Newsflash

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas! And now for a completely different approach to a year-end letter.  Close your eyes and picture this: You turn on the T.V. to NBC to hear Brian Williams chatting matter-of-factly.  A marquee scrolls in red at the bottom of the screen with the following news update:

“GOD INCARNATES AS NEWBORN. RESCUES THE WORLD.  PUTS EVERYTHING RIGHT FOREVER!”

Now picture me at campus the following day. What would I hear in response from the college demographic?

“Ridiculous!  God is a crutch week people use to make themselves feel better.  If God cares about the world, where is he?”

Or maybe,

“So a newborn baby is supposed to make my Dad stop doing drugs and care about me again?” or “Whatever people want to believe is great for them, the news shouldn’t talk about religion.”

The message of Jesus coming to our rescue is shocking, and frankly, a little confusing.  I understand why students would respond and do respond this way to such a startling story.  Most of us have marveled at the mystery of life, of meaning, of suffering, and of God’s intervention in our failure.  And how exactly does this baby rescue the world? These questions are exactly why the following statistics hold true:

-70% of students who grew up in Church will have left the Church during college.  (USA Today)

-College professors are 5 times more likely to identify as atheist than the general public.  (Crossexamined.org)

-Less than 1% of the ‘Mosaic Generation” (18-23 yrs/old) has a biblical worldview (Christianpost.com/Barna Group)

 

Eighteen million students will finish their semesters and go home for Christmas break at the end of this month.  When they come back, InterVarsity will be there to offer a loving, welcoming community and an invitation to follow Jesus in an environment where a Savior is a fairy tale and healthy communities are few and far between.

Over 1,500 IV staff around the country are on campuses to help students find answers to their questions, to pursue them with the truth in love, and to help them understand what Christmas means for their broken families, their atheist professors, their boyfriends and girlfriends, their difficult classes, and the rest of their lives.  Please know that your giving is the reason I am able to meet with Brandon, a seeker, and study the scripture together (pictured).  It is the reason I am able to talk and pray week after week with grad students Max and Isaiah, or teach students at our large group spiritual disciplines like lectio divina.

That’s why this year-end letter is coming to your home: to let you know I believe in the Gospel meeting the needs of this generation, and I need your continued partnership towards this vision.  Would you consider increasing your monthly donation or giving a year-end, one-time gift?

Secure, online, tax-deductible donations can be made here: https://donate.intervarsity.org/support/jordan_kologe

I truly wish you the merriest of Christmases as you celebrate the strangest, most miraculous news ever reported, the birth and life of Jesus our Lord!

Jordan

 

Hello friends a…

Hello friends and family,

 

THANKSGIVING

 

Just writing to wish you all a very happy thanksgiving with your families and take the opportunity to express my thankfulness to you. Obviously many of the stories I relate back to you all from campus have to do with students lives being impacted and changed.  And while I could tell you many many more from the past months, what I really want to say is thank you for investing in my development.  Most plainly: your generosity has enabled me to be a part of a ministry that has profoundly grown me as a follower of Jesus and this will shape the trajectory of my families entire life.  In my view, there is no more precious a gift.  Thank You.

 

CAMPUS

 

• GIG with Brandon: I continued to study to meet with Brandon and seen his continued growth from lonely seeker to an central part of IV’s ministry on campus.  He has now been plugged into the local Church and is growing daily.
• All campus ministries prayer event: Campus Crusade, Baptist Campus Ministries, Khi Alpha, and InterVarsity collaborative effort saw nearly 100 students gather for 2 hours of worship and prayer for specific areas of the University after an afternoon of engaging students at the campus center with interactive displays promoting awareness about several issues of social justice. (see picture and video below).
• Regional Conferences: 70+ staff from all over the pacific region gathered in Sacramento last week to wrestle with the topic of Multi-ethnicity. InterVarsity puts a lot of energy into teaching staff how to build a healthy ethnic identity (for ourselves and students) and how to relate across ethnic lines that can be the source of difficulty. The week was a big step forward for me personally as a white person in learning how to relate with humility and understanding.  

 

PRAYER

 

• New home! Our landlords father is taking over our apartment and we are needing to find a new place to live ASAP.  Pray for us to be able to find an affordable place close to our current apt.
• Fundraising: I am hovering steadily around the 70% funded range.  All our practical needs are met and so we count ourselves very blessed. Reaching 100% will allow my salary to slightly increase, which would be a most welcome gift as we try to maintain a healthy financial situation.  
• Brandon: Pray that he would surrender his life the Lord’s will.
• Our marriage: The greatest adventure of all… Pray for continued love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control for our marriage.

 

Aloha!

 

Jordan (and Jennie)

https://ourministry.wordpress.com/

http://youtu.be/tCLL5OJ0WNw

 

Photo Journal

Here is a snapshot from campus. Each Thursday we gather from 7-9 for worship and teaching, followed by dinner out at a local favorite.  Each of the 5 of us staff take turns teaching.  A few weeks ago I taught on how our value is connected to our created purpose to be the temple of God.

