Student Leadership Team
As a
leadership team, we meet once a week to plan events and also to connect
together. This semester we’ve decided to have a different person share their
testimony each week as there are a lot of new members of our team and we don’t
all know each other very well. Sharing our lives with each other allows us to
better understand one another, learn about one another, and see how God has and
is working in them. We pray for the person who shared, which I find to be
encouraging. It's good to recognize and be reminded of how God has grown and
changed me and to also see the growth in others around me. The meetings are a
valuable time of community and building friendships together.
(Hannah)
L-R: David, Jed, Elise, Hannah, Rachel
Student Life in Community
God has shown himself faithful once again for many of us in our living situations. A few are blessed to live together in town as housemates, providing a wonderful off campus get away for students including Wednesday nights for bible study, worship, and other random hang out evenings. A few live at the university on residence, which is also a neat opportunity to live an integrated student life and be available to serve in ways that are more convenient for them than those off campus. It is nice to have a presence on campus and we continue to hope and pray that God’s presence would be felt, that students wouldn’t have to go very far to have opportunities to learn about Jesus. I (Elise) have had the wonderful privilege this year to live in a house with a young couple and their 6 month old daughter along with a few young adults in the basement. It is a neat community to be a part of outside of school and church communities. In each of these places we call home we have all enjoyed and been challenged in inviting people into our lives by sharing meals and quality times of discussion, worship and prayer. It is neat to see how relationships form on the basis of trust and comfort in each other’s presence and how curiosity and questions (particularly from those who don’t call themselves Christians) result and build deeper relationships.
(Elise)
L-R: Jerry, Matthew, Bridget, Andrew
Open Table
For those of you
who don’t know what Open Table is, its our On-Campus outreach/service ministry
where we provide free soup to the students on residence, and have a discussion
on student life, generally with a Christian focus. It’s a good way to get to
know our fellow students and have some deeper discussion with them. The
majority of students who show up are Christian, but we definitely try to make a
point of inviting our Non-Christian friends out as much as we can. To run the
event, we have soup donated by some of the people around town, and some of us
even provide soup ourselves every once in a while. We have had some
difficulties organizing that and finding time, so if you think about it, we
would appreciate your prayers/support! Insofar as leading our discussions, one
of us leads the discussion every week; every one of us was excited to take part
and we share the job by alternating between each other every week. Some of the
things we’ve discussed were ‘Newness’, Stress, Our Aspirations and Intentions,
and many other things. It’s been a good way to open up a dialogue with our
fellow students, and the free soup is always nice too! (Andrew)
Bible Studies
Every Wednesday
evening this fall around twelve of us met for a pot-luck dinner and a
manuscript study of James (a study on Daniel was also held on campus on Friday
mornings). Somehow each pot-luck (contributed to solely by students) seemed to
turn into a well balanced meal! Over the fall we were able to get to know each
other as we ate and engaged scripture together. Each week a different member
from the leadership team led the study, and each week we were challenged in new
ways as God worked through the text and in our conversations. We look forward
to the rest of the year as we continue to journey together with scripture as a
community being wrought into the likeness of Christ!
(David)
Challenges and Prayer Requests
Intervarsity
Christian Fellowship has gone through a few changes recently, the greatest
change being Sue and Troy resigning. IVCF has had its challenges since then,
however, it is also looking up. One of the major difficulties is organizing
soup for "Open Table." I was very used to Sue doing all the work.
Even though we don't have IVCF staff, we are still able to meet, conduct bible
studies, and host some events. This year is different and a little more
challenging without staff but not impossible. (Rachel)
The leadership
team at UNBC greatly appreciates and values your prayer support and thus we
have a few... well, a lot of requests of what you can bring in prayer to our
God.
1. Please pray for students in regards to end of semester anxieties,
depression, and stress, and that we may also have joyful motivated efficiency.
2. Please pray for our on campus ministry "Open Table," for our
awareness of our fellow students, to recognize when others are in need in the
various kinds of support that students can be in need of, and pray for us to be
able to prioritize relationships with each other and other individuals.
3. Please pray that God will enable us to trust
for provision for this and the coming years.
4. Please lift to God our Bible
studies that we hold on and off campus - that we will trust God's word can
change ours and others' hearts. Please also pray for our discipleship
accountability groups we've recently started.
5. Please
pray that we will seek and apply wisdom and discernment in interactions and
relationships with those struggling with school related, relationship related,
among other related depressions.
6. Additionally, we have a few specific requests for those on our leadership team.
- Please pray for Bridget as she is going to Japan and has some apprehension
about flights, transfers, and two days in Tokyo with a language barrier and no
one she knows.
- Please pray for David and Elise among others on the team who are
uncertain of how the summer is going to unfold, being that it is nearing the
time already where students start applying to jobs.
- Finally, please pray for me
(Jed) that I may be directed and rejuvenated as I am taking a year off as of
this January to take a break from school, reassess some life patterns, and not
go in debt. (Jed)
How to Support UNBC Inter-Varsity
Thanks for your ongoing prayers and support for the IVCF community at UNBC. There are concrete ways that you can help this ministry continue to thrive:
1. Donate soup for the Open Table
- Email Hannah Bjorndal - hannahbjorndal@hotmail.com
2. Offer your home for an event, driving services for soup or an event, or plan to invite the leadership team over for a meal and encouragement
- Email Hannah
3. Support Financially
Financial gifts help the UNBC students attend IVCF retreats, help me travel to supervise their ministry, and help the students with ministry needs on campus
Donate On-line at: Click HERE
Specify the UNBC ministry
Donate by Mail:
Cheques made out to "IVCF Canada" , memo line "UNBC ministry"
Mail to: Donor Services
IVCF Canada
1 International Blvd
Toronto, ON, M9W 6H3
Mike & Kleanza Bennett (Kiara, Jalena, Callen, Treah)
Mike
Mike Bennett
International Friendship Group
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship
University of British Columbia
778-875-9171
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