Fall Term '08

Well hello there!

I am fresh off of recovering from a hard drive crash where I lost everything on my computer. Thankfully life is more that what is stored on your hard drive right?

Fall term at Oregon State University is drawing to a close and the students are gearing up for two very important things: Thanksgiving Break and the Civil War football game against the Ducks. I admit, it can be a difficult time of year for me. Who do I root for? The University of Oregon is my alma mater, but I have grown to love the students at Oregon State. I guess this is just one way I suffer for the sake of the Gospel.



Fall term has gone spectacularly this year. Our fellowship is growing. For all you numbers people out there, let me tell you what that means. We regularly have nearly 40 people attending our large group worship times. That is the largest group we have had since I came on staff here in 2005. Our three Bible Studies average over ten people per week. The Bible Study in Finley hall has probably had over 45 people come through it since the start of school. Here is a picture of the Bible Study that I lead in Sackett Hall.

Why the growth? I believe it is because Jesus is transforming our student leaders. Sean, Tom, Kit, Kristin, and Crisanne have been working so hard reaching out to new people and loving the people they live with in the dorms. They are learning what it means to lead by serving. I am so proud of them and cannot wait to see what further fruit is born of their partnership with Jesus in reaching this campus. My Co-leader, Kristin (pictured here at 3am pulling a prank on some of the guys in our Bible study) has done a superb job building a community in Sackett hall. She has been learning how to lead scripture, disciple people, and still be a good student. Pray for Kristin that she would continue to look to Jesus for strength and encouragement as she attempts to point the Bible Study toward Him.

In our Bible studies, we have been taking a look at how Jesus interacts with different types of people. We have been struck by how he loves the people who are the farthest from God. He spends time with them. He welcomes them and says encouraging things to them while the overly-religious Pharisees look on and sneer. It is really fun watching the new students learn how to study Scripture.

New Staff:

If you were not aware, we have a new intern staff at OSU this year. His name is Mike and he is an alumni of OSU. He has been a shot in the arm to our fellowship. Mike loves to reach out and invite new people in. He loves to talk about Jesus with people who do not yet believe. Mike’s goal this year is to raise up five new students who have the vision of reaching out and really living out their faith. We call these type of students “missional.” Pray for Mike that he would achieve his goal and that the students he raises up would have a huge impact on the campus.




Fall Conference:

We recently returned from our annual fall conference at Camp Harlow in Eugene. This is always a great conference both for the speaking and worship, but also for the fellowship to bond and become better friends. All three of these were in place that weekend. We were encouraged to go 100-0 with our friends, meaning we always look to serve our friends rather than look at what we can get out of them. We are able to do this because God goes 100-0 with us. He gives us more than we can ever repay and does not expect us to repay him. It was a great conference. We were able to take 30 people this year. That is about twice as many as we took last year. So exciting! The conference as a whole was much bigger than previous years. God is clearly moving and growing fellowships all over the state.


Pray for us. God is doing good things. We desire to be faithful with the people he has given us and to continue to reach out to new people and invite them into our community. Pray that the new freshmen will fall in love with Jesus and let him transform them while they are in college. Thank you for your support and for your prayers. God Bless you and have a happy Thanksgiving!

It Got Started!

Hey everyone! I am reporting to you live from the first full week of classes at Oregon State University. It is currently raining and people are still celebrating OSU's victory over USC in last week's football game. Those of us in InterVarsity are neck-deep in new student outreach and having a great time getting to know the new freshman class. But before I get into that, let me catch you up on the last two weeks.

If you read my previous entry, I said I was about to take our leaders on a 3 day retreat to the Oregon Coast called Mustard Seed. Well, we did it and it was great. This was the first time I had ever lead a retreat as the team leader and with a couple of snags (sometimes certain details like tin foil and can openers elude me) it went really well.


Mustard Seed is a chance for the students in leadership to reconnect after the summer break and prepare for the coming school year. We studied the entire book of Philippians and were reminded about what it looks like to love the people that God gives us and to have the attitude of Jesus. I feel like Paul's letter really spoke to the situation we were about to enter in to.

We also spent time visioning about why we were doing what we were doing. Why lead? Why do we call people to follow Jesus? Why do WE follow Jesus? We landed on a set of four principles: Purpose, Community, Suffering, and Joy. Now, I do not think you can boil Christianity down into four points, but I feel that these capture much of what Jesus calls us to. Whatever we do, Jesus calls us to be about the Kingdom of God. We are also not alone. Some of God's greatest gifts to us are our friends. When so much of our culture is geared to avoid pain, Jesus calls us to enter in to the hurt and suffering of our world. And it is there that we find Jesus, and therefore find our joy. That is what we want to be about this year.


When we returned, we dove headfirst into meeting new freshmen. We are currently in 3 different dorms getting to know as many people as possible. I am so impressed with the student leaders this year. They have been doing an amazing job of reaching out and building community. I told them that I have never seen student leaders go for it the way they have. And I meant it. Please pray for us all as we continue to reach out and invite new people in.

This year could shape up to be one of the best ones OSU has had in a while. Pray for us! God is most certainly at work and we are excited to love this campus with him! Peace!

Let's Get It Started!

Howdy everyone!

I hope you have had a very relaxing restful summer. I know I did. Maybe a little too relaxing. But that is all about to change because as of tomorrow, we are go for launch!