Here is a picture of all the staff and students at our fall retreat three weeks ago.  We camped out for the weekend at the botanical gardens in Kaneohe.  Lots of prayer, worship, teaching, and eating.  At the end we took a few hours to share stories about what we had learned during the weekend.  Several students shared how they had made significant decisions towards following Jesus, while many shared about how they had forgiven someone from their past for the first time.

We gather as a staff team for two hours every monday afternoon to pray for the campus, for students, and for one another.  One of the great perks to living in Hawaii is that we can have outdoor meetings year-round.

My favorite story from campus so far has to do with a student named Brandon.  I met him during the first week of school.  He was sitting by himself eating subway and we struck up a conversation.  It turns out Brandon just transfered to UH, was very lonely, and was seeking God.  He was wrestling with great questions like Is Jesus God?  Is Jesus the only way?  What makes Christianity unique?  Aren’t all religions true in some way?  Why does Hell exist?  We have been meeting weekly to study the scriptures.  He is now going to Church with some other IV students, in two weekly bible studies, and finding friendship.  Pray for me as I plan to invite Brandon to make a commitment to follow Jesus with his life in the coming weeks.

I’m sorry for being out of touch in the past months.  I think and pray for you all often as I am constantly humbled by a community of friends who believe in me enough to sacrificially give and to pray.  I am extremely thankful for your partnership and I would love to hear from you!

Aloha!

Aloha friends!

Hope this finds you well.  Now for a long overdue update from across the ocean and a special invitation to my new family near the end!

The Transition. After our wedding on June 11, Jennie and I moved to Hawaii on June 13th.  A week of honeymooning gave way to a few weeks of apartment, car, bike, and job hunting.  A few weeks and several hilarious and awkward situations (thank you, Craigslist) later, and we found a great apartment, a reliable vehicle, and began to get settled here in Kailua, a small-ish beach town 20 minutes outside of Honolulu.  We both find ourselves deeply thankful to God as we have seen him grace us with a wonderful transition into marriage and ministry in Hawaii.  We are especially grateful to my friends and ministry partners Mark and Ari-Anne Fuchtman, who opened up their home and allowed us to use their vehicle for our first month on the Island.   Also to their roommates, Taylor and Eunice Hanson, who welcomed us into their home, accommodated us with incredible hospitality despite being total strangers until the point we moved into the room next to theirs. All of you have been God’s grace to us.  For many more pictures and stories from the adventure here so far, including incredible views and epic hiking adventures,  check out our new blog: http://www.obiwankologes.blogspot.com/

My new job!  I began my work for InterVarsity here on Oahu a few weeks after we moved.  I will be one of five staff working at University of Hawaii in Honolulu this school year.  I couldn’t be happier with this team, who made me feel instantly welcomed and at home with them.  My first experience with them was two-week trip called Ho’olohe Pono, or, “to listen rightly/justly.”  The trip is geared towards listening to and learning from the local Hawaiian community in hopes of reconciliation across the churched and unchurched, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian lines.  I learned a great deal about Hawaiian culture and history.   As I was literally the only white person in a group of 18,  I also learned a lot about being a minority.  It was also a profound experience to be able to use my identity as a White male to try and bring healing in a context where that demographic often represented pain.  A challenge to you is to try focusing on listening well for a week straight, it is very enlightening.

First week on campus.  This week students returned to UH from the summer away.  After a weekend-long retreat with our student leaders, we have been spending our afternoons on campus meeting students and inviting them into our community.  I spoke with a student named Brandon who had many hesitations about Jesus, and took issue with the fact that Jesus “never declared himself as God.”  I invited him to study the word with me, he said yes. We hope to begin our investigations of Jesus next week.

I had several other interesting conversations – my favorite of which resulted from one student asking me if there was going to be beer at our back to school beach BBQ this Saturday, and the other quickly hushing them, telling them not to offend me, because “He’s a Christian!”  They were quite intrigued when I shared the story of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast.  One of them showed interest in finding out more about Jesus.

Another student I met named Brad spent his first week in Hawaii virtually homeless after moving from Washington.  As we talked, I felt like I may have been the first genuine and inviting person he had run into since he moved from home. I’m hoping our encounter will draw him to the BBQ this Saturday.

Tomorrow I will go back to campus to meet more students, and after a pick-up soccer game with some of our students and their friends, we have our first large group of the semester.

Prayer.  You are invited to join me in prayer for the ongoing transition for Jennie and me, as well as for Brandon, Brad, and the students at UH.  Pray especially for a meeting I will soon be having with a leader from another campus ministry that teaches students must be baptized into their church in order to be forgiven by God.

