Coffee House

Hannah, one of our student leaders, read out loud from Matthew 13, a parable comparing soil and people. I paused from gobbling a gooey brownie to pray that God would make the gospel alive to our friends. I took a handful of dirt and scattered it in our flower pot. Brice, next to me, prayed Christian students would be sensitive to their friends’ needs. We spent the evening praying for God to prepare unbelievers’ hearts, asking Him for opportunities to share our faith, and praising Him for sending witnesses into our lives. To help us engage with our prayers, we planted and watered geranium flower seeds.

Coffee House, our weekly prayer and fellowship meeting, is a lively, relaxed place for us to creatively talk with God. We pray for the lost, the oppressed, and the fatherless. We ask Him to move in our lives, around campus, and throughout the world. And we do it all while enjoying Hannah’s gifts of coffee, tea, and homemade treats. Freshmen are coming to meet new people and meet with God. Upperclassmen are finding refreshment and renewed focus to follow God’s call on our community.

At last week’s Coffee House, we gathered around our flower pots full of sprouting leaves to praise God for growing our chapter in evangelism and bringing our friends to Him.

Poverty Week

Did you know that around the world, 15 million children die of hunger each year? Or that despite economic progress, India is home to 25% of the world’s poor?

Students exposed themselves to facts like these as they spent no more than $25 on food for the week. Stats like these seem pretty depressing, until you hear about the other half of the story. They contemplated verses like Proverbs 21:13, Romans 12:16 and Jeremiah 22:15-16. This helped them consider the good news that God cares deeply for the poor, the hungry, and the defenseless. God invites and even commands us to respond to the causes and effects of poverty, as well as to personally love the poor. As they experienced slight pangs of hunger or had to refrain from eating out, they got just the tiniest glimpse of what many live through without choice or escape.

Members invited their friends to join with them in Poverty Week. Most said no, but 30 students came to the Feast at the end of the week, where we shared about God’s heart and response to the poor and our plan to donate to World Vision. Students donated $200, enjoyed some amazing home cooked food, and prayed for God to move.

Conversational Evangelism

UNT and TWU – after hearing stories of staff sharing the gospel 2 years ago and what the spiritual climate of the campus was, I was slightly terrified. But despite my terror, we were going to spend the afternoon asking students questions about their spirituality and hopefully getting to share what we believe about Jesus.

My partner, John, and I felt unsure about whom to approach, but the first real conversation we got into was with a woman sitting on a bench picking through her lunch. She was a 1^st generation biracial Korean Caucasian who had started following Jesus many years before. But just last year, the friend who had introduced her to Jesus betrayed her deeply. She no longer talks to her friend, and she’s struggling in her relationship with God. She hasn’t been to church, she says she isn’t sure Jesus is the only way anymore, and her pain was evident in her eyes and shaking hands. It seemed like she was running away from the pain, trying to make it through by ignoring it. We got to encourage her to stay honest with her struggles, that nothing can separate her from the love of Christ, and that he is with her, suffering alongside her.

The next woman we talked to was a Korean international student who had moved to America just weeks ago to study English. We had a lot of trouble understanding each other, but when we started asking about religion and whether she was Christian, eventually she told us “I’m nothing.” She had been to a Korean speaking church the weekend before where she felt relaxed for the first time. She excitedly took a track called True Story by James Chuong about how we were designed for good, damaged by evil, restored for better when Christ died on the cross, and are now sent to heal the world with Christ.

The last significant conversation we had was with a white student sitting at a fraternity table asking for donations for the North Texas Food Bank. He was spacy, eventually revealing he hadn’t slept the night before. It was kinda hilarious trying to get him to answer questions or even understand what we were saying. We found out he wasn’t very passionate about the food bank or the frat – he just wanted to be involved in something while he was at college. He grew up Catholic, but had decided to “take the wheel” and choose where he wanted to go. He agreed that Jesus was Lord “because that’s the language I always grew up with” but he didn’t think of Jesus as the leader of his life. We tried to challenge him that Jesus wanted more for him and for their relationship, that when we try to be in charge we make selfish and dumb choices, but he kept saying that he wasn’t sure about that. God was his safety net – that’s what he wanted and what God wanted. But he was considering going to some InterVarsity events because we were the second pair of people to talk to him about God that day. 

All in all, it was a great afternoon!

Reconnecting with Alumni

The staff in the Gulf Coast Area (College Station and Houston) are reconnecting with alumni. I hope to see a few things come out of this effort.

Alumni are encouraging to me and my students. We just had Rene and Jennifer Aguirre (’96 and ’98, respectively) down to our Large Group. Jennifer spoke on God’s heart for justice and Rene announced the LaFe ’10 conference happening in Dallas. They got to meet and speak truth to students. Friday morning at Sweet Eugene’s, I got to hear stories of the Aguirre’s time at A&M and share my joys and struggles in calling Aggies to follow Christ. They had encouragement and advice, and they understood.

Alumni can pray wholeheartedly for the campus, with more of a long-term vision than students can. We just had 4 alumni from the class of ’54 come to our weekly prayer meeting – how cool is that! Several times a year, we hold an alum prayer meeting at Dennis and Sunny O’Neal’s house in College Station. The folks who gather there ask insightful questions, and then we delve into praying.

