Join the Christmas Party
Our last event this semester was our annual Christmas Banquet. We hoped to incorporate the many things we had learned over the semester in our planning of this event. We planned to have a gingerbread house competition, carols, prizes and a potluck meal. We were in the Thomas Lounge, which is right off the main floor of the Oakham House and we left the door open to encourage people to pop in and join our party.
Answered Prayer:
To tie in our vision for the year, we put up posters saying “Join the Christmas Party”, that we had copied onto lime green paper, around the campus. After a semester of postering, and feeling unsure that posters were actually effective in inviting people to our events; many of my leaders approached the idea of postering with caution. After an exec meeting that ended early, a week before the party, I sent out my leaders to poster the campus. I went with Elizabeth to poster the Library building. While we postered, we wondered if they would draw people in. The day before the party, I walked through the Library building on my way to early Morning Prayer. I saw that many of the posters Elizabeth and I had put up had been postered over. I was sad (and angry as they had been postered over by unauthorized groups); and spent time in prayer asking God for our posters to be effective, despite being postered over.
Cut to: Our Christmas party, a student walks in, Vera*gets food and joins our table. In the course of conversation with her, I ask her how she’d found out about the party. She said she had seen the posters in the library building, and then made plans to attend; after the posters were covered she went in search of another one to get the pertinent details. She said she was excited as it was her first Christmas party of the year and was drawn in by our bright green posters. She left our party getting contact information for myself, Lauren and Elizabeth and giving us hers with a keen desire to keep in touch next semester. She is also of South-Asian descent, and when she gave me her contact information, it led us into a conversation where, thanks to my time at SALI I was able to identify and speak with knowledge and affirmation about her ethnic origin (she is from the same region as one of my SALI mentees). Earlier this semester, I had prayed for more South Asian students; including Vera, we now have 2 that are connected to our fellowship; another answered prayer, praise the Lord!
There was much laughter and merriment at our party, as everyone enjoyed the gingerbread house competition and the carol-off. By the end of the night, I counted and saw that over 30 people had eaten a meal with us (and many others had stopped by for a quick bite), and we had received contact information from 7 new people, eager to keep in touch next semester!
I look forward to seeing what God will do with our fellowship next semester!
*name changed
Ministries this Fall
This fall has given rise to many creative ministries, here’s what we’ve been up to this fall:
Running Small Group:
Jenna has been leading a group that exercises together and then does a small devotional on Monday mornings. This group takes place at the Ryerson Athletic Centre. In the winter, Jenna will be switching gears slightly, and will be pursuing Sports ministry, possibly involving intramurals.
Prayer:
I have been leading an early Morning Prayer time at 8 am on Wednesdays. I soon discovered that students aren’t as keen about prayer at that hour; as the time was spottily attended. Despite that, it was really wonderful to start the day with Jesus; and to find ways to creatively be communicating with our Creator. I plan on continuing the prayer group, but investigating new locations and timeslots.
John Manuscript Study:
We have been studying John’s gospel in manuscript-style study this semester. It has been an enriching experience for the leaders and students. I have been preparing the scripture with Jenna and Bethany who have been leading the Thursday evening studies. Over the course of the semester, the study has evolved and became more engaging as students dug into the text. We used media to help aid discussion and understand application of the text. We will be continuing with the gospel of John in the winter semester.
Cooking Group:
Every other Thursday, Lauren and I would lead a group that taught students how to cook using stories from the Bible. We used the website, www.cookingwiththebible.com for recipes, and would lead students in new culinary skills while explaining the significance of the meal we were preparing. We would also provide students with recipe cards of the dishes we prepared with a question that we would either discuss while tasting our dishes or leave students to think about. Lauren, my co-leader has this to say about her leadership role: I have loved being in leadership this year as it has allowed me to grow in my faith through putting me in situations where I have had to put my full trust in God. It has also allowed me to become much more intentional about putting God first in my life, and allowing his love to spill out into the lives of the people around me.
