Multiethnic Ministry

A Holy Ambition to Grow Native Ministry

AD-16225 — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 21:21:07 +0000

A Holy Ambition to Grow Native Ministry

Megan Murdock Krischke nurtured the vision for her dream job for over a decade, and is now seeing her perseverance rewarded as ��ñ��’s first ever National Coordinator of Native Ministries. She became National Coordinator in July 2016, after many years of working with Native students.

Megan is a member of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma, and began exploring Native Ministries shortly after joining ��ñ�� staff in 2000. She attended Native staff gatherings and the LiSteN (Learn and Serve in Navajoland) project. In 2006, she and her new husband moved to Durango, Colorado, to start a Native chapter at Fort Lewis College.

Soon after she became the Area Director for the Four Corners–��ñ��’s first ethnic specific area–overseeing Native chapters at the University of New Mexico and Northern Arizona University. She took a very small and sparsely attended Four Corners Fall Conference and played a key role in building it into the Would Jesus Eat Frybread? Conference, a national Native student conference that attracts more than 100 ��ñ�� and Cru students from all over the country, including Alaska and Hawaii.

In her new role Megan continued to coach staff to reach and bless the Native students on nine campuses in eight different states. She has also worked hard to train and develop Native staff, and to remove cultural and economic obstacles that would prevent them from thriving in ��ñ��.

“Megan has a holy ambition and a drive to fill it,” said Courtland Hopkins, a member of the Lakota Tribe and an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister in the Four Corners area. “Her ambition is to reach every Native student on every campus. She has encouraged me by saying in words and action that there’s a place in ��ñ�� for me.”

Megan has also encouraged long-time ��ñ�� staff who have not always identified with their Native heritage, such as Tim Webster, an Oneida tribe member who has been with ��ñ�� in northeastern Wisconsin for more than 25 years. “Megan’s enthusiasm and welcome are both relentless and healing,” he said. “Hanging out with and serving Natives and those involved with Native ministry is now my social equivalent of comfort food.”

Paula Fuller, ��ñ��’s Executive Vice President, People and Culture, remembers Megan passionately supporting her vision for Native Ministries in meetings a dozen years ago. She has watched that vision take shape and grow over the intervening years.

“In the last few years, there has been tremendous momentum for Native Ministries,” Paula said. “We have new Native Ministries staff, growth in the number of student-led small groups, and most recently three chapter planters in the national cohort. Megan’s presence and voice at our national leadership table means that we will reflect the beauty and diversity of the Creator a little more fully.“

Ray Aldred, director of the Indigenous Studies Program at Vancouver School of Theology, has also been watching Megan’s vision develop and applauds her tireless efforts on behalf of Native Ministries. “She brings the best of newcomer culture—this is not an oxymoron—to be in a true treaty (conventional) relationship with Indigenous peoples,” he said. “She has shown indomitable fortitude in the face of generations of dominant society–induced trauma on Indigenous identity, showing that the past creates wounds that need healing. Megan has taken on these wounds and has been and is an agent of reconciliation and redemption.”

Megan is passionate about seeing Native students develop into world changer—women and men who bring hope and healing to their communities. “We have graduates working in tribal government, social services, ministry, and law,” Megan said. “As these graduates return to their community they are able to speak about Jesus in ways that resonate with the heart language of their people.”

News Keywords

Prepared for Leadership

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 17:27:39 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Prepared for Leadership

Charlene Brown, ��ñ��’s newly appointed director of Black Campus Ministries (BCM), became a Christian her first year at the University of Virginia (UVA). Like many students, she sought answers to her questions about the meaning and purpose of life, and found those answers through Christians who loved her and shared the gospel with her.

Within a year she was helping lead a ministry to Black students at UVA with 200 students, and it was challenging—too challenging. The leadership team needed help, so they reached out to other campus ministries for assistance.

“��ñ�� was the only ministry that said yes to coming alongside us and helping our student leaders to lead well,” she said. “That’s how I first got involved with ��ñ��.”

At the same time, racial incidents were increasing on the UVA campus. Charlene noticed that the only White students who cared enough to show up at the forums that followed those events were ��ñ�� students. “I got to know them pretty well,” she said. Her third year at UVA, Charlene and other members of her group even began attending ��ñ��’s Shenandoah area conference.

By the time she graduated Charlene knew she wanted to be involved in ministry. “The same ways I saw God impact my life, I wanted to do that for other people,” she said. She enrolled at Duke Divinity School and moved to Durham, North Carolina. She took a job at a large church that seemed to offer a great opportunity to work for racial reconciliation. But then she discovered that the church wasn’t as ready to work through the risks of reconciliation as it thought it was.

