Good things a'brewin' here.

Let me begin by apologizing for not updating this in two months. That was slightly a function of simply not getting around to it and leaving the country for almost a month. I was in Nigeria helping with music at a large student missions convention. I won’t go into that here but you can read about it on my personal blog: rolllikewater.blogspot.com.

Question: What has been going on at OSU for the last two months?
Answer: A lot of really encouraging things! Hopefully I will remember them all for you.


The first thing that I would like to talk about is Fall Conference. This conference happens every year and has never disappointed. I have been to eight of these and have enjoyed every single one. This year the theme was “Change the World.” A lofty claim to be sure, but one of them main things we hope our students will do. An IV staff worker and author named Don Everts came and spoke out of John 15. If you are unfamiliar with this passage, it is the one where Jesus tells his followers that he is the vine and they are the branches. Using illustrations from scripture and people who have changed the world, Don showed us that it is actually a simple task. People who changed the world began by simply obeying Jesus. Don is a wonderful speaker and our students were very blessed to have him there. Two of the students who came with us were not Christians. Please pray that the things they heard will take root and bring them into a relationship with Jesus.


I had the opportunity to lead worship for the conference and had a blast. I have never been totally in charge of worship for a conference and was a little nervous going into it. I quickly found it to be a joy helping lead the students into God’s presence. It is making me really look forward to our winter conference in February.


The next very encouraging thing that has been happening is the growth and development of the community in the fellowship. New students are building great friendships with other students and encouraging them to come to events like Bible Studies and large groups. It is extremely fun for me to watch as students in my Bible Study become friends and begin to trust each other. It makes the Bible Study a much safer and more fun place to be. We can have great discussions because people feel freer to speak what is on their minds.

I would also like to share a piece that is very much related to the community being built here. The weekend before Thanksgiving break, our two student leaders organized a trip to Portland to spend the day with the homeless. They rallied a few other students, all of whom were new or non-Christian, to make packets of things like socks and toothpaste to give away. I let them borrow my car for the day and the reports I heard sounded great. They had a lot of fun. I can’t tell you how great it is to have student leaders who initiate things like that. They have a heart for loving the poor, and the maturity to understand how important it is to bring other people along with them. God is totally at work in our fellowship. Please pray that the community continues to develop in ways that serve the campus and city, and are welcoming to those on the outside.

It has truly been a great fall term. I have been so encouraged by what I have seen god do here. I believe we are seeing the birth of a new generation of amazing Missional Student Leaders at OSU. Would you join me in praying for them? Pray that they continue to grow in the depth of their relationship with God and with each other, that they would become bold in the ways that they tell their friends about Jesus, and that their heart for the poor would continue to move them into action.

Stay tuned for all the crazy things bound to happen in winter term!
Merry Christmas!

October Fun with Lots of Pictures!

Hello everybody! Welcome to the end of October. This has been a really fun month for all of us in IVCF at OSU. We have been trying really hard to bring new people into the fellowship, invite people to events, and give people chances to interact with Jesus. So far, so good! Let me give you the rundown on how things have been going.

Bible Study: In the dorm that my co-leader lives in, we just finished our fourth Bible Study. This term, we felt it would be a good idea to study passages that show Jesus interacting with different types of people. There are a lot of negative stereotypes of Christians and Jesus so looking at passages where Jesus hangs out with "sinners" would be a great way to confront those. We have about 12 people who have come, though not all at the same time, and they have really enjoyed it. It became clear to me that a many of them were not very familiar with studying the Bible so this is a great opportunity for us to help them fall in love with Scripture. Also, at least two regular attenders are not Christians and that is very exciting for me. It is really quite an honor to be in a position where I get to help people encounter Jesus for the first time. Please pray for the people in Bible Study.

Large Group: Our Large Group Worship times have been very different then in past years. So far, we have focused a lot on the implications of following Jesus on society. Kristen and I both feel that serving and loving the poor is an integral part of following Jesus so we have been communicating that during these times. We held an event about Jesus, justice and poverty where we invited a speaker from Portland to come and share abuot her experiences with those things. There was a really positive response from the students. We were also able to prepare a meal of porridge that AIDS patients often eat. This was a chance for us to share the meal with all of those who have to eat it every day. Take a look at some of the pictures.



Evangelism: I feel like a real focus of mine this year has been reaching out to people who do not follow Jesus. You know what? I love it. It is really fun to build relationships with people who need Jesus. I really enjoy personally confronting negative images of Christians by being a person who really loves those outside of the family of God. Here are some of the ways I have don e this:



Stations in public areas that help students interact with a spiritual topic such as "who was Jesus?" or "where has religion gone wrong?" People would come up and participate and then I would very easily get into a conversation with them about Jesus. I am hoping that some of the people I met at those will want to continue having conversations.