Movie Outreach
This year, Elizabeth was really excited about using movies as an aid to deeper discussions about faith and life. This semester, she lead a movie discussion about the movie Gattica. It went well, and has the potential to be a great tool for outreach. Elizabeth will pursue Movie ministry on a semi-regular basis in the winter semester.
Worship Coffeehouse
Bethany has a heart for creative worship. This semester, she lead a worship event; which incorporated music and visual arts. She put together a wonderful worship team, and made great connections to the gospel of John. Bethany will pursue Worship Coffeehouse events on a semi-regular basis in the winter semester.
#conferencewin
The anticipation was heavy in the air. The wait seemed endless. As they watched the countdown before the light turned green, they readied themselves for the big moment. Finally, the light turned green…
Imagine this: A group of 140 people consisting of staff and students from across Ontario, assembled in chevron formations at opposite corners of the Spadina and Bloor intersection on a Friday evening in late August, who once signalled, burst into a hokey-pokey flash mob and stop and disperse when the streetlight turns red.
This is how we kicked off #conferencewin. What is #conferencewin? It is a conference that serves to teach and practice innovation and creativity in our New Student Outreach to staff and students of Inter-Varsity fellowships across Ontario.
In addition to the hokey-pokey flash mob, students participated in a poetry slam and received teaching on innovation and outreach and had time to brainstorm new ideas for an outreach event to kick off the year. They also had the opportunity to present their ideas to the group gathered and a select few were able to then present their ideas and ask for funding from a special grouping of guests in our version of “Dragon’s Den”.
All of my student leaders were able to attend, and from their time at #conferencewin they came up with their vision of the year: Join the [King’s] Party; and also planned our first outreach event “Prom Gone Wrong”.
As we finish up this semester, we are still able to see the fruits from some of these events and their impact on our movement across Ontario.
SALI
“I feel re-energized about the mission of InterVarsity to reach South Asian students in North America. God really humbled me as I interacted with students and hearing them process calling, identity, and leadership.” – SALI attendee
SALI, the South Asian Leadership Institute happens every 3 years. This is a fairly new gathering, and only the second time it has occurred, also the first time with Canadian staff and students in attendance. I attended as staff with Stacy (staff at UTSC) and staff-candidate at the time Ashley, and 2 students Andrea and Renil.
As someone who has in the past struggled to see herself as a minister to South Asians, I was struck by the ways God was showing me otherwise. As part of SALI, each staff was asked to mentor 2-3 of the attending students before, during and after the Institute (roughly a time period of 6 months). At first I wasn’t sure what to think of this, as I was not sure I would have many things to offer my mentees, and often wondered if I would connect with them in a meaningful way and if they would want to continue relationship with me after the Institute. To make matters difficult, I had my first Skype conversations with each of my mentees during my summer road trip, when I was in Vancouver (all my mentees are from the east coast), but despite challenges crossing timezones and technology failures; God uniquely paired me with mentees who I was able to connect with fairly seamlessly. They are extraordinary female leaders that have walked similar paths to me and have faced similar struggles. I soon found our relationships to be quite reciprocal, as I learned and received from both their unique experiences and through the teaching they received through IV USA. During SALI, my bonds with my mentees were strengthened, and each of them were eager to continue connecting with me post-Institute. The times I spend talking with these women are amongst the most life-giving conversations I have had this fall.
In addition to mentoring students, another role I had at SALI was co-emcee of the Institute. I shared this role with a staff from Florida, whom I had met at Asian American Staff Conference. Being in this role was enriching and challenging for me. I found that in some ways my travels and particularly my time at camp helped prepare me well for this role. In others, I found places where small incidents brought out places of brokenness in how I saw myself and how I understood both of my cultures. In the end, I am glad I did it, and glad to have the experience of co-emceeing as I found myself in that role early in the fall. In addition, many of my observation and interpreting skills were used and honed and have proved extremely helpful while navigating work and life in our intern community house.
One of the added blessings of being part of this Institute was the opportunity to serve alongside my South Asian brothers and sisters of the IV-USA movement. It was comforting to partner with others who understood the calling to IV staff and its costliness; but also the joy and kingdom life that we can offer those in our care.