Called to Campus Ministry

That’s when a light went off for Charlene; she realized that college students are high risk takers and are much more open to letting God direct their lives. As she started considering campus ministry, ��ñ�� staff directors Joe Ho and Shane Arthur, who had remained in contact with her, invited her to return to Virginia and work with the same group she had once helped lead as a student. It was now affiliated with ��ñ�� but had shrunk to just 30 students.

Her first two years as a campus staff member went well. Her focus on discipleship and evangelism bore fruit; 19 students came to faith in the first year. The chapter grew to 100 students and helped launch a BCM conference for the region.

As students from the chapter followed her onto ��ñ�� staff and became leaders, Charlene felt God calling her back to Durham, where she had put down roots. She anticipated launching BCM chapters at Duke or the University of North Carolina. But God had other plans.

Her supervisor encouraged her to consider North Carolina Central University (NCCU), one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). So one day in April of 2014 she dropped in at the NCCU admissions office to collect some information. When the lady behind the desk told her she looked a little older than the typical student Charlene admitted that she was a campus minister, and was thinking about planting a ministry on campus.

“She stood up from behind her desk and came over and hugged me,” Charlene said. “She told me, ‘We’ve been praying about something like this for a long time; we’re glad you’re here.’” Charlene also discovered that the NCCU chancellor’s son attended UVA and had been involved with the UVA chapter. The chancellor told her, “Whatever we need to do to make your ministry happen, let’s do it.”

Planting the new chapter at NCCU a year ago this past January was “amazing but also hard,” Charlene said. The eagerness of administrators and faculty to support her work led to more invitations than she could reasonably handle. Yet her attempts to develop a community of students were unfruitful through the first semester.

Her second semester, in the fall, did not start well either. She set up a Proxe Station (an artistic display designed to engage students in evangelistic conversations), but students did not want to talk. “How can you call me here when nothing is going the way it should?” she prayed. And then the wind blew her Proxe Station across a field, which seemed at first to epitomize her frustration.

But when a student picked up the Proxe Station and brought it back, they began to talk about what Charlene was doing on campus. The student surprised her by admitting, “You know, I was just praying about starting a Bible study.”

The student stayed to help with the Proxe Station, and then called four of her friends to come join them. They began to talk about how they could change the NCCU campus. “Suddenly I wasn’t the only one inviting people into God’s mission,” Charlene said. “Students understood the challenge of seeing lives changed and the campus renewed.” The chapter plant started to grow.

Leaving the ministry at NCCU to take on the national BCM leadership role has happened more quickly than Charlene anticipated. She has only been on ��ñ�� staff for four years. But those who know her are not surprised.

Joe Ho, director of ��ñ��'s Asian American Ministries and former Shenandoah area director, called Charlene a rare leader. “Wherever she goes, her ministry produces fruit of the highest quality, whether she is a student, pastor, or staff worker,” he said. “As a planter she typically accomplishes in a year what great staff do in two or three – and the rest of us maybe a couple times in our lifetime.”

Charlene officially becomes director of Black Campus Ministries on July 1, 2016. “We are so grateful to see her in this new role,” said Shane Arthur, ��ñ��’s area director in Eastern Virginia. “Charlene has blessed my own life through her deep desire to see lives transformed. Her partnership with me and many others has been such a huge part of the changes happening in the Blue Ridge.”

Charlene is ready to get started in her new position. “I want to see us usher in a generation of world changers who are passionate about the gospel, racial justice, and reconciliation,” she said.

News Keywords

University of Virginia

North Carolina Central University

Multiethnic Ministry

Black Campus Ministries

Growing Hmong Ministry

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 20:51:34 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Growing Hmong Ministry

Kathy Moua saw how her faith grew each year at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater through her involvement in ��ñ�� small group Bible study and the annual Hmong Christian Collegiate Conference (HC3). “I wanted every college student to have the same opportunity I had, to grow and investigate their faith and Christianity,” she said. “I don’t want anybody to say, ‘I went to college and I didn’t get to experience this.’”

La Thao also wanted to see more Hmong students become followers of Christ. As an ��ñ�� student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she discovered that she had leadership gifts that could be used in campus ministry. “I realized that ��ñ�� was one of the few places that I knew that was actively doing ministry to Hmong students on campus,” she said. “I knew the campus was a strategic place to reach students.”

Both Kathy and La are now preparing to enter their fourth year on ��ñ�� staff, Kathy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-M) and La at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Both campuses have a large multiethnic ��ñ�� chapter that includes small group ministries for Hmong students.

The Hmong are from Southeast Asia; many living in Wisconsin and some other states are refugees. The Wisconsin Hmong population was 49,240 in the 2010 census. ��ñ�� has been involved in Hmong ministry since 2000, with nine campuses currently having Bible studies specifically for Hmong students. About 150 students attended the HC3 conference at a Wisconsin retreat center earlier this year.