Alumni can give. There’s just no way students alone could ever financially support me and the work we do together. Alum (usually – I know it’s not always true in this economy!) have jobs, so if God calls them to give, they can give significantly more than a student.

There are many more things alum can do for InterVarsity’s ministry at A&M – disciple a student, provide a home for a leadership retreat, teach at a conference, bake some cookies for an outreach. But, I think alum can benefit too. I’ve heard too many stories from dear friends about how easy it is to slip away from following God, getting caught in the busy-ness of life. I’ve experienced it myself. There’s life and vitality in being around others who are following Jesus wholeheartedly; if you can’t find it anywhere else, you will certainly find it among students who are trying to figure out how to follow Jesus, sometimes for the first time.

That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. I need your help to do this. If you are interested in helping me get in touch with alumni, let me know. This could look like a few things: looking through the alum list to see if I’m missing alum from your year, helping me contact alum, or holding an event in your city to gather alum to support InterVarsity at Texas A&M. Leave a comment or email me at Carolyn_Boatsman@ivstaff.org.

Rooted and Grounded In Love

That was the phrase that came to me last week while I was praying with the Gulf Coast area staff team (Houston + College Station). I felt God calling me to know that I am rooted and grounded in His love in a new way during the next few months. I’m excited!

My first thought was, that’s a little redundant. What’s the difference in being rooted and being grounded?

It’s from Ephesians 3:17. I’ve read that passage a couple times in the last few months, as I’ve pondered our vision statement (Infused with the Transforming Power of Christ, Overflowing with Sacrificial Love) and to help our Small Group Leaders choose passages to study this semester. But I’ve been reading the NIV, and that has a different wording – “rooted and established”. The phrase God gave me is found in a couple translations. Here’s the larger passage in the NASB translation:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

I keep thinking of all the difference this will make in my life. In my staff work, I would know that my self-worth is not based on whether someone chooses to give to my ministry or go to the event I’ve planned. I’m taking on more risks as a staff worker, especially in evangelism. Knowing that I’m rooted and grounded in love will transform the way I share the gospel and hopefully transform the people I’m sharing with. I’m learning how to take a Sabbath after working hard all week. I tend to spread my work out, trampling over boundaries I’ve set up for rest. That leaves me too tired to work hard when I need to. Can you imagine the difference? Stretching myself to work, because I know God loves me. Then, choosing to turn from work, trusting that God will still love me when I’m not performing for Him. Believing that delighting in God and playing and resting in His presence is a worthwhile use of my time. Because it’s worth it to experience God and His love.

So what do you think? What does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love? Has God taken you through a similar growing experience?

To Overflow or Not to Overflow, That is the Question

We’ve been doing this to answer the question: What does it mean to be “Overflowing with Sacrificial Love?” It means choosing to leave your comfort zone so you’re not just overflowing all over your Christian buddies. So we’re learning to be a fellowship on the move. It also means risk, as you leave your comfort zone, love, and sacrifice. But students are choosing to risk so they can be a part of what God is up to on campus.

At NSO Training and our first Large Group Outreach, we headed out to ask students if we could pray for them. God definitely went before us. One pair of pray-ers encountered a student who was desperately lonely and homesick, doing laundry in her dorm. My partner, Brandy, and I got to pray with a student whose mother had passed away 3 years ago to the day. Many students were worried about classes or tests. We got to sacrifice our time and energy to love them through listening ears, comforting words, and prayer.

Positive Feedback

Our Small Groups are growing. Small Group Leaders were faithful to help with fellowship outreaches, to do their own smaller outreaches, and to follow up with students who expressed interest in InterVarsity. One new student said to one of our Small Group Leaders, “When you invited me, I thought, ‘Sure, I’ll hang out with some Christians. They’re safe.’ But y’all really live this out. I felt welcomed. I can’t go to your Small Group, but I’m going to make sure I come to one of the weekly meetings.”

When the Small Group Leader told me this, I teared up a little.

New Student Outreach

NSO is over! I hardly know what to do with myself. Well, actually I do. There’s always a little too much to do, it seems like… But it’s time to celebrate what God has done!

NSO, or New Student Outreach, ran from the week before school started back in August to the last weekend of September, when we had our new student retreat, CrossRoads. God has done some amazing things.

• There were 500 students at our big outreach event that we started this year, Fish Field Day. We played field games, ate free ice cream and pizza and had conversations with new students.
• We’ve started a thriving weekly prayer and fellowship meeting, Coffee House.
• At our first Large Group Outreach, we headed out on campus to ask people if we could pray for them. God went before us, and we got to pray with some hurting people.
• Our Small Groups are growing. Small Group Leaders were faithful to help with fellowship outreaches, to do their own smaller outreaches, and to follow up with students who expressed interest in InterVarsity. God is really blessing their faithfulness with new students who are asking questions and finding answers about the Bible, God, and following Jesus together.
• One student is in a G.I.G. (Group Investigating God) with her roommate.
• And to finish it all off, 21 AgIV students came to CrossRoads. Eleven were new students – 1 more than we’d been praying for. Ten new students was a huge goal for us. I honestly thought we may have shot a little too high, but God surpassed it!

I’ll be sharing more about NSO in my prayer letter and on the blog. If you don’t receive those updates and would like to, let me know!