"Why Are Your Pants Wet, Lorenzo?"

“Why are your pants all wet, Lorenzo?”asked Abner Ramos (far right), InterVarsity Staff at East LA College, in the middle of an October Tuesday. The answer required a story.
Lorenzo is a Christian student involved with InterVarsity at ELAC. For the past year the ELAC InterVarsity group has been emphasizing outreach to non-Christian students on campus. Enrique is a friend that Lorenzo has been reaching out to for the past six months. Recently, their conversations have been increasingly spiritual.
Several Mondays ago, in the evening, Lorenzo (left) got a call from Enrique. “I’m doing really bad, man…can you come by tomorrow morning at 7 am?” Lorenzo doesn’t get up at 7 am. After debating his answer internally, Lorenzo agreed.

Tuesday morning, Lorenzo arrives at Enrique’s house, and Enrique shares that he’s been doing a lot of thinking, that he’s seen God revealing himself to him, and that he’s ready to become a Christian. Lorenzo shares what that means, and Enrique prays to give his life to God. Great morning…it wasn’t done for Enrique.

“I think I want to be baptized,” Enrique shares. “Yeah, that could be good.” answers Lorenzo. “No, I mean I think I want to be baptized now,” Enrique continues. “Well, after I became a Christian I was baptized a few months later,” Lorenzo explains, “you don’t have to rush.” But Lorenzo’s not getting Enrique. “No, man…I think I’m supposed to do this NOW…can we drive to the beach?”

An hour later, Lorenzo and Enrique were walking on the Huntington Beach sand toward the Pacific Ocean. Enrique stripped down to his boxers. Lorenzo wasn’t so ‘prepared’ and just rolled up his pant legs. Lorenzo baptized his friend, and new brother in faith right there. Two hours later, Lorenzo’s pants were still wet, Enrique was a Christian, and God’s work at ELAC couldn’t be denied.

The point isn’t that InterVarsity sanctions spontaneous, non-ordained baptisms. Actually, we don’t. The point is that God is doing something that’s so raw, so powerful, and so organic that students are having experiences that exceed anything they’ve ever known, and are responding in whatever ways they can imagine. That is a movement of God, and it is beautiful.

Behind the Scenes

As the InterVarsity staff of Los Angeles have been regularly gathering, we’ve felt God inviting us into more prayerful leadership. Though we have foundational values of personal prayer, intercessory prayer, and prayer ministry, my sense is that God has more for us in learning to be directed by God in prayer, and harnessing God’s transforming power through prayer. As the leader of the staff, I am excited to make this the training focus of our staff gatherings.

Ongoing Work: More Students Reaching More Students

Sharon’s story from last month was just the beginning! Listen to how God’s continuing to use students to reach students:

-At USC’s “Jericho Prayer Walk” students walked around different dorms on campus, praying. Then they entered in pairs to see if God was at work..and every pair came back with a story. One student was instantly healed of swine flu and was doing cartwheels in celebration. Another pair was led to a particular room, met a non-Christian student who was seeking answers to spiritual questions, and they’ve been discussing the Bible regularly since then. A third pair met a really hostile student who rejected them, and then fifteen minutes later opened up his life to them and asked for prayer. College freshmen are seeing God use them; imagine who they will become!

-A UCLA student named Matt was getting to know his roommate. “Do you have any spiritual background?” “I’m atheist,” he replied. “Oh, interesting,” Matt answered, “why is that?” (Pretty thoughtful question!) “Hmm. I don’t totally know…I should think about that,” he reflected. Instead of being intimidated, Matt pressed in deeper. Since that conversation, Matt and his roommate have been looking at the Bible, talking about it, and attended the InterVarsity fall conference together last weekend. It’s amazing to see students like Matt coming into their own as campus influencers.

On The Horizon

As we finish the fall, we’re preparing for Urbana, 2009. There will be 24,000 college students in St. Louis for five days to open themselves up to God and to world missions. Our hope is that a couple hundred of those students are from our InterVarsity groups. Urbana has the potential to take the passion and call that students already have, and fan it into a city-wide campus movement. Pray with us that God will do just that!

Family and Financial Update

Scott, Jenny, and the kids have been doing well, but are busy! Jenny’s in major rehearsals for Urbana as the co-director of theatre, and the director of dance. Scott’s been getting a lot out of his Fuller Seminary program, and enjoying his role of coaching campuses into growth. And our kids continue to delight us with their verbose creativity.