While some Hmong students come to college with a Christian background, as Kathy and La did, many do not, and have not had interactions or relationships with Christians prior to college. ��ñ�� provides an opportunity for them to explore and discover Jesus. “��ñ�� helped me learn how to navigate loving and honoring my culture and my family while faithfully following Jesus,” Kathy said. “I want Hmong students to learn how to do that well.”

Kathy’s concern for multiethnicity and racial reconciliation goes beyond just Hmong students. At UW-M especially, Kathy has noticed that Milwaukee’s ethnic diversity is mirrored in the chapter, as is the ethnic segregation found in the city. In light of that, each year for the past three years the UW-M chapter has hosted a Proxe Station aimed at encouraging students to talk about the difficult subjects of race and faith.

The UW-M students seem to appreciate the chance to talk about topics that otherwise never seem to be discussed. “Because of the genuineness of our conversation regarding race and faith, a lot of them have really appreciated our vulnerability and our willingness to have these deep conversations with them,” Kathy said.

La was part of an Asian American Christian fellowship at UW-Madison that affiliated with ��ñ�� as she was being invited into leadership and challenged to get involved in evangelism and discipling other students. “��ñ�� equipped me with the tools that I needed to do those things,” she said. “It challenged me to live my life daily as a Christian, and I had a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian.”

As La took risks for the gospel she grew to depend on God more and grew in her faith. And as she has worked on ��ñ�� staff, she has also learned patience. “Seeing the growth of the HC3 conference over the past 10 years, I anticipate great things in the future,” she said. “There will also be times when there is no growth; I have learned to trust in God.”

Wisconsin is currently the only state where ��ñ�� has Hmong student outreach, but Associate Regional Director Josh Bilhorn said that plans are being made to expand into Minnesota this fall, which has even more Hmong students than Wisconsin does.

“I see many Hmong students being some of our most dynamic leaders on their campuses,” Josh said. “It has been a joy to watch La and Kathy develop as staff, exercising key leadership of HC3 and Hmong ministry in our region.”

Both La and Kathy have been mentored by other ��ñ�� staff, particularly Asian American staff. Now they are seeing more Hmong students coming on staff, and they believe that Hmong ministry will continue to grow as lives are transformed, campuses are renewed, and world changers are developed.

News Keywords

Multiethnic Ministry

Hmong

Bible Study

“I Am Worn Out from My Groaning”

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:53:06 +0000

News

Paula Fuller and Jim Lundgren

“I Am Worn Out from My Groaning”

“I am worn out from my groaning.”

Those words from Psalm 6, written so long ago, are an apt description of our souls after the violence in Charleston last week. But the exhaustion is not just from Charleston. It has been a long year, with so many incidents of racial violence, accompanied by so much grief and pain.

Many people think we are living in a post-racial society, where there is no longer systemic injustice to fight. With a Black president serving in his second term, they reason, we are well past the Civil Rights days of Martin Luther King Jr. But the events of the past 12 months have disabused us of that notion. Racism is real. Systemic injustice is real. They are widespread, and still deeply ingrained in the fabric of the United States. And they are evil. To call what happened in Charleston anything else is to ignore the truth.

��ñ��’s Black staff and students—who themselves are often in churches during the week, serving and praying as the nine killed in Charleston were—are especially exhausted. But, even beyond that, they are traumatized. They’re angered and hurt by the seeming lack of understanding about and acknowledgment of the reality of systemic injustice. Their souls are, as Psalm 6 puts it, “in deep anguish.” Every incident of racial discrimination heightens the fear they live with quietly every day and makes it harder to have hope that change is possible.

For ��ñ��, lament is starting to feel like a staple of the year. Many of our campus chapters have led and participated in public and private laments throughout the past 12 months, crying out to God for reconciliation and justice and hope. At our Multiethnic Staff Conference in March, Asian American, Black, White, Latino, and Native American staff spent an evening lamenting the brokenness and division that exist in our world, our country, the campuses we serve on, the students we lead, our organization, and our own hearts. And this week, our 130+ new staff who are gathered in Madison for ten days of training lamented and mourned for Charleston. We are asking, with the psalmist, “How long, Lord, how long?”

We’ve been asking that question since our early days as an organization in the 1940s. Multiethnicity has always been important to ��ñ��. Developing staff of all ethnicities and reaching students from every culture and background have continually been a high priority. We have not always pursued these goals perfectly, but we have continued to press forward through difficult conversations, misunderstandings, and deep hurt and pain.

