotic navigation as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (UW). He was also part of an ��ñ�� Bible study with other graduate students. He could not have imagined that his computer science skills would someday help decipher a text of Scripture so ancient that only the Dead Sea Scrolls are older.

When Brent arrived at the UW, he found a group of graduate students who met together to explore how their studies in the sciences, arts, humanities, and other fields aligned with their Christian faith. “��ñ�� brought me into a community interested in living that out,” he said. “And it also introduced me to faculty members who had attached themselves to the ��ñ�� community for the purpose of mentoring us.”

After seeing how the UW faculty engaged with grad students, Brent knew that he wanted to commit himself to an academic career where he could continue to combine the pursuit of both a vocational and spiritual calling. Brent earned his PhD and became a professor at the University of Kentucky (UK), where he has taught computer science for the last 24 years. He’s involved in a local church and currently serves as the faculty adviser for ��ñ��’s fellowship at UK.

At Kentucky, Brent’s research field is computer imaging for digital libraries, particularly ancient manuscripts from the medieval period. He became adept at dealing with pages of old and damaged texts. But imaging those open texts was comparatively easy when he faced his next challenge: imaging texts that could be described as being similar to a cigar-shaped charcoal briquette.

Brent was part of a team of scholars working on deciphering carbonized papyrus scrolls that were archived in a villa in Herculaneum, one of the cities destroyed by the AD 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. “We could see the writing but not very well, because the surface was carbonized,” he said. “The writing is black and the surface is black.”

Various wavelengths of light were considered to heighten the contrast, including infrared and X-rays. It was then that Brent wondered if the X-rays of computer tomography (CT), the technique that medical professionals use but refined for higher resolution, could actually read the scrolls without unrolling them. Then, in a further effort to heighten the contrast between the black writing and the black surface of the documents, Brent began a collaboration with physicists in Grenoble, France, using a particle accelerator.

In the meantime, Israeli officials contacted him about a carbonized text discovered decades ago in the ruins of a Byzantine synagogue at the oasis of Ein Gedi, along the shore of the Dead Sea. They had tried their own CT scan, but were unable to read the text on the scroll because they lacked the software that Brent had developed.

He never saw the scroll. Dead Sea Scrolls curator Pnina Shor handed him a disk full of data at a meeting in Los Angeles and Brent’s team went to work on it. The metal in the ink used for this document provided much better contrast than the Herculaneum scrolls. The first image wasn’t clear enough to read the text but they worked through the early summer months and by mid-July had a second image to send to Israel.

“They immediately recognized that it was the opening verses of the Old Testament book of Leviticus,” Brent explained. “It’s written in a tiny, deliberate hand. There’s a lot of text, even though it’s small.” He’s hoping the next image will have verses from the second chapter of Leviticus.

“This discovery absolutely astonished us,” said Pnina Shor at a news conference in Jerusalem. “We were certain it was just a shot in the dark but decided to try and scan the burnt scroll anyway. Now, not only can we bequeath the Dead Sea Scrolls to future generations, but also a part of the Bible from a Holy Ark of a 1,500-year-old synagogue!”

Brent was told that there are more carbonized texts in Israel waiting to be analyzed, and he suspects that ancient carbonized manuscripts have been excavated and saved from other locations. “If we can provide a method to read a rolled-up scroll, then we can support the idea that we should go back into Herculaneum and excavate the potential for other galleries and other collections that might exist that are still in the ground,” he said.

Looking back on his ��ñ�� grad group, Brent is thankful for faculty members who modeled mentoring relationships with its members. That example has stayed with him for three decades and it’s an example he has tried to follow with his own students. Some of those students worked with him to help decipher the Leviticus scroll.

“I think it's a wonderful circle for me personally to see my work coming back to material that is sacred and forms the foundation of the Judeo/Christian tradition,” Brent said. “That's an alignment of faith and work that I never thought would happen to me personally and now that I see that happening it's really gratifying.”

University of Kentucky video-Intersection Comparison Loop hosted by ��ñ��'s twentyonehundred productions on Vimeo.

The New Yorker also recently highlighted the work of Brent Seales and his colleagues in recovering ancient manuscripts.