We’re making progress on the financial front, and thanks to several donors who gave extra one-time gifts, as well as a couple of new donors, our deficit has been cut from $25K to $20K. I’m praying and hoping to see our deficit reduced to under $10K by the end of the fiscal year, so if you’re looking to give a year-end gift, or feel moved by God to give, your generosity will be gratefully received. You can give simply by clicking the link in the right hand column.

Students Reaching Students

I’ve never been this excited about what God’s doing on the campus.

Sharon (left) came to her first InterVarsity meeting at USC two weeks ago. Sharon is a freshman at USC who knows almost nothing about Jesus. But Christine (right), one of the InterVarsity small group leaders, met Sharon when she came by to meet Sharon's Christian roommate, Ruth (center). Ruth wasn't there...but Sharon was, and as she shared about her anxiety finding her classes, Christine offered to walk her through campus and find each of them. Christine began visiting Sharon regularly. Sharon began coming to Christine's small group Bible study...

...Two weeks ago, Ruth came to USC InterVarsity's “Overflow” meeting, and Sharon came along.

At the end of the teaching, Sharon turned to Christine and said, “Jesus sounds like one of us.” “That’s what Christianity is all about,” Christine answered. After answering several of Sharon’s questions of faith, Christine mentioned the idea of reading sections of the Bible together to discuss them. Sharon agreed on the spot and asked, “could we meet every weekend together to talk more about God?”

It’s been like that everywhere on campus these days! God is using students to reach students. From UCLA to USC, and Northridge to East LA College, students are opening themselves up to let God work through them more than I’ve ever seen in my fifteen years on staff…I can’t wait to see what God will do!

Behind the Scenes: USC's "Overflow"

My mention of USC's "overflow" reveals a strategic shift in InterVarsity that may interest you. Through consultation with the Covenant denomination, we've learned the strategic sigificance of "missional Christians". Missional Christians are students who have a heart to see God work on their campus. We've recently begun to intentionally seek out and develop these students, and to empower them to spearhead our outreach efforts to those without faith on campus. This shift feels like it brings us back to our organizational roots, which have always been about prioritizing student movements of witness. It's still early, but so far we're seeing some of the healthiest student groups we've ever had, and we're seeing these groups actively engaging students without faith more than ever before.

(RIGHT-"Splashdown", one of the outreach events planned by USC students.)

Ongoing Work: Aseem

Last Spring I wrote about UCLA student, Aseem. Well since being invited to InterVarsity by his friend, incoming freshman, Daniel, Aseem came to the UCLA InterVarsity summer conference at Catalina Island. At Catalina, Aseem recommitted his life to God. But that isn't the end of the story. Since then, Aseem began bringing his brother along with him to church. And seeing two of her sons give themselves back to pursuing God, Aseem's mother has begun joining them at church. What God began on campus is spreading back to the family!

On the Horizon: Peach Cobbler Breakthrough?

Just last week, Eddy Ekmekji (center), the staff at Cal State Northridge, met with two of his interns, Sky (left) and Terrell (right)—both recent CSUN grads—to discuss how they might reach more Black men on campus.

Sky shared that it wasn’t just Christians who were challenged to reach Black men, but as president of CSUN’s chapter of the NAACP, he’d been in some of the same discussions, and gotten nowhere. As they met they stumbled upon an idea.

Days later they baked up four peach cobblers, and walked them over to the CSUN dorms. As they broadcast “peach cobbler”, one by one, Black students started coming out of the woodwork! “What’s the catch?” folks asked. “No catch, you just need to hang out with us to eat the cobbler.” “No problem!” they heard. As Black men become an increasing rarity on the college campus, we hope that God will keep giving us insights into reaching them. Pray for our ministries at UCLA and CSUN, in particular, where God’s given us Black staff who have a heart to reach Black students.

Financial Update

As we begin the year, Jenny and I are thrilled at the new work of God...and challenged in faith by the resource needs. To date 75% of our ministry support needs have been committed, thanks to many of you. But many donors have had to decrease support, or have entered retirement, leaving us with an additional $25K need for new donors and extra gifts. Your partnership is essential to this mission. If you are in a place to increase support, to give an extra one-time gift, or to suggest new potential donors, would you consider channeling your resources toward this wonderful work of God? You can click on the link just to the right if you feel moved to give now. Thank you!