By God’s grace we have persevered thus far—but not because we want to simply look like a multiethnic organization or because we want to attract more students to our chapters. We have done the incredibly hard work of building a multiethnic organization because reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel, and the call to be reconciled to each other—to honor each other as ones made in the image of God, all with unique gifts and talents that are necessary and valued, and to see each other as true brothers and sisters in Christ—is essential to be true followers of Jesus.

So we don’t lament simply because we have Black colleagues in the room. We lament because God calls us to grieve the evil in the world. We lament because our Black staff members are our friends, our brothers and sisters, our partners in ministry and supervisors and mentees, and they are in deep pain. We lament because systemic injustice breaks God’s heart, and we want to enter into the Father’s grief over the sin that sent his Son to the cross. And we lament because we want to be part of God’s work of setting this world right—of restoring his creation to the way it is supposed to be, with true equality and justice for all—and that work starts by acknowledging what should not be.

God’s call to us now as an organization in the area of multiethnicity and reconciliation is still to persevere—to not back down out of fear or exhaustion but to continue to press on in reaching students of every ethnicity, helping them be reconciled to God and to each other, and sending them out into the world as reconcilers equipped to participate in God’s work of setting things right and making all things new.

So we will keep lamenting. We will keep talking about racism and systemic injustice. We will keep building both ethnic-specific chapters and multiethnic chapters that, in different ways, help students understand and accept the goodness of their own ethnicity as well as that of others.

In this, we ask for your prayers. We are thankful for the assurance in Psalm 6 of God’s attentive ear in the midst of our groaning:

The Lord has heard my weeping.

The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;

the Lord accepts my prayer.

Pray for wisdom for us as an organization. Pray, in particular, for our Black staff, who are trying to minister to their communities and students near and far even as they mourn deeply.

And pray for courage. As Ephesians 6 reminds us, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The forces of evil are strong; Charleston is yet another reminder of that. Pray that we will stand firm in the truth and power of Jesus’ death and resurrection—acts that defeated sin and that point toward the day that is coming, when his perfect justice and mercy and truth will fully reign. May we be faithful to labor with him toward that end.

Father, may your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Paula Fuller is ��ñ��’s vice president and director of multiethnic ministries. Jim Lundgren is ��ñ��’s president.

News Keywords

reconciliation

Multiethnic Ministry

forgiveness

Serving Hmong Students

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:32:26 +0000

News

Amy Hauptman

Serving Hmong Students

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship has been working with Hmong college students in Wisconsin since 2000. Most of the Hmong in the U.S. are refugees from Laos who came to this country after being allies with the U.S. during the Vietnam War. They make up 38 percent of the Asian Americans in Wisconsin and are the largest growing non-White population on college campuses.

Alice Atkins, Area Director for Wisconsin Southeast, believes that God has called her to Wisconsin to serve Hmong college students. She remembers one particular day when she and other ��ñ�� staff were discussing faith and religion at UW—Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. While they were there, Alice met a Hmong female student who was a nominal shamanist, so Alice started asking her about her shamanistic beliefs.

Shamanism is an ancient religion in Hmong culture that focuses on interacting and encountering the spirit world. “Our Western culture is post-Enlightenment,” Alice explained. “When we hear ‘evil spirits,’ we tend to respond with, ‘Shhhh, don’t talk about those strange kind of miracles.’ We would rather talk about apologetics. We’re too busy tamping down the transcendental, suppressing the supernatural for fear that we might be seen as irrational.”

As her conversation with the Kenosha student continued, Alice asked, “Do you know that Jesus cast out evil spirits in the Bible?” Turning to Alice the student replied, “Oh, really? I have a lot of Christian friends and nobody’s ever told me that!” Alice wondered how our view of Scripture would be deepened and enriched if we invited Hmong shamanists to read the Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel and Hmong Culture

Alice and the other ��ñ�� staff she supervises (who also work with Hmong students) have been thinking of new ways to share the gospel so that it makes sense in a Hmong context.

“The way that we’ve explained the gospel to our Hmong students is that Jesus is Lord of all—not just personal salvation, social justice, etc., but also of the spiritual realm,” said Alice. “Jesus is making everything right in the spiritual realm as well as all other parts of the world.”

The Growth God Has Brought

It’s been exciting for Alice and other staff to see how God has grown the ministry to Hmong students across the nation. Today there are nine campuses with ��ñ�� Hmong ministries, and 130 Hmong students attended the recent Hmong Christian Collegiate Conference (HC3). Over the next five years, Alice and her team are asking God to spread ��ñ��’s Hmong ministry to 20 campuses, and to bring 250 participants to the next HC3 Conference.

While the growth in the breadth of the ministry has been exciting, growth in individual students has especially inspired Alice and her team. Hmong student leaders, in particular, have been an incredible blessing in the ways they have stepped up and made incredible sacrifices for the sake of their Hmong brothers and sisters, that they too may know the hope that Jesus Christ offers.