Hanging out in the dorms. I have spent a lot of time just hanging out with non-Christians. This has allowed me to develop friendships with people. I was actually able to invite about 6 non-Christians to my house last week for a home-cooked meal. It was so fun. I hope that these relationships allow me to share the gospel with these students.

The next thing on our list of things to do is Fall Conference. This will happen Nov 2-4. Kristen and I are hoping to have around 20 students attend. This weekend is one of the best ways that good community gets built. It is also a great time for students to wrestle with questions about what it means to follow Jesus in college. Our speaker, Don Everts, will give a great message and is really good at relating to students. I will also be in charge of the worship for the conference. This is the first time I have ever been entirely in charge of worship for a conference. Please be praying for this conference. It can be a life changing time for those who go.

One last thing: Kristen and I are really in need of more financial support. We are currently running at a deficit of $1400 per month. Please be praying that we can find new supporters and get our finances in order. This will allow us to be more effective when we are on campus.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support! Good things are brewing at Oregon State. Stay tuned for the report on Fall Conference and the end of fall term!

Mustard Seed and New Student Outreach

Alrighty Then! It is now the first week of classes at OSU. Students have been on campus for almost two weeks and InterVarsity has been going crazy trying to get to know as many new freshmen as we can. But before I get too much into that, I would like to tell you what happened before students arrived on campus.



Each year, the staff take all of the returning student leaders on a retreat to prepare for the coming school year. We call this retreat "Mustard Seed" because our hope is that we start the year small and then grow into somethign big and beautiful. This year, Kristen and I traveled two hours south to a beautiful house on the North Umpqua River. We were there with our two student leaders; Mike, a senoir who traveled to Cairo with us, and Kit, a 1st year leader and a sophomore. The four of us got caught up on our summers and began to vision for what the year could be. We studied the story of Gideon because it felt very appropriate for our situation. Gideon was up against huge odds and only had a tiny little army to do it. OSU is a campus of over 20,000 students and there are only four people on the leadership team in InterVarsity. The message of Gideon was clear: God does not care how big or small we are to start the year, because it is him who does the work. We just need to be faithful to obey.

We also spent a lot of time playing cards games, most of which I won! HA HA! And watched an episode of my favorite TV show, LOST, as a lesson in what it means to be a leader. Coming back from the retreat, we all felt much more prepared to go into the dorms and meet the new freshman class.

Students moved in the next day and we began running around meeting as many people as we could. Mike and I are in Finely Hall, while Kristen and Kit are in Sackett Hall. I must say, I have had a blast for the last two weeks. I have met a lot of students and I really feel like Mike and I are creating a fun community in the dorm. These relationships we have been building will hopefully create a lot of really great opportunities to share the gospel. Let me give you a list of the things we have been doing during our 12-15 hour days of welcome week:

Going floor by floor and knocking on every door to meet people.

Playing a heck of a lot of Ping Pong. There are a bunch of great ping pong players in my hall!

Lots of video games.

We took some students to help out at a local food bank. See the picture.


Eating Meals with people

Bowling, Dodgeball, frisbee, hackey sack and anything else people want to do.

Board Games.

An ice cream social

We have met a lot of people, but I still feel like I haven't met 2/3 of the people living there. But that is ok because I have a lot of time to meet everyone else!

This was all leading up to a big outreach event we did last night in Finley. It was called "Sexy Pizza" and was a Q&A discussion about Jesus and sex. I lead it and it went really well. Students were encouraged to write down questions they had and then we had a discussion about it. About 55 students (most of whom were non-christians) showed up and stayed for the discussion and there were about 30 more who stopped by but didn't stay. I shared about how Jesus does not condemn us for our sexual sin but also calls us into new life. I think it will be very fun to talk to people about what they thought of the event.



Please be praying for this ministry. There is so much potential right now. This is probably the most fun I have had during New Student Outreach. We will be starting Bible Study and Large Group Worship next week and have hopes that there will be a lot of new students who want to get involved. In two weeks we will be hosting a large outreach event that will focus on Jesus, justice and Poverty. we hope to attract a lot of people and present the Gospel to them there. God is really doing a lot here and I can't wait to see what happens this year!

New Year, New Blog!

Hello to all of my friends, family and wonderful partners in ministry. In an attempt to become more "hip" and "with the times", I have decided to start a blog to keep you all updated about what is going on with InterVarsity at Oregon State University. Some of my other staff friends have done this and it seems like it is really fun. So, I will try to do these once a month or so which will give a borderline "real time" view of what is going on up here. I will also be updating the sidebar with prayer requests and a calendar of events. So, enjoy!

-Ben