Invitation to partnership.  I want to extend a special invitation to my new in-laws! Here is my vision.  College is an incredibly formative time in which, just like you and I, our sons and daughters will make decisions that, like no other time in life, plot a trajectory.  InterVarsity’s mission is to help students plot a trajectory towards Jesus and therefor towards the life that God intended for them when he created them – a good, purposeful, fulfilled, and ultimately eternal life.  We work to reach unreached students in a loving rather than domineering way.  We work to develop student leaders who reproduce themselves in college and after college.  We value whole-life discipleship, hoping to remove the parenthesis many of us desire to put around our spiritual lives.  Instead we hope our students let their Christian faith shape their relationships, finances, studies, jobs, and goals, so that no part of their life is isolated from the purposes of God.  And we are proud to tell the stories of InterVarsity alumni like Gary Haugen, founder and president of International Justice Mission and Tim Keller, pastor of the world-wide Church planting catalyst Redeemer Church, who credit their college experience in  InterVarsity for much of their spiritual formation.  In fact, Tim Keller was a student much like Brandon – interested in exploring Jesus but ultimately agnostic – until some friends invited him into a scripture study.  His friends had no idea Tim would go on to be one of the most influential pastors in the world who has impacted millions of lives for the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is like a mustard tree….

Funding update.  I was hired part-time in Hawaii but have now also been offered and accepted a position working on behalf of Urbana Missions Conference.  As a result, I will continue fundraising for a full-time role with IV.  Cost of living increase in Hawaii, marriage, and loss of Central-specific support mean I am looking for new partners to propel us forward!  If the above vision compels you and you want to be a part of our efforts, we welcome your partnership in giving or with prayer.  The best way to begin giving is signing up online:

https://donate.intervarsity.org/support/jordan_kologe

God Bless!

Jordan and Jennie

 

Big Announcement!

Hello Friends,

I have several very important and exciting things to share with you so read carefully.  This update is a little longer, so I highlighted the main points in bold.

First, my wedding is only 8 days away!  I am getting married June 11th, and can’t wait to begin the adventure of marriage with my bride-to-be, Jennie. I’ve attached a picture of us.  As you can see she is far better looking than me.  I attribute this to many of your prayers for me through these years of bachelorhood.  “Dear Lord, we are asking for a miracle on Jordan’s behalf…”

Second, I am so excited to share with you about my relocation with InterVarsity to Hawaii! Ok, go ahead and get the eye rolls out of the way… I don’t blame you. As my two-year commitment to IV at Central ended this spring, Jennie and I began to pray and dream about what our next step, and our first step as a couple, should be.  To very candidly share with you our discernment process, three things stuck out to us.

1. After dating and being in engaged long-distance, we felt our first season of life together should allow us time to invest in the ministry of our marriage.  Not to the neglect of my ministry with IV, but with an understanding that a healthy ministry together begins with a healthy relationship between us.
2. We both have a still ambiguous sense of ‘call’ to missions, potentially abroad.  We want to set a tone in our marriage that maintains a open posture to risk, crossing cultures, and re-location.
3. We want to have fun!  We wanted to pursue an option that would allow me to continue the work that I love doing with IV in a new and adventurous context.

As I spoke with who is now my new boss in Hawaii, we came to feel that the Lord had very much prepared the way for us.  A good friend of mine in Oahu offered us free housing and car for a month because his extended vacation perfectly coincided with the date we would move.  Jennie was able to transfer jobs to a store location in the exact town we would live in.  And best of all, the InterVarsity team there wants to learn about and launch GIGs (probably the thing I am most passionate and experienced with in ministry) on campus next year. My job will include training staff and student leaders how to lead GIGs (investigations of Jesus based on reading stories in scripture with non-Christian friends), leading GIGs on campus, helping with large group and outreach events, and cross-cultural missionary training (I will be the only white person on a staff team of 6).  This is my dream job! 

They are asking for a year commitment.  While we are in Hawaii Jennie will work towards finishing her masters in counseling through online classes, and we will return to Dallas, TX next year for her practicum.

Amidst all of the excitement of new and great things ahead, I am grieving my farewell to Central students and the staff I’ve come to know and love over the past two-and-a-half years.  The sadness is enormously lessened knowing the ministry at Central is in the capable hands of student leaders we have raised up over the past two years, and a new  IV staff-worker named Kodi Thompson-Moore.  I have had the chance to spend time with him and couldn’t be more pleased.  If you currently support me because you are invested in the ministry at Central College specifically, please consider contacting him (thompson@grinnell.edu) as he is currently raising funds to be on campus in the fall.

As usual, you are invited to partner with me in two ways.

PRAY.
-For Jennie and I’s wedding, honeymoon, marriage, and first year together.
-For the Lord to go before us into ministry in Hawaii.  In a new cross-cultural context, I will have so much learning to do.
-Pray for a movement of GIGs to be launched on campus in Hawaii and for lost students to begin to follow Jesus through them.
-My hours will be lessened and I will be looking for another part-time job, as will Jennie.  Pray we find good jobs and an affordable place to live.

GIVE.
-Higher costs of living in Hawaii and getting married will influence my budget.  More details soon.
-Give online: https://donate.intervarsity.org/support/jordan_kologe

As always, would love to hear from you or share more about this next season of life.  I am so excited for what is ahead, and continue to be genuinely humbled and thankful for your generosity and support.  THANK YOU.

Sincerely,

Jordan
https://ourministry.wordpress.com/