The Harvest is Plentiful…

This weekend over 120 students from all over Iowa gathered in Boone for fellowship, teaching, and worship at InterVarsity’s annual Fall Conference.  We took 27 students from Central.

Jesus was once again powerfully at work during the final session of Fall Conference. When the spaker asked folks who wanted to start following Jesus to stand, about 20 folks stood up! Typically, this number is made up of folks who want to “recommit” their lives to Jesus, and those who have never followed Jesus before (about 50/50, usually), so it’s very likely that anywhere between 5-10 folks made decisions to start following Jesus over the weekend!

We will have a better idea of this number as the stories from personal follow-ups continue to roll in, but God was without a doubt working powerfully on many students hearts, nearly everyone also made a public commitment saying they wanted to go deeper into their relationship with God and to start thinking missionally about the world.

Last week I lead a scripture study of 40 students in our bi-monthly dorm gathering called a Vintage Community.  We studied the parable of the sower in Mark 4.  The main theme of the passage is to illuminate the reason Jesus taught in parables.  So, why did he? So that the condition of our hearts would be revealed, and that those who were ‘good soil’ would pursue understanding.  Jesus taught with an element of mystery so that we cannot be passive to him in our response.  We will either seek understanding, or we will not understand.

Here is an email from a Central student to one of our student leaders who led her small group discussion during the study…

“Hi, I was in your small group for Vintage community last Wednesday
night. I don’t know if you can help me but I don’t know who to ask
about faith. I am…new to the bible, and have grown up in a home with
atheists. I have had a rough past and am ashamed of it, and am looking
to find some guidance for my future. I have been told that I can never be
forgiven by God for what I have done in the past and I am scared because
if that is true I am afraid what my life has in store for me. Can something
from my past be so bad that God can never love me?”

This is the exact sort of response Jesus was looking for! She looked at the stories Jesus told, was intrigued, and even though she did not fully understand, she was captured by her encounter with Jesus in the word and sought out understanding.  Here is the email our student leader sent the following night, after having met with her…

“Amanda” and I just got done talking, and she prayed tonight to accept
Jesus as her savior!! She asked a lot of good questions about
forgiveness, prayer and church. I made sure that she knew that she
just wasn’t accepting my beliefs, but was beginning a relationship
with a living God. She prayed for forgiveness and to receive the Holy
Spirit and said that she felt amazing! I went with her back to Graham
as she shared with some girls what she just experienced, then I left
as she went to a prayer meeting that another girl in Graham had
already set up.

I can’t say anything else but praise the Lord!! Thanks for praying.

Last night another student was adopted into our family!  I hope you are encouraged.  I hope also that you see you are making a real impact in real individuals lives by enabling this ministry with your prayers and support.  I am so grateful for you and to our Father who forgives even those, like “Amanda,” who feel like they could never be forgiven.

Thank you! for making these stories possible with your prayers and support.  I hope you are encouraged by this return on your investment!!

Grateful,

Jordan

Amazing.

Greetings friends,

Below is an entry from Jon Hietbrink’s blog.  Jon is my supervisor and co-worker at Central.  He is telling the story of what happened at our large group last week as he spoke about the prodigal son.  It really is an amazing story, I hope you are encouraged……

The night got off to a great start, and I felt good about how my talk was going as I headed toward the call. I had planned on inviting people to stand who identified with the younger son (irreligious, shady past, etc.) and the older son (cultural “christians”, pseudo-religious, etc.), and then I had about 15 student leaders/staff ready to follow-up immediately with whoever stood, thinking that maybe 5 or 10 folks might stand (not exactly “more than you could ask or imagine”, huh?!)

To my shock, when I made the call, about 30 people stood up, and instantly, I assumed I just hadn’t made it clear that it was a call for people to “follow Jesus for the first time”…I was later proved wrong! I asked everyone to come up to the front so I could pray for them (while the follow-up folks surrounded them), and then I invited them to break off into pairs/threes to talk about what God was doing and what decisions they had made. Here’s a sampling of the reports from the student leaders…

Rick
Sort of knows a little about Church but stopped going in high school and has lived with no regard for Jesus since. Wants to follow Jesus but is scared that he wont be able to overcome temptations and not fall away.

Karen
She said that she has never really been religious and doesn’t know a whole lot about Christianity/following Jesus, but she has been coming to the Calm and Nine and keeps just feeling like its right and keeps getting chills all the time when she’s there 🙂

Amelia
She also has never been religious and did mention that she feels like she understands the younger son because she has done things in her past she isn’t proud of. She did however talk about her love for doing service work and helping people, and we talked about how she can continue to do those things and share Jesus’ love with people through it.

Mia
This was something she was wanting for a while. She’s been looking to talk to someone about this for a while and it was for her tonight. Her legs were shaking the whole night pretty much, and she stood up and they stopped. I feel like I really didn’t say much but God was already doing stuff. She has struggled a lot with earning salvation and has come to the realization while here (she transferred) that coming to events and doing church doesn’t result in satisfaction/salvation. I talked with her how it is by grace we are saved- she’s said the prayer before, so we did not do it again- and that it is a gift we can’t earn. She seemed pretty excited about it all. She went for a walk afterwards to just “think.”

There’s more where those came from, but at the end of the day, I think about 14 folks gave their lives to Jesus for the first time and another 10 recommitted their lives to Jesus; 2 more folks said they wanted to explore more in GIGs!

It was unbelievable. I was driving to Iowa City this morning and crying like a baby thinking about how good our God is that he steps into students’ lives like this, and that he gives us the chance to be a part of it.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for the night (and for my dizziness). God answered in a resounding way.

Good Start

Hello friends.

First report from Iowa…

I am happy to share that the move here to Pella was smooth and the transition has been great.  I’m all moved into my apartment and the school year is a couple weeks underway.  Ministry at Central is in full swing and is really exciting.

During new student outreach, we were able to connect with nearly 150 new students who were interested in becoming involved with InterVarsity.  One of them was a seeker named “John” who I met before our first large group.

Me- “So, what’s your name? Where are you from?”
John- “I’m not religious.”
Me- “That’s totally fine, no problem.”
John- “I’m really curious about Christianity though, I’d like to learn more about it.”

John is now doing an exploratory study of Jesus’ life with one of InterVarsity’s student leaders!  He said the first two weeks on campus have been the ‘happiest of his life.’  This is why we do what we do!  There are hundreds of other students, like John, who we are praying to reach.  This is the kind of work God is doing in people’s lives through your support!  Thank you also for your prayers.  They are bearing fruit as our events are attracting many people, our student leaders are engaged and excited about living for Jesus on campus, and people like John are being touched by the love of Christ through our community.

Grateful,

Jordan