2016 UPDATE - Ein Gedi Leviticus scroll dated to the first century A.D.

News Keywords

University of Wisconsin-Madison

University of Kentucky

The Redemptive Power of Suffering

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 20:21:19 +0000

News

Cora Ebley

The Redemptive Power of Suffering

“I could feel myself dying.”

Reid Satterfield lay on the floor of his mud hut, feeling the life bleeding out of him. He had already tied a tourniquet of sorts on his friend Erik’s arm, whose artery had been severed by a bullet wound. But now Erik had passed out and Reid was left alone, with no one to tend the gunshot wound to his shoulder and medical help four hours away. Surprisingly, he felt a tremendous peace about dying.

Then the Lord spoke to Reid: “You’re not going to die. Ask me to stop the bleeding.” Reid asked, and within moments, the huge wound clotted itself.

This was not Reid’s first experience with suffering as a missionary to the Aringa people in Uganda. He and April, his wife, had moved to Uganda in 1999 and then into an Aringa village just after Easter in 2000. But Reid had spent two to three of their first eight months there in bed with malaria.

Through Reid’s sickness, God had begun to teach them more about the Aringa people’s second language: suffering. A villager said to April one day, “The village has decided that you and Reid love us because you have not left.” Suddenly Reid’s suffering had a purpose, as difficult as it was to endure.

Read the rest of this story about ��ñ�� alumni Reid and April at urbana.org.

News Keywords

Urbana

University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Missions

��ñ�� alumni

Saying Oui to God

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 21:10:33 +0000

News

Jessica Fick

Saying Oui to God

Though we often think in linear ways about our lives or career paths, our God is eternal, and his ways are not our ways. Thankfully Jesus has more for us than our own small dreams and plans.

��ñ�� Link staff member Nia Marsh has been learning this lesson through her transition from a career as a costumer and wardrobe supervisor working in theater to ministry with students through the Groupes Bibliques Universitaires(GBU) in Paris, France.

As a student at North Texas University, Nia studied fashion and costume design. After college she secured a job in Boston creating costumes for theater and opera productions. “I loved getting to see world-class performances in the dress rehearsals after we had worked to create costumes,” she said. “Some of my favorites were Madame Butterfly and The Magic Flute.”

The job enabled her to tour New England with a theater troupe as a wardrobe supervisor, making sure all the costumes were performance-ready. The job provided plenty of opportunities to grow in both her craft and life skills. “Working with actors teaches you to be adaptable,” Nia shared. “If you can work with actors, you can work with anyone.”

She already had some experience in adaptability, due to her father’s job in the military. Living in multiple cities in the U.S. as well as in Germany while she was growing up, Nia was exposed to diverse cultures, people, and languages.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that, after working in Boston for a number of years, she wanted to see more of the world. A new job as a wardrobe technician landed her nearly 8,000 miles from New England in Macau, a city south of Hong Kong in China, where she was able to keep doing work she loved.

But God had a surprise for her. French speakers in the theater there reignited in her another love that had begun in high school: a passion for the language and culture of France. Nia began to contemplate and pray about moving to France to study the language. “It was a difficult and scary decision to leave a great-paying job to move to France to become more fluent as a French speaker,” she said. “I knew I wanted to step away from working in the theater but I wasn’t sure what to do. So I prayed and trusted God to lead the way.” And he did: Nia was on her way to France.

Surprised by Love in France

Though she didn’t know anyone in the city of Nantes in western France, that was where Nia decided to settle to immerse herself in the language. Once there she found a church with a young adults group and began developing friendships. Over time she learned that many of the people involved in the group were part of GBU, which has chapters throughout France and, like the ��ñ�� chapter Nia had been a part of while in college, is part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). IFES has movements in 150 countries across the world and serves over 500,000 students, helping them engage the university with the gospel and shape culture in their cities and countries.

As Nia developed relationships with students in Nantes, she began to envision life as a campus staff member helping students meet Jesus through the GBU. ��ñ�� Link, a program to connect ��ñ�� alumni to serve in IFES movements around the world, seemed like a perfect fit. And the more time she spent with students, the more eager she became to make it her full-time job.

“All the World’s a Stage . . .”