“What has impressed me is the quality of Hmong student leaders we’ve had,” said Alice. “They’ve made sacrifices to be student leaders.”

In many instances Hmong students have started an Asian American Bible study on their campus from nothing. “They’ve also sacrificed their time and finances to love their fellow students and to be cultural informants as they sometimes start out as the only ethnic minority in their fellowship,” she said.

Alice is excited to be bringing two Hmong interns on staff with ��ñ�� this year and is looking for ways to empower these important Southeast Asian staff in the ��ñ�� movement as a whole.

“It has been a privilege to work with such students and staff, and we are seeing God bringing Hmong shamanistic students to himself,” said Alice. “Students are taking their faith more seriously, and God is transforming the campus through Hmong students. The growth in Hmong ministry has been exciting, and we hope to be able to grow into more campuses where Hmong students are transformed by the gospel.”

News Keywords

Multiethnic Ministry

Relying Totally on God

webteam@intervarsity.org — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:00:00 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Relying Totally on God

Ministry at urban commuter colleges is always difficult, but California State University Los Angeles has been more challenging than most for ��ñ�� staff members. Each of the first three years that Maite Rodriguez began a new ministry year at Cal State L.A. was like starting all over again.

The 2008-2009 school year seemed to start with more promise than previous years. But by the end of the fall quarter the chapter leadership had evaporated: gone for academic issues, or personal reasons, or just gone. Maite and the other members of the staff team decided it was time to end business as usual.

Shutting Down Ministry as Usual
They shut down their campus ministry, except for one Bible study, and began an extended period of prayer and fasting. They continued through the winter quarter, into the spring quarter. In the spring they also began to research in-depth the dynamics of the Cal State L.A. campus.

“That’s when we felt like God gave us insight into what changes we needed to make and the things we needed to pray into; and that’s when things started to change,” she said. “We realized it wasn’t just our ministry that was having problems.”

What they found was that Cal State L.A. has a seventy percent drop-out rate. Only five percent of students live on campus but those students were among the most at-risk for dropping out. The ��ñ�� staff team decided to stop focusing on dorm students and concentrate on commuters. “That change has made all of the difference,” Maite said.

Looking for Leaders
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year Maite set up a table in a high-traffic area with a sign that said, “We Are Looking For Christian Leaders.” Looking back today she is amazed at how God answered her prayers. “The current core leaders are almost all the people I met on that first day of classes,” she said.

For various reasons the other four members of last year’s ��ñ�� staff team moved on to other responsibilities leaving just Maite at Cal State L.A this year. She was forced to rely more heavily on student leadership, which this time turned out to be a big plus. “I have these amazing students that really love the campus and love each other. It’s never been as healthy as it is now,” she said.

During the discouraging times of previous years she sometimes wondered whether it was possible for successful campus ministry to exist at Cal State L.A. Today she knows that it is possible. “It’s important to God and it happened,” she said, noting the unity of the current ��ñ�� chapter despite being one of the most multiethnic groups on campus.

Called to Campus Ministry
As a student at Pomona College, Maite loved being a leader in the ��ñ�� chapter, particularly leading Bible studies. But she didn’t think that ��ñ�� staff work was for her. She had felt drawn to urban ministry through her participation in ��ñ��’s Los Angeles Urban Project. Then she realized that urban ministry and campus ministry can happen together on campus, and she joined ��ñ�� staff.

During her first year at Cal State L.A. she saw chapter participation start at 50 and dwindle to seven after the first week. In the midst of her disappointment she realized that she was involved in campus ministry because of her faithful response to God’s call, not because of any success that she might have.

But now, after five years on campus, God has been blessing Maite’s campus ministry with success because she has been faithful.

“What’s worked well has been to let go of all of my ideas about how ministry is supposed to happen,” she said. “Nine out of ten things we tried haven’t worked. We have learned to pray and ask God to move. All that has happened on campus has been through God’s grace and kindness alone.”

___

Maite reported on God’s work at Cal State L.A. during ��ñ��’s 2011 Staff Conference. Video|| Audio only
You can make a direct financial donation to support ��ñ��’s work at Cal State L.A. by following this link.

News Keywords

Multiethnic Ministry

LaFe

Campus Ministry

Developing Cultural Fluency

webteam@intervarsity.org — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Developing Cultural Fluency

Volunteering with other ��ñ�� students at the Harbor House ministry in Oakland exposed Wendy Hu-Au to a world much different than the one she experienced growing up in Silicon Valley. Eventually she decided to put her studies on hold at the University of California—Berkeley, join a service and discipleship program called Mission Year, and move to Chicago’s Lawndale Neighborhood for a year.