SALI group photo
More photos from SALI can be viewed here
City/Script
“…it was one of the most moving moments of my staff life.”
Every May, the Inter-Varsity fellowships from across Ontario come together to intensively study scripture of Mark’s Gospel or Genesis for one week. This year marked the 7th anniversary and was my third year attending the conference.
Up until this year, city/script was one of those conferences that Inter-Varsity as an organization was excited about, but not one I was excited about. I thought it was great, but found myself much more excited by other ministries and conferences of Inter-Varsity. That changed this year.
This year, we were amazed as God doubled our enrollment for the conference! Last year we had just over 120 people, and 3 Mark 1 studies, 1 Mark 2 study and 1 Genesis study. This year we had 5 Mark 1 studies, 2 Mark 2 studies and 1 Genesis study and had 188 people enroll!
My staff role at this conference was to find ways for the students to creatively process what God was doing in their hearts and lives that week. I partnered with my friend, Dave, who is Campus Staff at OCAD University. Together we visioned for and set up a studio space with 6 stations and various mediums for students to creatively express how God was speaking to them through the Scriptures they were studying. We also organized a coffeehouse, in order for students to share stories and display the artwork that was created, that happened toward the end of the week. I loved this role! I’m sure I would have loved teaching scripture but I loved using my creative gifts for this ministry.
But the one thing that made me rethink how I felt about this conference happened when a student in my Mark study decided to accept Jesus as his Saviour. This student was part of a group of students from the University of Ottawa. He came as a non-Christian and left on fire for God! Throughout the week he would ask a lot of thought provoking questions that made the long-term Christians really come to terms with what they believed. His skepticism could be easily perceived by anyone in the room. Then, after a gospel meditation, something shifted for this student. Something HUGE. He left the room, then came back visibly shaken, and then shared what had happened, and how he had just gone outside and asked God if He was real. This student then confessed that he was terrified about how God would answer. What followed next was one of the most moving moments of my staff life, as this student shared what was happening for him, I watched as students from his campus who were dispersed around the room all began praying for him. Then, students from my campus and others who had just met this student 4 days prior, began to envelop him in hugs and prayers. The emotions were high in the room, as people surrounded this student. Soon as communal prayer time started, and the room began to pray for each other and for this student. We then took a break, and Dan our study leader (and Campus Staff and housemate of the above mentioned student) asked the staff in his study what to do next; to push forward in the text or spend time in prayer in our campus groups. We opted for the prayer time. When I ran into Dan later that night, and asked what happened during their prayer time, he shared that this student accepted Jesus as his Saviour! This happened mid-week, so for the rest of the study we got to see this student transformed as God’s fire burned bright in him! This student shared his testimony during the coffeehouse, and a clip of it can be seen here.
Seeing this student’s transformation not only moved me, but my students as well, and created in them a desire to be a community where stories like this happen, and to be the kind of community that welcomed this student into God’s family.
A Semester in Review
Before I launch into some of the amazing things that have happened this summer and fall, I want to share a few highlights from earlier this year.
The Ryerson Tree:
“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” – Romans 11:17-21
On March 5th, GTA Ministry Director and my supervisor, Jamie came to teach scripture at Ryerson. She taught from Romans 9-11 and focused her teaching on the grafting of new branches. As part of the application of this text, I made a tree with many branches and the students made leaves and wrote words to describe themselves. Some leaves were adorned with broad words like “nerd” and “mature student”; others were more descriptive denoting programs and ethnic identities. Once the students finished their leaves they took turns pasting them onto the tree. Once everyone put their leaves on the tree; we took some time to look at the tree and see how we were represented. We then, started noting what was not represented on our tree; students noted specific students that hadn’t been around for a few weeks; as well as programs of study like “nursing” and “engineering” and then groups of people like “international students”, and “LGBTQ”. We began to write these people down on the blank spaces on our tree and began to pray for ways we could begin to reach out to these people.