Working in student ministry is seemingly a vast departure from creating costumes for opera performers. But once Nia was on staff with Link, working with GBU students in Paris, she discovered that many of the things she learned from working in the theater world served her well in cross-cultural missions. Qualities like persistence, adaptability, a willingness to try new things, and an ability to solve problems quickly and creatively—qualities important for every Link staff member—have made Nia both flexible and bold in sharing Jesus with others. “Every day is different on campus,” Nia said. “I spend time praying with students and helping them discover what God is doing in their lives.”

Another similarity between the theater world and Nia’s ministry with the GBU is the importance and effectiveness of relational evangelism. It has been key in reaching students in France. “I was amazed to see how persistent students were in reaching their friends on campus,” she said. “In France, sharing Jesus comes from a relationship you invest in over time. Students invite their friends who aren’t Christians to come to small group Bible studies, apologetics nights, or prayer meetings.”

Damien is one of those friends. “Damien . . . came to a prayer meeting [and] wasn’t a Christian but jumped in and prayed because people in the group were talking to God,” Nia said. “He wouldn’t have come to a prayer meeting [on his own] but was open to it because one of his friends invited him to come. After coming to the prayer meeting his friend also invited him to a Bible study, where he is slowly learning more about following Jesus in community.”

The Art of Discernment

It can often be difficult to discern how God is leading us, but Nia’s willingness to listen to Jesus as well as pursue opportunities and take risks connected her with work she loves. “I love seeing students discover who God is,” she said. “It inspires me to know God more.”

She’s grateful for the ways her friends and church community supported her and prayed for her as well while she was discerning God’s call on her life. “It’s often in recognizing the desires God gives us that he leads us into discovering how he wants to use us to serve others,” Nia reflected. “Though we might not [be able to] make sense of how God could use a work or life background that doesn’t seem to connect with student ministry, he is able to use everything he’s given us—experiences, relationships, interests, and passions—for his kingdom.”

Are you interested in serving with ��ñ�� Link?

Perhaps you or someone you know has had a growing curiosity about a country or people group and, like Nia, wants to explore what God might be doing through that desire. ��ñ�� Link can help you connect with the hundreds of opportunities to serve students across the world that are available with IFES. Learn more at the ��ñ�� Link website and contact us today!

News Keywords

North Texas University

��ñ�� alumni

IFES

Not Ready to Retire, and Back on Staff

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 16:21:16 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Not Ready to Retire, and Back on Staff

George Stulac’s career plan was to get a PhD in history and become a professor. Instead God called him into student ministry with ��ñ�� and then pastoral ministry. He pastored Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis for 33 years. Now, after stepping down from the pulpit and still eager to be involved in the work of the gospel, God has called George to a new ministry in which he’ll be working closely with history professors and other faculty.

Last summer, as George reached retirement age and ended his time at Memorial Church, he gave prayerful consideration of what he wanted to do next. He was not ready to retire from ministry.

“I wanted these last years to count for the most fruitful ministry that I could do,” he said. “So I spent that time asking questions about what my gifts are, what I do best in ministry, what motivates me, what satisfies me, what would I be most fruitful in doing?”

His ��ñ�� experience as a student and then a staff member gave him a great love for studying and teaching the Bible. He also wanted to be able to provide pastoral care. And he especially wanted to get involved in something that was effectively reaching non-Christians with the gospel message.

He checked with a variety of ministries and finally talked with the director of ��ñ��’s Central Region, Jon Hietbrink. Jon proposed a job description that would allow George to be a pastor to ��ñ��’s Central region staff, working with them in spiritual formation and teaching the Bible at staff gatherings.

“What really motivated me was that I was being told that ��ñ�� was seeing more students become Christians than ever before in its history,” George said. “That just captured me, that I could have a ministry to staff, so that they could have a deeper ministry to these students.”

But that wasn’t all. Jon also invited George to get involved with faculty ministry. That was equally attractive to George.

“When I became pastor at Memorial Church 33 years ago, I began praying that God would bring more Christians into faculty positions at Washington University, because I could see that Christian faculty can have a big influence in the life of students,” he said.