“Living and working in Lawndale totally changed the way I view God,” she said. “My experience there made me want to do something with my life that would serve God and serve the poor.” When she returned to Berkeley to complete her studies—as a Mass Communications Major and Education Minor—she planned to become a teacher in an urban school.

Serving the poor through campus ministry
But she also considered staff work with ��ñ��. Attending Urbana 03 (the theme was Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done) “I realized I could do direct service with the poor or I could help those with the privileges of higher education give up their privilege and serve the poor for the sake of the kingdom.” She decided to join ��ñ�� staff.

With that background in mind, it might not seem so unusual to find Wendy working as the team leader for ��ñ��’s largest Black Campus Ministries (BCM) chapter. She joined the Cal-Berkeley BCM chapter two years ago, after working with the multiethnic chapter for three years. Even so, it was not an easy change.

“I was really nervous. I wondered if people would trust me. Would people think that I was trying to be black? Would people think that they can’t relate to me because I’m not black? But it was also very freeing. I knew that if there was any connection to be made, it would have to be through the Holy Spirit. God would have to be the one to connect us.”

Same school but a different campus
As she worked on building trust and developing cultural fluency, Wendy realized that while she was still at the same school, it was a different campus. “Going to Cal as an Asian American woman is so different than going to Cal as a Black student,” she said. “I’m getting to know a whole different side of campus. It’s a different community, different social networks, different clubs that I wasn’t really a part of as a student.”

Wendy started playing basketball with neighborhood kids at Lawndale and continues to play regularly. “I can hold my own,” she said. “Playing ball is an easy way to build bridges with people.” She’s attracted to extreme sports, including rock climbing and skate boarding. And every now and then she’ll break out a few break dancing moves.

Engaging students with communty service
Wendy credits Michael McBride, an ��ñ�� volunteer who is also the pastor of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, for the recent growth in the BCM chapter. His four step vision of engagement with the student mainstream started with community service, followed by transformation, discipleship and fellowship. Around 70 students are now involved with BCM chapter activities, many of them also providing volunteer service and Christian witness in other campus organizations.

But through it all Wendy continues to adhere to her vision for students, “to show them God’s heart for the poor.” She encourages them to volunteer for urban projects and similar events. She’s worked as an assistant director for BayUP, ��ñ��’s Bay Area Urban Project. In 2008 she and her husband helped lead ��ñ��’s Global Urban Trek to Manila.

“She is a passionate woman about justice,” said Felicia Nibungco, one of her ��ñ�� colleagues. “She is always trying to take things to the next level…in a good way.”

Collin Tomikawa, Wendy’s supervisor, said, “Wendy is a real gift to our team, helping us to think creatively as we look at our campus ministry. She has done her homework on her own ethnic identity, which has been critical to her effectiveness in working with BCM. Wendy has done a great job crossing cultures and being an effective leader in the multi-ethnic context of today’s university.”

Adapting Cultures
Wendy has adapted her communication style to BCM culture. But she also talks to students about her family and her own Chinese and Taiwanese ethnic heritage. “I believe very strongly that it’s not about acting like whatever ethnicity that I’m trying to reach out to,” she said “I need to be myself and be who God made me to be. And as I love who God made me to be, other people are drawn to that. And hopefully they will also love who God made them to be.”

While she has adapted herself culturally, she’s also introducing BCM students to ��ñ�� culture. Last year she took her first group of BCM leaders to chapter camp, which included a week of manuscript Bible study. “Why does everyone have these markers, what’s up with that?” she remembered them asking. This year they all brought their own markers.

Read more about how ��ñ�� welcomes Black freshman and new students to the Cal-Berkeley campus in StudentSoul.org.

You can make a direct financial donation to support ��ñ��’s work at Cal-Berkeley by following this link.

News Keywords

Urban Ministry

Black Campus Ministries

Multiethnic Ministry

��ñ�� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus

webteam@intervarsity.org — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:00:00 +0000

News

��ñ�� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus

You don’t need to board a plane to travel around the world. These days you can acquaint yourself with a variety of cultures and ethnicities without even subscribing to the Travel channel. Just visit a college or university campus.

Today’s campuses are ideological marketplaces, cultural festivals, ethnic crossroads. And ��ñ�� is on campus, reaching out to students and faculty of every ethnicity, culture, and worldview.

God Loves Everyone
Why are we on campus? It’s simple, really. God loves everyone; we desire to do likewise. God has called us for over sixty-seven years to the mission field of the American college and university.

We work to see students and faculty transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, campuses spiritually renewed by the presence of our witnessing communities, and students developed into servant leaders by their discipleship to Christ and fellowship within the church.

We plant and build witnessing communities on campuses to share the biblical gospel and demonstrate God’s love to everyone, regardless of their racial or cultural background. “It was through ��ñ�� that I learned about the love of God and the joys of Christian fellowship,” said D. Bush, graduate from UCLA in 1971. “I’m so grateful to have had your Christian presence on my campus.”

