"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
Hebrews 4:16
How do you do campus ministry when there is no campus, or students, to minister to?
This is the question DiscipleMakers has been wrestling with recently with the eruption of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the responses to this from the various colleges and universities we work with. As I'm sure it's been for you, the past 2 weeks have been very confusing and full of the unknown. For DiscipleMakers, I am grateful to our leadership who have entered into this uncertainty to consider our response to the epidemic. Feel free to read their response.
As we continue to consider these unknowns, though, we can remember this verse above in Hebrews with much hope. We are serving a God who deeply cares about us and, through Christ, allows us to come before him to recieve that care. A coworker recently shared 2 Chronicles 20:12, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”, and then shared this, "We believe that God is sovereign over the world, even during great suffering. This reality might not remove all fear, but it does give us hope! God knows, God sees, and God cares. And God is still at work to advance His kingdom. So we can bring our fears, questions, and requests to His throne." This is what we are seeking to share with our students and encourage them in as they also face this uncertainty and confusion.
I'd love to briefly share with you what that is now looking like for us:
We moved our Women's Conference event from an in-person weekend event to a live stream event. While it is sad to not have the in person community that is so cherished at this event, we are glad to still be able to offer the teaching to the women across all our campuses in Pennsylvania! The planning for this event is a good example of how we're having to rethink a lot of how we do ministry on the college campus.
Even with the many changes, I'll still be co-teaching one of the two workshops on "Gossip". I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lord will use this session to encourage the women and sanctify them. I'll be sure to share the teaching with you next month!
Gospel Group, the sophomore group at Penn State, has also gone virtual. On Thursday night, we had a chance to gather a handful of student to hear how they are doing in this time of transition, and to share how we're planning to continue teaching them good Bible Study for the rest of this semester. For the next two weeks we'll continue to utilize some awesome video conference programs to discuss how to make good applications of a passage. I'm looking forward to having this time with the students to encourage them in this time!
All of you are on my heart and mind right now as well. I’d love to know how you’re feeling and how I can be praying for you. We’re in this together, friends!
Thank you to all who attended to Celebration Luncheon back in February! It was so lovely to see so many of you and to have the opportunity to share the joys of what the Lord is doing on the campus.
If you missed the event, no worries! Let me know if you'd like to catch up sometime soon and here a brief bit of what was shared.
Prayers & Praises
Praise God for his sovereignty over all things. Praise God that He is in control and none of this situation is unknown or surprising to Him.
Pray for our Event Planning team as we prepare for this new format of Women's Conference. Praise God for the technology to still provide this opportunity for the students. Pray that the ladies would still be greatly impacted and engaged with the content.
Pray for our students as many of them are home now trying to continue completing their school work with limited community. Pray that the Lord would be clearly near to each of them while isolated from the friendships they have at college. Pray that the Lord would provide peace and closure to our many seniors who are saddened by this ending to their college experience.
Pray for our campus staff as they navigate how to continue ministering to students. Pray for more energy for all our staff as these changes require extra work and limited rest time.
Thank you, dear friends, for your partnership in the gospel!
Your support - whether prayer, financial, or other - is greatly appreciated and makes it possible for us to continue reaching the next generation for Christ!