Finally, in the last few years of his ministry at Memorial, George had started to see more faculty members getting involved at his church, and colleagues were telling him the same thing was happening at other St. Louis churches. Don Paul Gross, ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) Regional Director for the South Central Region, told him that GFM staff were noticing a wave of Christians moving into faculty positions across the country.

“It appeals to me to have a ministry that’s part of what God is doing to answer what I’ve been praying about for 30 years,” George said. “If more students are becoming Christians than ever before, and if more Christians are becoming faculty than ever before, between those two things it appears to me that God is changing the university in a remarkable way, and that’s what I want to be part of.”

Hearing George talk about his years of pastoral ministry and his ambitious plans for his “retirement years,” it’s hard to imagine him as the shy, withdrawn, lonely introvert who first met ��ñ�� as a student at Washington University a half-century ago. A catchy program title piqued his curiosity and drew him to an ��ñ�� discussion where he met another student, Ron Hendrix, who befriended him and unsuccessfully invited him to more ��ñ�� meetings for the next three months.

Ron never gave up and eventually George relented. “Ron was so faithful, and I finally went with him just because he had won my trust,” George recalled. George was clueless about Christianity but became curious. Ron and other chapter members encouraged him to become an honest seeker of the truth, and two years later he became a follower of Christ. As a senior he became chapter president.

He then enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, not with the intent of becoming a pastor but rather because he wanted to learn more about God. “I went to seminary just for the fun of learning more about the Bible and theology,” he said. But then God called him to ministry.

But even with decades of ministry experience behind him, George is looking ahead to what God has next. “This may be the most fruitful ministry of my life,” he said. “Not because of what I’m doing but because of what God is doing.”

News Keywords

Washington University

��ñ�� Is Back in Arkansas

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 20 May 2015 15:17:18 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

��ñ�� Is Back in Arkansas

Seventeen months after a busload of ��ñ�� staff from Texas and Oklahoma made an exploratory visit to the University of Arkansas, ��ñ�� has become an officially recognized student organization once again on the Fayetteville campus. ��ñ�� has not had an undergrad chapter in Arkansas for almost a decade.

Joseph Pau-Wu, an alumnus of the University of Texas, has served as a volunteer Campus Staff Member over the past year, shepherding the new chapter. This summer he will be joined by Jacob and Christina Foor, who have been on staff at Trinity University in San Antonio for the past six years.

��ñ�� alumni and parents living in the Fayetteville area and nearby have played a major role in helping the new chapter get on its feet.

Doug Scott and his wife Laura met at an ��ñ�� camp, and Doug is a former ��ñ�� Campus Staff Member. They have funded a matching grant to help plant the chapter. Doug was introduced to ��ñ�� as a freshman in college by David Cox. David and his wife Kate hosted a dessert in their home this spring to help raise support for the new chapter.

Lamar and Shari Steiger hosted the 2013 bus trip to Fayetteville and continue to advocate for the new chapter. Their daughter Olivia was involved in the Trinity University chapter (with the Foors) and is now active in the ��ñ�� grad fellowship at the University of Hawaiʻi.

Bronson Stilwell was looking for Christian fellowship when he was a student at Rice University, and helped plant the ��ñ�� chapter on the Rice campus. Now in Fayetteville, Bronson and his wife Evelyn, who live across the street from the University of Arkansas’s “Old Main,” offer housing to international scholars. They have reserved an apartment above their garage for Jacob and Christina, the incoming staff.

Associate Regional Director Andrea Thomas is thrilled to see how God has called students, pastors, parents, alumni, community leaders, faculty, University staff, and ��ñ�� staff to all play a part in raising up the next generation of world changers in Arkansas. “The Lord has truly gone before us into Arkansas,” she said. “It’s been such a joy to connect the with high caliber people God has called to reestablish ��ñ�� as a vibrant multiethnic witness at the University of Arkansas and beyond. There is a missionary movement happening in Northwest Arkansas and ��ñ�� is again in the midst of it!”

News Keywords

University of Arkansas

��ñ�� alumni

chapter planting

��ñ��’s First Chapter President

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:59:26 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

��ñ��’s First Chapter President

��ñ��’s first chapter on a U.S. college campus was at the University of Michigan in 1941. And the first president of the first chapter was Don Brown, who was personally recruited by ��ñ�� founder C. Stacey Woods.

