Greek Team had a successful event to Sky High, with over 30 students. We also had a "Back Porch" on identity and the transformation of Peter. Students are really stepping into the leadership roles and its fun to watch. Also a small group started in DG "The Well" on Wednesday nights. There has been conversations and prayers starting small group in Kappa, APhi and ADPi. Theta and Fiji still meet monday nights for small group and have seen lots of fruit from that, both developing leaders and facilitating fruitful conversation and often sharing bits and pieces of the gospel.
The Winter Retreat was a BLAST. There was a great Greek turnout and a much needed break from school. It was fun to see friendships form between houses and fun to see students just hang out together, play games and soccer and capture the flag. Also, many of the Greek student leaders where also small group leaders. They enjoyed the new challenges of that role and it was obvious that God was at work that weekend. I'm excited to see the continued fruit from that weekend.
There are also lots of Greek students gearing up for Spring Break trips in March. As there are many, many things going on, pray for peace and unity and continued fruit.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Trusting in The Lord
A common thread between our talks this quarter has come back to one thing: trusting in the Lord. It's a concept that truly fills my heart at this time in particular, because like other students, it is difficult not to feel burdened with classes, with searching for summer internships or opportunities, and with thoughts of the future and life past our college walls.
After being graced by three wonderful snow days this past week, I'll admit it was a struggle to return to "reality". It was the ultimate case of the Mondays. I found myself forgetting the exact thing we talked about at The Back Porch (a meeting of intentional conversation for students living in the Greek System at UW) the week before. At that meeting, we discussed our identity within school, and the fact that ultimately school is preparing us for life afterwards, in which we will go live out God's purpose for us in the world. Therefore, God is molding us through school (as though pruning the branches in John:15), and school is then a type of worship to God.
Rather than remembering this, I felt overwhelmed. I was going back to studying, working, preparing for lurking midterms, and juggling living in a sorority, building relationships, and fulfilling academic commitments. I was going back to "reality". But then something stopped me from feeling this way. You see, I put reality in quotation marks because my reality is more than my activities or my day-to-day routine. My reality is that I have a God who loves me and who placed me here, right here in this moment, to live into His calling. My reality is that I have a God that picks me up when I am struggling and graces me with more than I could ever imagine and gives me people in my life that are to me, physical representations of his love from above.
Then, suddenly, I remembered the verse that God sent to me on the first day of 2012. For some reason, the words Proverbs 3:5 came to my mind as I was about to go to sleep, and they kept repeating. Not knowing Proverbs 3:5 by heart, I later looked it up and found it to say "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding".
It is so tempting in this world that often overwhelms us to lean away from God in times of struggle. However, if we just hold on tighter, He shows us His light. We must then avoid our tendency to look inward in difficult moments, to focus only on ourselves and miss the bigger picture. Because if we just stop and zoom out for one moment, we see that we are so small in God's giant universe -- but He has more love for us than the universe combined, and He has placed us at an exact pinpoint in the universe for a reason.
From that pinpoint comes another, and another after that. Because God is composing a journey for us, the destinations of which are His to decide. After all, Jeremiah 29:11-14 says "'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity'".
This was in Jeremiah's letter to the exiles, but I think it applies in any condition. It truly encompasses what God has in mind for each of us, and his desire for us to draw close to him and follow him always.
As for prayers this week, please pray for us as we continue to trust in and follow the Lord and pray for those that feel as though they are in captivity, that they will find the Lord and he will give them strength.
Christina Watson (Student Leader)
After being graced by three wonderful snow days this past week, I'll admit it was a struggle to return to "reality". It was the ultimate case of the Mondays. I found myself forgetting the exact thing we talked about at The Back Porch (a meeting of intentional conversation for students living in the Greek System at UW) the week before. At that meeting, we discussed our identity within school, and the fact that ultimately school is preparing us for life afterwards, in which we will go live out God's purpose for us in the world. Therefore, God is molding us through school (as though pruning the branches in John:15), and school is then a type of worship to God.