The follow week, Ainsley, a Ryerson Inter-Varsity alumna, came to teach scripture. She taught from Romans 12-13; and focused her teaching on Spiritual Giftings. As part of the application of the text, we spent some time doing a Spiritual Gifts test. Ainsley made leaves of each of the spiritual gifts and asked us to write our names down on our top two spiritual gifts; and then attach them to the tree. We took some time to look at the tree after everyone had placed their leaves on it; and see the gifts that we bring to the community and how these gifts can help us reach those who were not yet part of the community.
Tell Me A Story:
What happens when you ask University students to take a break from studying and tell you a story? You find yourself with a community board game.
One thing the students of the Ryerson Inter-Varsity group love is playing games. So we took something our community loves and decided to invite students, staff and visitors to the campus to help us create a board game by telling us a story in words or pictures. We took their online and in person submissions and used them to create game cards. Once the game was completed, we invited people to come and play the game with us and made copies of the game to be sold to fundraise for student scholarships for Inter-Varsity’s regional spring and summer conferences.
Moses, one of my graduating New Media students, clocked more than 50 hours on this series of events by creating all of the web and print promotional materials; postering around the campus and taking risks inviting friends from his program to participate in the events! Moe had this to say, “I enjoyed the creative exploration and experimentation involved when working on the print and web design for Tell Me A Story. The time we had creating surrealist artwork with the Ryerson campus was fun and helped me grasp a deeper understanding of IVCF’s passion for community building. I loved playing the game and seeing all the beautiful artwork that had been made.” (Check out Moe’s website here.)
We still have some copies of the game left, so if you are interested in learning more, please click here.
Year End Banquet
We feasted on a variety of homemade and store bought treats and said good bye to some of our Extraordinary Kingdom Leaders at our Year End Banquet. One of the unexpected highlights was when we invited people to share their answers to the questions: How did you find Inter-Varsity and what caused you to stay? Each person in the room shared their story, even the alumni and special guests, the room was filled with God’s wonder!
Christmas Celebrations
We’ve reached the end of the semester! Students are now finished exams and those from out of town are heading home to their families and finishing their Christmas shopping!
I’d love to share with you a conversation I had with Vanessa about how the semester has been for her:
A: How has it been being president this year:
V: Well, it doesn’t feel that different than being a general exec member, we’ve all really worked well together the four of us. In community meetings and exec meetings I have an overall picture of what we’re doing, and making sure we cover what we need, it’s a bit of an extra responsibility but it’s been a really interesting experience. Exec meetings and planning have gone really well. The biggest difference is in the large group meeting where I am opening and closing meetings and directing the group more than just participating and more aware of how each individual is responding and engaging to the study or how certain people are reacting to different things; often I feel like a third party viewer and feel a little bit at a distance at times, but at the same time it’s been amazing to see the things I have gotten out of the studies as well.
A: What has been your favourite thing so far this year for this semester:
V: It’s been interesting getting to know people, especially since the group is lots of new people, even the “regulars” are people that first started coming to the group occasionally last year. It’s been exciting not knowing what to expect each week, and we are getting more into a groove with things. It’s great doing study, as many are experiencing manuscript for the first time and are enjoying it. It’s been interesting doing the social events and having a chance to relax and get to know people, it’s less like hanging out with old friends but more about getting to know them and getting closer to them, and getting close in a way I wouldn’t be outside a group like this.
A: What has been the coolest thing that God has done this semester:
V: It’s been cool to see how application of passages has hit personal things for me. I was worried that being part of the planning and exec team would kill the life and connection with God that the group has been offering me. There have been times when I have come to meetings really tired and God has consistently met me and by the end of our time together I am so excited by the stuff we’re talking about and don’t even notice how long we’ve been talking – a complete 180 to how I entered in. So it’s been really exciting despite having a busy semester and a very different responsibility and relationship with the group this year. He’s met me in that journey and brought great excitement in what I’m doing.