“He knew my family,” Don recalled. “And he knew I had just transferred from Wheaton to the University of Michigan. All I remember is that he approached me to say, ‘We're starting an ��ñ�� here, and would you please lead it?’ And that's how I got started with ��ñ��.”

Stacey Woods may not have known that Don had been in an evangelistic quartet with a young Billy Graham at Wheaton, but it was soon clear that Don was a strong leader. The young chapter in its first year ambitiously sponsored a lecture series outreach, featuring three evangelical professors from other colleges. Banks of typewriters were set up to type personal invitations to all of the students, and the 1,000-seat lecture hall was full for all three lectures.

The next year the head of the Religious Studies department told Don that the department had its own lecture series and ��ñ�� would not be allowed to compete with it. So Don decided to go to the top and scheduled a meeting with University of Michigan president Alexander Ruthven. An all-night prayer meeting was held the night before the Saturday morning appointment.

The next morning, when Don and another student walked into the president’s paneled office, the president observed that they weren’t attending the annual Ohio State/Michigan football game. But then he surprised them and said, “Fellas, I’ll never go to another Ohio State game, because of the way our students were acting up, and the drinking and everything that was going on.”

“Dr. Ruthven, that's exactly what we came to talk to you about,” Don responded, explaining their plans for the lecture series. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Ruthven told them, “Gentlemen, that's exactly what we need on this campus. You have my permission.” Dr. Ruthven also offered to host the speaker in his home for the weekend, an offer that was repeated for the following year’s lecture.

The Michigan chapter started out with about 50-60 students, who met regularly on Sunday evenings. Several Bible studies began in the dorms. The chapter was encouraged by occasional visits from Stacey Woods but was otherwise totally student-led.

As Don left the University of Michigan and began his dental practice in his hometown of Detroit, he stayed involved in ministry activities. He taught a regular Sunday school class in various churches for 65 years, and mentored young people through the churches. He served and chaired the boards of several ministries, led a regular prayer meeting with Christian businessmen, and participated in a number of overseas ministry trips.

After Don retired from his dental practice, he and his wife, Joyce, moved to Florida, and once again sought out ��ñ��. They wrote a letter to the local ��ñ�� Area Director and asked if there was a role for them as retirees.

There was. They became volunteers, working with the Edison College chapter at Fort Myers for four years (renamed Florida Southwestern State College earlier this year). They were concerned about the extreme age difference, but the students seemed to enjoy having someone the age of their grandparents to talk with. “We became Christian grandparents to that whole group of kids,” Don said.

They were on campus three days a week, meeting with students and attending prayer meetings and other events. “We saw kids really grow in the Lord,” he said. “It's been thrilling to see Bill Harward come in and take over that work and also the work at Gulf Coast University. He's doing a fabulous job. Kids are coming to Christ there, where we started at Edison.”

Don told more stories about how God had guided him through many ministry opportunities during his time on campus and in the military in this interview and a subsequent video interview with ��ñ��’s twentyonehundred productions. “��ñ�� made me fearless for the rest of my life,” he said. “If God could do that, with a couple of kids on the campus of the University of Michigan, he could do anything. I had to stand on my own two feet but the Lord won the battles.”

The next day after his video interview, Don died in his sleep and passed fearlessly on to glory. He was 93 years old. We are so thankful for the example established by Don, Stacey Woods, and the other pioneers who responded to the spiritual needs of the campus and laid the foundation for all that ��ñ�� does in our campus ministry today.

View the video that goes with this story.

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University of Michigan

��ñ�� alumni

chapter planting

C. Stacey Woods

Encouraging the Vitality of the Church

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:41:38 +0000

News

Katie Ziegler

Encouraging the Vitality of the Church

Scott Sunquist’s story is one of walking by faith and not by sight. And it’s a story of blown expectations, surprises, and unexpected blessings.

Listening to him reflect about his life over the last 37 years, you could chalk Scott’s path up to coincidence, but that would discredit the very real and undeniable call of God upon his life. From an ��ñ�� staff member to a missionary in Singapore and back to the United States as a professor, his résumé is impressive, but his manner is gracious and humble.

