Faith over Fear

A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to go to southern California to learn about ministry to black students in the Greater LA area, and to participate in "The Real", SoCal's regional BCM (Black Campus Ministries) conference. At the conference, we studied the life of Moses as highlighted in the book of Exodus. I realized that Moses and I have a lot in common. Despite all of the reassurances offered by the Lord, Moses still felt inadequate and afraid and begged the Lord to pardon him and send someone else to lead the Hebrew people out of captivity.

God has been inviting me into greater areas of leadership, and just like Moses, I've been afraid to step up. More than focusing on God's ability to work through me, I've focused on my own perceived inadequacies which has caused me to be paralyzed in fear.

During my time in California, I had the chance to spend a day at the beach where I symbolically surrendered and allowed the Lord to wash my fears away.

Pray with me that I'll go forward boldly, trusting that God is bigger than my own insecurities!

Kanye West, Jesus, and the Gospel at Harris-Stowe

For the past two weeks at Harris-Stowe we’ve been looking at different songs by Kanye West and comparing and contrasting those with passages of Scripture. So far we’ve looked at what Kanye and the Bible have to say about what it means for Jesus to walk with us, and what it means to live the “good life”. Toward the end of today’s study, a Muslim student came in who had been invited by one of the InterVarsity students. We ended up staying for another hour discussing life, faith, Jesus, and the Qur'an. I eventually had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him, and even though he wasn’t at a place to accept much of what I said, he was interested in continuing the discussion next week. I was blessed to see InterVarsity students actively engaging with non-Christians about their faith, and I am excited for the ways the Lord continues to open the door for the truth of the Gospel to go forth at Harris-Stowe!

And so it begins...

We're a month into the school year, and we still have lots of new students to get to know at WashU and Harris-Stowe! A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to be a part of the activities fair at WashU. I am excited about raising up leaders out of this new freshman class!

The Lord has also opened doors for deeper relationships with freshmen at Harris-Stowe. I have a table set-up to take prayer requests every Wednesday outside of the main cafeteria, and this week a freshman student named Michael not only stopped at the table, but pulled up a chair and proceeded to ask questions about any and everything from gay rights to racism and the music industry. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him and how I believe Jesus is relevant to real life issues. He said he doesn't know enough about Jesus to decide whether he believes Jesus really is the Lord and Savior that everyone says He is, but when I asked if he would be interested in studying scripture with me to learn more about Him, he said yes! Pray that the Lord would be revealing more and more of Himself to Michael as we meet up each week!

p.s. Here's a link to an article featured on the national InterVarsity website about the work at Harris-Stowe: http://www.intervarsity.org/news/gods-invitation

Going Deeper

Visions Gospel Choir is a key component of the music ministry of Harambee at WashU, and less than two weeks ago we had our first rehearsal of the semester. It was exciting to see new faces and welcome returning students as well. Everyone had a good time learning new songs and catching up with one another. It was pretty much business as usual until the end of rehearsal. We've always tried to emphasize the fact that the "Gospel" is more important than the "Choir", and that we are a ministry and not just a performance group, but that night it seemed to finally click in a tangible way. As we were getting ready to say our closing prayer, the room just erupted in authentic praise and worship. We moved beyond cliché phrases, and religious ritual, and were able to experience the very presence of God. As students poured out their hearts to the Lord in genuine worship, I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 2:9, "However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." Not just in Visions, but throughout every ministry of Harambee, we are entering the year with a heightened sense of expectancy for what the Lord will do in and through us. We are excited to see lives transformed and the campus renewed as we continue to lift Jesus up!

Lives Transformed

I knew when I came on staff with InterVarsity that our vision is "to see lives transformed, campuses renewed, and world-changers developed", but I never imagined that God would transform my own life in the process.

Most recently I've seen the Lord do amazing things in my heart with regard to fund development. Even though I knew God had led me to apply to staff back in 2007, and that as part of that I would have to raise my ministry budget each year, with every donor appointment and phone call, I was more concerned about earning approval and avoiding rejection, than about simply casting vision and inviting people into partnership with what God was doing on campus.