A: Tell me about the Banquet Vision, as it looks very different to how it’s been done in the past. How did the brainstorming happen, how did you feel as you were putting it together:
V: Initially, we were planning a typical potluck, and share what we experienced this semester. But then we began thinking of different ways we could fundraise, not for a particular event, but it would be nice to have something extra for different events we plan, and also the school is more willing to give us grants and funding if we make some efforts to raise funds on our own. And we wanted to start thinking early about fundraising for city/script as that’s something that is a consistent event we attend, but the cost of it is hard for some students. And we can’t plan to do that a few weeks before the conference, we need to start thinking sooner; so we started to think of ideas to do as a fundraiser, and thought of a bake sale or a raffle, and we wanted to do this with some sort of larger point, so we thought of combining it with our Christmas banquet. Initially we were planning to do this all in one day, but then thought to break it up so people could enjoy the bake sale and buy the raffle ahead of time. We figured we’d reach more people and invite more people. It was really interesting to see how it evolved after that. It was a nice break after being really busy and having an intense study, and it was a good idea to invite people to come celebrate the end of the term with us. We were really excited that while everybody else needed to be careful and politically correct about holiday celebrations, we were able to say we are a Christian group and we are going to have a Christmas party, and we can say that and we can do that; it was a little cheesy and contrived in some ways, but mostly it was a lot of fun; we had our own little mini holiday.
A: How did people use their skills and talents:
V: The exec did the brainstorming. Moses designed the poster. Vanessa did some baking. Brian was the representative to the Ryerson Student Union, he organized booking the spaces and logistics of getting a table and the other audio/visual equipment we needed. We had a sign up sheet for members of community to help; some signed up to cook or bake or help staff the table. Jenna brought lots of decorations for the table, as we wanted to dress it up a little.
A: What are you most excited for second semester:
V: I am hoping the core group that has been established continues to come out to fellowship meetings and bible studies. I hope to plan a retreat for the reading week, maybe for one or a couple days. I am really excited about city/script, and given extra fundraising would love if we had a good group of people attend. I’m trying not too focused about end of year, because I am very excited about what will happen up until that point too.
A: Tell me more about the talks of a joint event with OCAD and U of T:
V: We had a joint thanksgiving dinner with the fellowships at University of Toronto St. George and the Ontario College of Art and Design; the students from our fellowship who attended had good things to say. Since then, we’ve talked about doing something or joint events in second term. We figured a good way to do that would be to fundraise for city/script together, as its less about taking away from what each individual campus is doing and is appropriate to get to know the people you will be seeing and studying scripture together during city/script that you wouldn’t normally be spending a lot of time with, and since it’s a larger event, it might be helpful to have more minds working together to pull together a larger fundraising event. We haven’t gotten anything in particular yet, but that is the hope.
Poster designed by Moses for the Ryerson IVCF Christmas Banquet.
Merry Christmas! Please remember the students in prayer as they are resting from a busy semester and celebrating the birth of our Saviour.
Stories from Campus
This semester has been a semester full of firsts!
For many of the Ryerson Exec Leaders, it is their first time in leadership. For the students that regularly attend the group, it is their first year being part of the group. In addition to things being very new for both the leaders and members of the group, there has been new vision and energy for how the group operates and ministers to the larger campus community.
This summer, I met with the Ryerson Exec Leaders to vision for the fall semester. We spent some time in Scripture in Exodus 33-35. The leaders were especially excited about using their various skills and talents in ministry this year. This semester the ministry at Ryerson has been greatly blessed by the skills and talents of the student leadership team.
Some highlights include:
- Vanessa, used skills from her program (Fashion Design) to design and create Inter-Varsity T-shirts for the exec members to wear during the first week of school (photo above).
- Moses, used skills from his program (New Media) to redesign the Ryerson IVCF website and create various posters and flyers for events.
- Jenna, used her amazing interpersonal skills to communicate about events to the group and welcome people into the group at meetings and various outreach events.
- Brian, used his great gifts of administration to organize and communicate with the Ryerson Student Union to book rooms and equipment needed for various meetings and events.
Praise God! For these skills and talents He has blessed these students with and also for the ways He is using them for His Kingdom!