Very soon after marrying his wife, Nancy (a 1976 alumna from UNC), the two went to Urbana to discern God’s call on their life. Together they signed the commitment card that every student at Urbana receives, agreeing to go anywhere in the world God called them without knowing where or when or how. That little yellow card set the stage for the next 37 years of their life.

To prepare for mission work, Scott joined ��ñ�� staff. His undergrad chapter at the University of North Carolina had shaped his understanding of Christian life and mission, and engaged him in thoughtful study of Scripture. As a staff member, that legacy of thoughtfulness continued to inform him; he learned how to lead and teach in ways that have influenced him throughout his life.

He reflects that ��ñ�� taught him things like how to lead a discussion with students and the importance of taking time every year to write down personal goals and objectives. These things were helpful in pursuing mission work later. But he needed to do more study. With the wisdom of Dave Howard (another ��ñ�� staff person) ringing in his ears, he decided to pursue graduate work and eventually an M.Div., taking a special interest in church history.

After completing his graduate work, Scott and his family were finally ready to follow through on their commitment to do overseas mission work. So they moved to Singapore, where Scott trained Asian leaders, missionaries, and pastors.

But he was soon filling many other roles as well. The draw he had felt toward church history took on new significance when he agreed to lead the effort to create a dictionary of Asian Christianity. He also pastored a church, because many of the congregants were new believers themselves and were not trained to pastor. And he started two other churches, as well as formed friendships and connections with people all over Asia. He says of his growth during that time, “Other projects came to me and I just had to respond. If there was no one else to do it, then I would. I was no longer only teaching and pastoring; I became a scholar.”

Scott eventually returned to the United States at the invitation of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to be a professor. At first reluctant, he eventually felt God’s clear call to teach at the seminary. But he continued to be marked by his time in Singapore. His knowledge of, and appreciation for, believers who make up the Eastern church has informed his role as a professor, and his passions in general.

It is the hubris of the Western church that thinks it has the corner on Christianity. Scott, on the other hand, not only acknowledges but also affirms the vitality and necessity of the Eastern church. When Scott was in Singapore, the zeal of the believers around him was magnetic and inspiring. He, his wife, and his four children all gained a lasting appreciation for the energy and tenacity of the church.

He’s convinced that the health of the worldwide Church is dependent upon being intercultural. He says, “One of the signs of decline in any church is when it becomes too locked into its local culture. The Western church has declined because we have assumed an imperialistic approach [to our own expression of faith] and have not assumed a posture of humility [in our handling of the Eastern church]. We need to listen and learn from the Christians in Africa and China and elsewhere. The gospel is always fresh and new.”

It is with this passion for the global Church that Scott took his most recent position as Dean of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary in California. There, he teaches classes and supports staff in succeeding and thriving at what they do. He is in the unique position of encouraging and engaging with current seminarians as the Western church faces new and unique challenges. There couldn’t be a better man for the job.

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��ñ�� alumni

University of North Carolina

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Fuller Theological Seminary

��ñ���� alumni

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

From L.A. to LA: Reviving Campus Ministry Along the Gulf Coast

Photo: Students Lauren and Mark at Tulane University

Creating a Faith Foundation for Life

Creating a Faith Foundation for Life

Choosing the Path that God Leads

Choosing the Path that God Leads

Recovering Ancient Libraries

Recovering Ancient Libraries

The Redemptive Power of Suffering

The Redemptive Power of Suffering

Saying Oui to God

Saying Oui to God

Surprised by Love in France

“All the World’s a Stage . . .”

The Art of Discernment

Are you interested in serving with ��ñ���� Link?

Not Ready to Retire, and Back on Staff

Not Ready to Retire, and Back on Staff

��ñ���� Is Back in Arkansas

��ñ���� Is Back in Arkansas

��ñ����’s First Chapter President

��ñ����’s First Chapter President

Encouraging the Vitality of the Church

Encouraging the Vitality of the Church

��ñ�� alumni

_{^{Photo: Students Lauren and Mark at Tulane University}}

Are you interested in serving with ��ñ�� Link?

��ñ�� Is Back in Arkansas

��ñ�� Is Back in Arkansas

��ñ��’s First Chapter President

��ñ��’s First Chapter President