Rather than remembering this, I felt overwhelmed. I was going back to studying, working, preparing for lurking midterms, and juggling living in a sorority, building relationships, and fulfilling academic commitments. I was going back to "reality". But then something stopped me from feeling this way. You see, I put reality in quotation marks because my reality is more than my activities or my day-to-day routine. My reality is that I have a God who loves me and who placed me here, right here in this moment, to live into His calling. My reality is that I have a God that picks me up when I am struggling and graces me with more than I could ever imagine and gives me people in my life that are to me, physical representations of his love from above.
Then, suddenly, I remembered the verse that God sent to me on the first day of 2012. For some reason, the words Proverbs 3:5 came to my mind as I was about to go to sleep, and they kept repeating. Not knowing Proverbs 3:5 by heart, I later looked it up and found it to say "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding".
It is so tempting in this world that often overwhelms us to lean away from God in times of struggle. However, if we just hold on tighter, He shows us His light. We must then avoid our tendency to look inward in difficult moments, to focus only on ourselves and miss the bigger picture. Because if we just stop and zoom out for one moment, we see that we are so small in God's giant universe -- but He has more love for us than the universe combined, and He has placed us at an exact pinpoint in the universe for a reason.
From that pinpoint comes another, and another after that. Because God is composing a journey for us, the destinations of which are His to decide. After all, Jeremiah 29:11-14 says "'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity'".
This was in Jeremiah's letter to the exiles, but I think it applies in any condition. It truly encompasses what God has in mind for each of us, and his desire for us to draw close to him and follow him always.
As for prayers this week, please pray for us as we continue to trust in and follow the Lord and pray for those that feel as though they are in captivity, that they will find the Lord and he will give them strength.
Christina Watson (Student Leader)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
FAITH & HOPE
These two words have come to be at the center of what we are seeking to live out in our lives this quarter. Last quarter our focus was on love, Gods love for us and how that is more than enough for us. How we are defined not by the things of this world, but defined by the fact that God loves us, and the rest of our lives are to be lived out of the overflow of the abundant love of God.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says this…
“A now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. “
Here Paul is concluding up a section of his letter to the Corinthians where he is discussing the fact that without love all other things, even good things are pointless. God loves us, and this is the greatest thing there can be, and out of that love that we receive from the Lord we can have faith and hope. Because God loves us we can be faithful, to the commitments that we make, to the mission that we may find ourselves in. Whether that is being a student, a parent, a best friend, a boyfriend, or a wife, we can be faithful to those people who are in our lives because God is faithful in His love for us. Along with that we have a hope in the fact that Jesus has come to give us life, life to the full. Even with all the brokenness in this world and in our lives we have a hope in the redemptive work of the Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection. Hope that Jesus has redeemed and is redeeming this world. Faith and hope, two small words, made real and powerful by Gods love. This quarter we are seeking to live in relationship with our God with these two words being expressed in our lives as we live in the love of Christ.
Chris Thurton (UMin Greek Ministry Intern)
1 Corinthians 13:13 says this…
“A now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. “
Here Paul is concluding up a section of his letter to the Corinthians where he is discussing the fact that without love all other things, even good things are pointless. God loves us, and this is the greatest thing there can be, and out of that love that we receive from the Lord we can have faith and hope. Because God loves us we can be faithful, to the commitments that we make, to the mission that we may find ourselves in. Whether that is being a student, a parent, a best friend, a boyfriend, or a wife, we can be faithful to those people who are in our lives because God is faithful in His love for us. Along with that we have a hope in the fact that Jesus has come to give us life, life to the full. Even with all the brokenness in this world and in our lives we have a hope in the redemptive work of the Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection. Hope that Jesus has redeemed and is redeeming this world. Faith and hope, two small words, made real and powerful by Gods love. This quarter we are seeking to live in relationship with our God with these two words being expressed in our lives as we live in the love of Christ.
Chris Thurton (UMin Greek Ministry Intern)
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