When Secrets Reveal the Truth

To walk the USC campus today is to be impressed. The image of the powerful, confident, determined Tommy Trojan captures the students of the campus: they're young, attractive, and they've got things together. At least that's what you would think until you read their secrets.


Last week the InterVarsity students of USC set up a booth on campus that asked, “We all have a secret...What's Yours?” Students across campus were invited to write something they’d never told anyone on a 3 x 5 card, place it anonymously into a box. Those cards were posted on the walls of the booth every hour, and they tell a whole story all by themselves. In truth there’s a hidden reality on campus today: underneath the veneer of confidence and health, students live their lives in pain, confusion, and emptiness. They are dealing with real issues, and they need real healing, and real hope.


As students viewed others’ secrets on the booth, and put their own into the box, they were invited to hear a Christian perspective on being freed from the shame of secrets. Last Thursday evening, over 100 students showed up. InterVarsity staff Larissa Marks shared some of her own failures and secrets, and how she experienced God offering her forgiveness, healing, and freedom. Two students ended the evening making new commitments of faith, six committed to attending an exploratory Bible study to learn more about what Jesus could offer them, and half the room stood to commit to living more openly and honestly.


As I stood on campus last week, watching InterVarsity students engaging their peers, I was moved. And I was reminded: this is why I do what I do. To get to lead students deep in their faith, and then empower them to offer the healing, the love, and the direction of God to their peers...this is the mission of InterVarsity, and it's one our world is dying for. Yet upon first glance, you'd never know it.


The work is far from over...but the healing and hope of God are as relevant today as they've ever been.

Family Update

Lucy and Tyler are doing great. They just started pre-school and are LOVING it! Tyler takes his learning really seriously and is often the last kid to leave the reading circle. Lucy is reciting each sound of the alphabet and loving her new set of friends. And as they get older--three and a half now--they're becoming better and better friends. It's wonderful to watch. Parenting continues to be the most honoring gifts we've ever received.

Ignite: Students Trained in Sharing Their Faith

Mid-September hundreds of college students from campuses all over Southern California met at Bel Air Presbyterian Church for our Ignite conference, to be inspired and equipped to share their faith with their friends. This year's focus was "Hear and Obey", encouraging and teaching students to listen to God's voice, and respond in faith.

Students hear inspiring messages, were trained in seminars, and had deep experiences with God in worship and prayer. It was a wonderful time, and is planting seeds for students to go deeper in their faith and see God work through them to bring transformation to their campuses.

LAUP, Shivs, Racism...and Faith Made Real

Jonathan (in the yellow shirt with other LAUP interns) is a USC sophomore who spent the summer tutoring Latino teenagers in East Los Angeles. Angel was the biggest problem kid in the whole class: he was disruptive, disrespectful, and intimidating. Angel comes from a long line of gang members. Things came to a head about a month into the summer, when Angel brought a shiv to class. Jonathan was fearful for his own safety. Over the weekend, Jonathan’s LA Urban Project team spent time in deep prayer for Angel. When class began on Monday morning, Angel was a totally different kid: he was helpful, attentive, and responsive in a way he hadn’t been all summer. Jonathan and his team experienced God hearing their prayers, and bringing a powerful character breakthrough.

Have you ever felt the difference between a person who knows a lot about God versus the person who KNOWS God? It’s easy to know a lot about God and still not have much to offer this world. But when you come across a person who has first-hand experience with God’s POWER to bring REAL CHANGE…well that’s the kind of person I want to be around. This past summer God used InterVarsity’s LA Urban Project (LAUP) to take 48 other students like Jonathan (some of them above, with me) from knowing a lot ABOUT God to really KNOWING him.

Carrie is a junior from UC Riverside who spent the summer working with Black youth in Northwest Pasadena. All summer, one of the students in her class—DeAndre, a Black youth—was hostile to Carrie all summer because she was White. DeAndre regularly muttered comments to other students in the class about Carrie being racist. Carrie spent the summer feeling intimidated and guilty. Things came to a head when DeAndre got up in her face and yelled directly at her that she was a racist. Carrie was devastated, and couldn’t respond. That night, she asked her team to pray for her. As they did, God revealed to Carrie that she was wrongfully living in guilt about being White. “Yes, White people have done horrible things, but you don’t have to live under that,” she sensed God speaking. The prayer time released Carrie to trust herself, and engage DeAndre. The following day, no longer fearing his accusations, Carrie confronted DeAndre about his tirade, and apologized for ways White people had hurt him. “Would you be willing to tell me about how you've been hurt by White people?" she asked. DeAndre melted. He apologized for his behavior, and they had an immediate breakthrough in their relationship. Carrie saw God heal and free her, internally, in a way that allowed her to lead in racial reconciliation externally, changing Andre’s experience of White people for the rest of his life.

This summer, LAUP was a place where faith became real for 50 students. Reconciliation, healthy relationships, the power of prayer…these went from being theoretical ideas to daily practice. Your prayer and support is allowing InterVarsity to nurture people with the real kind of faith that our churches, our work places, and our world desperately need. It is my joy and honor to see God take the next generation of leaders from knowing about him to knowing him, and having him to offer.

Family and Financial Update

Our kids continue to bring us rich joy. They turned three in May, and continue to bring more of the same energy, laughter, and fun into our lives.

Lucy loves to look out for younger kids and teaches them with patience, gentleness and compassion. Here she is teaching her little one-year-old friend, Aaron Marks, to dance.


Tyler's active physicality continues to increase with age. Here he is "driving the tractor" (a real tractor) out at Catalina Island in early June with his buddies, Marcus Gee, and Jayden Mammen.

Scott will spend his summer as a co-director of the Los Angeles Urban Project, and Jenny is in the midst of her summer play season, launching one play as we speak, and running two youth programs as the summer goes on.

June marks the end of our fiscal year as well, and so far I’ve seen donors like you provide 95% of our ministry budget. That leaves us seeking an additional $5K of gifts, so if you are in a place to consider an extra year-end gift, it would come as a wonderful blessing to finish our year in the black. You can give by simply clicking the link to the right.