My role with the group looked a little different this semester, as I was made aware of a dire funding situation late this summer, and needed to step off campus to raise my support to a more sustainable level, and my contact with the students was limited. However, I spent some time with Vanessa, the Ryerson Inter-Varsity Executive Team President, who shared these stories:
A: How did you feel making the shirts:
V: I very much enjoyed making the shirts. It was a fun, quick project that people got excited about. Everybody wanted to take pictures of the shirts. It was interesting because I prior to that hadn’t really thought of a way of using my fashion creativity for Inter-Varsity, so it was kinda cool to do that.
A: How did people respond? How did the exec like the shirts? How did people on the campus respond:
V: The exec was really excited. Others who were helping out from the IV community wanted extras. We had a few people from the Ryerson Student Union come by who wanted to take pictures of the shirts. People wanted to take pictures of us with the shirts on the front and back, and I think it made us stand out in a way, like people noticed.
A: Tell me about what Campus Groups Day was like, the set up, how the table was how people responded, etc:
V: Well initially, as we were setting up, it was good, all the exec were able to make it to help put the table together and we were all bringing different elements We were a little bit afraid it was going to rain, and it didn’t only rain briefly and had little umbrellas protecting the stuff. For the most part it was a really lovely day, we had lots of people going by, we had about three pages of people signing up to get information and quite a lot of them came out on the first night. People were very excited about food, we had a variety of different kinds of food; we had cookies, samosas, Brian brought some really cool crackers and mango candies from Chinatown. Some people were stopping because of that, but some people stopped and listened but even having really colourful flyers, and the food and the shirts, people were more inclined to be like “what is this all about”. I was really excited about how colourful and full the table was, it made me really happy that our table wasn’t boring. And we had music and we were all standing and I was trying hard not to dance too much. It was a good time.
A: What was your fave moment? What were some of your highlights:
V: It’s hard to pick “a moment”, It really flowed, so I want to say the whole day was kinda similar. I was excited by how many people we got to talk to. It was a good time. Most of the exec was able to be there for the whole time, and there were a couple returning members of the community that came out and helped out, and they were really excited so it was really nice to some people we hadn’t seen all summer and it was nice that they were involved and just how excited everyone was. It was a really energetic day.
A: Did you have any special significant conversations:
V: Well, there was one girl in particular. At first people would come to the table and ask us what we were about and we’d give them a flyer or a pamphlet and tell them when our first meeting was and tell them a bit about who we are and what we’re about and then they’d usually go on their way, and then we’d realize after that they were in the same program as someone staffing the table, so we changed our approach and started asking them about what they were studying and then used it to start conversations and go from there. Talked to one girl who was a first year fashion design student, and we got to chat about the group and when we meet; she wasn’t available on Thursdays, but was excited to hear about the other events we’d be doing, so I was able to chat with her about the group and some advice being in the same program.
A: Tell me about the first 1 Peter manuscript study:
V: It was pretty good. There were a few returning members and lots of new people and people who were not used to manuscript study; and they were excited about learning this new style of studying scripture. It was a good introduction to manuscript study and to the book of Peter. We kept it more general, and felt it was a good start and good introduction to general themes in the book. It was good to get people interested.
A: How did it feel to prepare the passage for teaching:
V: It was really good going through the passage as an exec. We were really nervous leading the passage as many of us hadn’t lead a Manuscript Study before and we weren’t sure who was going to come and how it was going to go. We took it slowly, and got familiar with the passage and talked about what we thought it was saying, and came up with a few questions. But for the most part, we didn’t know specifically what was going to happen.
A: How did it feel leading the passage:
V: Really interesting, very different, it was really about being what different people got out of it and what they noticed compared to what we had noticed when we had gone through it together. It was kinda funny being on the other side, and kinda holding back and more so listening to what people were noticing and occasionally bringing them back to focus when things got on a tangent. Or being the person that the question was directed at, as opposed to being the person asking the question, instead we were trying to give them an idea of an answer or a place for them to start looking. It was funny, it felt very like – I don’t know – mature. It was a good feeling.