These past 3 years, the Lord has been gracious, and has walked alongside me faithfully as I've questioned my calling and my value. I never thought I would see the day when I was genuinely excited about fund development. I am so confident that God has called me to ministry through InterVarsity that when I'm making asks, I'm no longer looking for validation and approval, which means I'm no longer afraid of feeling personally rejected. I realize that I am a part of something much bigger than myself, and whether or not people choose to give, it has no bearing on my worth or calling!

The Lord even provided an opportunity for me to go to Madison, WI to help lead a national fund development training for 130 new InterVarsity staff! It's amazing how committed He is to our growth and development! To God be the glory!

More Open Doors @ Harris-Stowe

The Lord continues to invite me to walk through open doors He's created at Harris-Stowe! On Wed., May 5th, I received an email announcing that Harris-Stowe would celebrate National Day of Prayer on May 6th. Although I hadn't planned to be on campus on Thursday, I really felt like God was leading me to be present at this event. The email mentioned that after corporate prayer, we would do a prayer walk around campus. I told my supervisor, Howie, about it, and he suggested that I bring the prayer walk guide that we've used before as a potential resource. I figured the people organizing the event already had all the resources they needed, but I made copies and brought them anyway.

When I first arrived at the event, it was just me and the University's Vice-President of Administration. I asked if she already had plans for the prayer walk, and when she said that she didn't, I offered the guide I had brought. Not only did she want to use it, but she wanted me to lead it! By this time, there were 20 people gathered in the room including 4 students, a few support service staff, and several administrators! She took the time to introduce me to everyone there, and she shared about some of the things InterVarsity has been doing on campus.

After the prayer walk, many of those who participated said that they enjoyed it so much they wanted to have a regular monthly gathering for prayer and scripture study which I was invited to lead! The VP of Administration also insisted that I have a copy of the sign-in sheet so that I'd have everyone's name and email address!

Howie and I did this prayer walk on campus together nearly two years ago, and I never imagined that the Lord would open the door for me to lead a group of students, faculty, and staff in praying for campus using the very same prayer walk. I just praise God for once again proving that He can't be boxed into my view of how He is going to work..."Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Harambee Real Talk Events @ Harris-Stowe

The semester has gotten off to a great start at Harris-Stowe! On Monday, February 1, we started a series of Harambee Real Talk discussions. Last week's session was entitled, "Collegiate, Greek & Christian: Keeping the Divine in the Divine 9". Nearly 20 students came out to discuss what it looks like to be a Christian and a member of a Greek organization. We had student panelists representing six different organizations including one Christian Fraternity (Omega Alpha Psi); two divine 9 sororities (Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta); and three divine 9 fraternities (Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Phi Alpha, Phi Beta Sigma).

Panel members responded to questions from the audience covering various topics. Some questions included:

1) Are there times when your letters take precedence over your faith?
2) How do you deal with the temptation to engage in activities that go against your values?
3) What Christian values do you still see carried out in your organization?
4) How do you seek to positively influence those around you vs. being influenced by their negativity?

Some final thoughts given were:

1) Before you seek to join any organization, be sure to know who you are in Christ so that your identity isn't wrapped up in the letters that you wear.
2) God has called each of us to be bold witnesses for Him, and we should view whatever context we're in as our mission field (i.e. sorority, fraternity, dorm, classroom, etc.)

Audience members were actively engaged in discussion both during and after the event. God is definitely at work at Harris-Stowe, and I am blessed to be a part of His on-going ministry there!

The Word Became Flesh!

From Dec. 27-Jan. 1st twenty three Harambee students and alum joined over 16,000 students and staff from all over the world in St. Louis for Urbana09, InterVarsity's 22nd triennial missions conference!

We were challenged by scripture as we studied the 1st four books of John; exposed to God's heart for the world as we heard speakers from various corners of our globe; and inspired to live incarnationally in our respective contexts as we saw the God of the Bible wrap Himself in flesh and dwell among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Harambee students are more excited than ever to live out the gospel in tangible ways! As we prepare for the beginning of a new semester, I pray that we would take what we learned at Urbana and use it as a catalyst for being missional on campus!