Diversity is God’s Idea
God creatively covers the earth with a diversity of natural wonders. Diversity is God’s idea. So within the biblical bounds of truth and morals, we honor diversity among people, encouraging all people to see themselves as created in God’s image and meant for his love.

Ethnic diversity is common on today’s college campus. At Fresno State University in California, class rosters reveal increasing ethnic diversity. During an ��ñ�� Large Group Meeting at Fresno, students may learn a worship song in Malay or Swahili or English. Or hear a Bosnian student tell of how he invited his mother to know Jesus Christ. Or see a Sudanese student’s joy from feeling loved by God and by her newfound ��ñ�� community.

While most of our campus witnessing communities are ethnically and culturally diverse, we’ve also established on some campuses ethnic-specific communities for Asian, Black, and Hispanic students. We also minister with particular communities of students, such as fraternities and sororities, international students, nursing students, and graduate students.

Unity is God’s Plan
These different witnessing communities share in the unity of ��ñ��’s national fellowship and in the unity of the church. ��ñ�� understands that Christ is the head of the church and that each local church, Christian organization and individual believer is a part of Christ’s body. We teach our students and faculty that together we are part of the universal church, and as such we are called to participate in local churches as an expression of our unity.

��ñ�� witnessing communities reach out to the entire campus as we model the church of Christ reaching out to all people throughout the world.

Looking Toward Future Ministry
Today’s campuses are growing more diverse. ��ñ�� is responding to the need of this campus mission field by planting and building more witnessing communities on campus across the country. Today we have over 850 chapters on 562 campuses. Our current five-year plan calls for planting 100 new chapters.

��ñ�� offers undergraduate students a Christian perspective on the world through multiethnic and ethnic-specific witnessing communities. ��ñ�� staff also minister with international students, nursing students, graduate students, and faculty.

Today’s diverse college campus reflects the diversity of this world. ��ñ�� is dedicated to reaching the entire campus with the gospel.

News Keywords

Diversity

Campus Ministry

Multiethnic Ministry

The God of All Culture

webteam@intervarsity.org — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

News

Katie Montei

The God of All Culture

Since college Jessica Grahmann has felt called to minister to Native Americans. For the past two-and-a-half years she has been an ��ñ�� staff worker at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. With help from several other people with a heart for Native Americans, she has worked to start an ethnic specific ministry to the native students there. While the work is wearing and challenging, the new chapter has thrived.

God’s Call
Jessica’s life has been marked by a devotion to prayer, reflection, and obedience to God. Until she heard God’s call for her to minister Native Americans during college, at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, she had considered dropping out of school to do mission work overseas. But she felt God calling her to continue her education. She began to fast and pray, and it was during that time that she began to recognize God’s call upon her life.

For six years after college Jessica worked with the International ��ñ�� chapter at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. But she continued to pursue God’s calling by finding ways to incorporate ministry to native people.

She established a spring break immersion trip for ��ñ�� students to pray and serve the Lac Courte Oreilles, an Ojibwe tribe in Northern Wisconsin. During those trips Jessica taught students important lessons she had learned in approaching other cultures – to enter into a native culture and see what God is already doing, and to pray and discern how to proceed.

Observing a New Culture
When Jessica moved to Arizona with her husband and two children in the fall of 2006, she did exactly what she had taught her students for so many years. She spent the entire school year praying and interceding on behalf of the native students before she started actively pursuing a campus ministry. This gave her a chance to discern and observe the native culture in Arizona and how it differed from the native culture she had grown accustomed to in Wisconsin.

Jessica and her ministry partners started ministering on campus in the fall of 2007. After a lackluster first meeting, the chapter began to grow. During a spring conference, two of the men from the chapter accepted Christ – and their testimony led a third man to accept Christ as well.

A New Ministry
By the end of the year about twenty students were actively involved in the chapter, almost half of whom are still not Christian. Jessica said, “A lot of the students feel very connected to the chapter, and even experience God, but have a hard time making the decision to follow Christ if they come from a traditional family.”

It is difficult for students to consider sacrificing family or religion in order to follow Christ. But when the students do submit to Jesus, there is a significant change in them; they are finally able to release the tension that had been building in them from their resistance to the Lord.

This year the returning students came to campus excited to reach their friends with the gospel. About 40 students now come to chapter meetings every week; the chapter has doubled in size. The non-Christian Bible study has about 17-20 people attending. And over the course of the semester five women accepted Christ.

Cross-Cultural Challenges
But ministering to Native American students has brought many challenges to Jessica – not the least of which is her different ethnicity. As a white woman, it took some discernment on her part to figure out how God would use her to minister to a group of students from a very different culture.