A: Do you have any prayer requests at this time:
V: The main thing to pray for is guidance, that the Holy Spirit would show us where to focus our efforts and what He really wants us to do and so we get a lot out of it instead of just trying to figure everything out on our own. Also pray for peace; and focus as the semester is getting busier and people are starting to catch colds and flus. Pray for strength and health; and for us to be open to new things and to do the things the Spirit is leading us to.
Please continue to pray for the Student Leaders as they continue to serve on campus.
City/Script 2010
City/Script is an annual Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship Conference that runs May 1-7. It is a time where students from various campuses across Ontario come together for a week of studying scripture manuscript-style and spending some time in the city seeing the scriptures come alive. This year the conference was held at York University’s Glendon campus.
There were four students from Ryerson who attended: Ainsley, Vanessa, Moe and Jenna. Moe and Jenna spent the week studying the first half of the Gospel of Mark, Vanessa spent the week studying the second half of the Gospel of Mark, and Ainsley spent the week studying Genesis. I didn’t attend the conference this year, and it felt strange, as this conference has served as a marker for me in my staff life.
I did go visit the students one day during the week, and had a wonderful time. I went on a day the students had a 6 hour break, and spent most of that time with the students. It was great hearing how God was moving in their lives and speaking to them through scripture. I was also moved by the ways in which the students cared for each other; praying for and serving each other throughout the week.
Vanessa, on a break at City/Script 2010
Vanessa, photographed left, had this to say about the conference:
My second time at city/script was both challenging and encouraging, and surpassed my expectations based on my first experience. I was nervous going in to the week because I was the only student from my campus in my study group and I wasn’t familiar with any of the other students. One of the passages we looked at was Mark 10:29-30 where Jesus promises those who leave house and family for Him that they will receive it back one hundred fold. I really felt this was true for me the more I stepped out in this new community and was so embraced by them. I was even invited to join a Bible study happening this summer in my hometown with the University of Ottawa. It was so exciting to have this initially intimidating situation become such an experience of growth and encouragement and seeing the scripture I was studying play out immediately in my life.
Stories from Urbana
A few Laurentian students (L-R) Jessica, Sandra, Laura
Here are some stories from two students I had the blessing of spending time with at Urbana 2009.
JESSICA (left in photo):
As an undergrad student finishing up my last year and having absolutely no idea what’s next, I decided that going to Urbana was the perfect thing for me to do in such a time of transition. I guess I showed up hoping to be impacted by a specific topic, organization or speaker and receive some clear conformation or guidance about God’s plan for my life. Well, I didn’t quite get what I expected…but I know I got what I needed. Throughout the entire week I was constantly convicted to humble myself before my Creator. It was totally challenging and refreshing to dissect The Word and see what Jesus was like while “He dwelled among us”.
On the third day of Urbana there was an interview done with Patrick Fung, the general director of OMF. Dr.Fung was so humble and wise; one of those people you see and know that they really get what it means to live as a Christian. Something he said really blew my mind, although you may think it’s pretty simple. He said that while he was a student in medical school God had challenged him to first, give God his heart, then talents and gifts. I know that God is telling me to give Him total control because He knows better than I do. Now I just need to remember this and wait on God for guidance regarding the next step to take.
UPDATE: After Urbana, Jessica led a bible study with another Laurentian student who attended Urbana in the dormitories that surpassed her expectations and went very well! Jessica has now completed her final semester at Laurentian.
LAURA (right in photo):
Urbana was an incredibly challenging and amazing conference! I would recommend anyone who wants to be stretched and learn more about serving God in their own community and around the world to attend. I was reminded of the Lord’s desire to use me to serve and show Jesus to the people around me – both in my neighbourhood and in neighbourhoods globally. During my last few months at university I have committed to purposefully reaching out to my fellow teacher’s college students and also to fostering community without our campus IVCF group. Urbana reminded me of the essential call I have to go out and live like Jesus, hanging out with my neighbours and loving them as God does – unconditionally.
UPDATE: After Urbana, Laura finished her last semester on campus, and took part in a mission trip to Kenya. Upon her return, she has accepted a two year teaching position in Tanzania. She is excited to go and use her vocational skills to serve Jesus in the classroom!
The Arch 