She wants to lead her students to the feet of Jesus without dictating to them how they will incorporate their new faith into their culture – it is left up to them to discern what it means to be Christian and Native American. Jessica said, “It’s my job to lead them to Jesus and help them along the way as they discern what it means to follow Jesus as a native person. But it’s hard. As leaders we’re torn between the need to do something and the need to let them stand up and figure out for themselves what it looks like.”

Jessica has also felt the burden of trying to reach a student population that has proven very transient. Because of family situations, or other reasons, about one-third of native students don’t return to school.

“Seeing the weight of spiritual and physical oppression on these students, it’s hard to stay in a place where you can walk in that and not be overcome by it,” she said. She and others who have developed this ministry have held practical seminars on relationships, finances, and study habits, to help the students to avoid common pitfalls.

Staying Committed
Despite the challenges, Jessica has never wavered in her commitment to following God’s call. Seeing God work in the lives of her students brings her joy. “Their lives may have many hardships and they face things that I have never had to face,” she said, “but I can see God in the midst of their suffering and diversity. I see it in their spirit – their ability to be all that God as called them to be when they are in the midst of very difficult places. God is moving powerfully!”

After a difficult, but rewarding couple years starting this ministry, God has blessed Jessica with the opportunity for a sabbatical. For the past several months, Jessica has been able to step away from the ministry and replenish herself. Already God has taught her to let go of the ministry to which she had a firm hold. “The ministry is not mine,” she said. “What God is calling me to right now is rest.”

In her first year of ministry Jessica’s job was not to build, but to pray, now her job is not to build, but to rest. At the end of her sabbatical Jessica says she will return to the ministry refreshed and ready to take on new challenges, but right now she reminds herself, “God is the God of all cultures all the time, and he is still working.”

News Keywords

Campus Ministry

Multiethnic Ministry

Urbana 09 Worship Leader Named

webteam@intervarsity.org — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Press Room

Urbana 09 Worship Leader Named

^{Urbana 09 News Release #2}
^{For Immediate Release}

(Madison, WI) – Sandra Van Opstal will lead worship at ��ñ��’s Urbana 09 Student Missions Conference, continuing ��ñ��’s commitment to multicultural worship. The Urbana 09 Student Missions Conference will be held December 27-31, 2009, at the Edward Jones Dome and Americas Center in St. Louis, MO.

The musical worship segments of the Urbana program are designed to help participants draw closer to the presence of God. Multicultural worship recognizes that different cultures bring different gifts to worship, and reflects a fuller picture of God’s character.

Sandra is passionate about creating a worship experience where people of many cultures can come together to experience the presence and power of God. “Expanding our worship vocabulary helps expand our vision for God’s plan to reach the whole world with the good news of Jesus Christ,” she said.

Sandra has been a part of multiethnic worship teams at previous Urbana Missions Conferences, CHIC (Evangelical Covenant Denomination’s Youth Conference), and Willow Creek Association conferences. She also regularly leads worship at New Community Covenant Church, a multiethnic urban church in Chicago.

Sandra has been an ��ñ�� staff member for more than ten years, working on the campus of Northwestern University. She now directs ��ñ��’s Chicago Urban Program, an internship for students in urban and cross-cultural ministry. She received a degree in Music Business/Vocal Performance from Millikin University in 1996. She is currently working towards a Masters of Divinity Degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Sandra and her husband Karl live in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.

��ñ��’s Urbana student missions conference is one of the longest-running institutions of North American evangelicalism. For most of the last six decades the triennial conference was held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2006 the conference drew more than 20,000 people to its new location in St. Louis, Missouri.

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship is an interdenominational ministry to university students in the United States with over 32,000 students involved on 550 campuses nationwide.

For more information contact:
Christy Chappell – Urbana Communications Director
608-443-3671

News Keywords

Press Release

Multiethnic Ministry

Urbana

Multiethnic Ministry

A Holy Ambition to Grow Native Ministry

A Holy Ambition to Grow Native Ministry

Prepared for Leadership

Prepared for Leadership

Called to Campus Ministry

Growing Hmong Ministry

Growing Hmong Ministry

“I Am Worn Out from My Groaning”

“I Am Worn Out from My Groaning”

Serving Hmong Students

Serving Hmong Students

The Gospel and Hmong Culture

The Growth God Has Brought

Relying Totally on God

Relying Totally on God

Developing Cultural Fluency

Developing Cultural Fluency

��ñ���� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus

��ñ���� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus

The God of All Culture

The God of All Culture

Urbana 09 Worship Leader Named

Urbana 09 Worship Leader Named

��ñ�� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus

��ñ�� Reaches Out to the Entire Campus