I will be taking our five student leaders and new staff partner, Mike, on a three day retreat to prepare for the year. It is called "Mustard Seed." This year mustard seed will be a camping trip to Cape Lookout (or as I like to call it: Cape LOOKOUT!) just south of Tillamook, Oregon. We will study scripture, pray, and vision about what we want this year to look like. I have always had a good time at this retreat and I am once again very excited about it.

As soon as we get back, the new freshman class will be moving into the dorms and we will be there to greet them. Be praying for us as we will be going all out for a few weeks in an attempt to meet as many new people as we can and invite them all to join InterVarsity. That is all for now. Check back soon and I will have more details about our retreat and the summer happenings of the fellowhsip. Peace out!

Ben

What the heck has been going on for the last six months?

Hello my wonderful friends and supporters!

I know it has been a long time since you heard from me. For that, I apologize. Let’s just say that administration is an area that I have a lot of room to grow. But you may rest assured that things in InterVarsity at Oregon State University are on the upswing and going really well. I will do my best to catch you up with everything that has happened since January.

Here is the Winter and Spring ’08 Greatest Hits.

• Perhaps the coolest thing that happened this year was the start of a daily prayer meeting. Our students were hungry to pray together and met every morning at 9am to pray. I fully anticipate that this meeting will continue into next school year. Praise God that students want to pray!

• Our Winter Conference, “jesustherevolution”, blew away our expectations. I was part of the worship team and I saw God move powerfully in the 400 students who were there. You can actually hear the speaker, Trent Shepard, at the following link: http://intervarsitynw.org/conference_pics.htm
• I was very honored that a song I wrote became the musical theme of the conference. God really used my gifting to bless the students and I was very humbled by it. You can hear it at the end of the Saturday evening plenary session.
• Following the conference, the OSU chapter kicked off an entire week of unbroken prayer. We set up a prayer room at my house and there was at least one person praying in it every hour for a whole week. Keep in mind that students were waking up at 3 in the morning to come and pray! They loved it and were really able to draw near to God. Here are some pictures from the prayer room.



• One student, Mario, thought he would spend a total of a half hour in the room. But after he went the first time, he couldn’t get enough. He came over seven times during the course of the week and had an amazing time praying and reading scripture.
• During spring break, a bunch of us made a road trip down to the Bay Area and hung out with my parents for a few days. We went hot tubbing, went to the top of Mount Diablo, and spent a day to service work in San Francisco. It was a great bonding experience for us (as only 10 hours in a van together can do!).

• We studied the whole book of James in Bible Study and were all very challenged by his words to us. During this time, I was able to see some students really step up and lead scripture well. It was very encouraging.
• We took another road trip (I guess we really like those!) to Coos Bay, Oregon and had some time to vision about what our summers could look like. Again, we had a great time playing games and playing at the beach.

These were all great things and I can’t even tell you about all the little things happening every day that confirm to me that students in this fellowship are deepening their relationship with Jesus and understanding more about what it means to see his Kingdom come at OSU.

One week from now I will be leading a group of around twenty students on a two-week plunge into inner-city Portland. This is called “Summit.” These two weeks consistently change students’ lives year after year. We are taking 3: Thomas, Sean, and Kristin, and we will be joined by students from the University of Oregon and Portland State. This is the first time I have led the project and I am very much looking forward to it. It begins on Sunday the 15th of June until the 28th. Keep us in your prayers!



Looking ahead to next year, I am simultaneously very excited and very anxious. I am excited because we will have six student leaders next year. Three of them were freshmen this year and all of them are really great. Our lone senior, Mike, will be joining me on staff here. I cannot tell you how great of a leader he is. We will have Bible studies in the three main dorm areas, which will increase our ability to reach out and invite new people in. And finally, we will begin the year with a worship team of young students who have a lot of potential to grow. I couldn’t really ask for anything better.

Yet I am anxious because I will be the team leader here. That means that I, for lack of a better term, am in charge. This is the most authority and responsibility that I have had on staff yet. It seems a bit overwhelming sometimes but I know that it is a good next step for me and God will be with me in it. So I would ask that you please be praying for me as I step into a larger leadership role next year.

Thank you for all your prayers and support this past school year. Its working!!!

New Year's Resolution: Pray.

Ok, let me just be up front about this post. I have taken a grand total of zero pictures since the term started so I apologize if you were really hoping for some.

However, I do have some very exciting news to share with all of you. And for you to get a better feel for it, I would like for you to take a little trip with me all the way back to our Regional Staff Meeting in December.

At this meeting, our regional director, Kim Porter, told us about the vision she and the rest of the regional leadership team had for the next five years of InterVarsity in the northwest. To sum it up, the vision is “An evangelistic movement birthed in prayer.” What this means is that as a region, we believe God is moving us to be people of prayer and outreach. It was a bit strange to hear this vision because I have been feeling like this was where we needed to go for some time. I had also heard similar things from students recently. This feels like a confirmation that God is very much so pushing us in this direction.

As a way of kicking off this new vision this term, Kristen and I and the rest of our leader’s team decided to pray in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The leaders were very excited about this. We pitched the idea to the rest of the fellowship and received a response that honestly, I did not expect. A few students said, “I have class those days. Could we just do it every day so nobody has to miss it because of class?” I was a little shocked but after thinking about it for two seconds, I said, “Sure! Why not?”

So we now have a daily prayer meeting that every day has at least four people at it. It may not seem like much, but I think God is going to do amazing things with it. We have spent time praying for each other, for our friends who don’t know Jesus, the world, that we would have courage to reach out and share our faith, and for God to do great things through us and in us. Just yesterday, a student said to me after coming for the first time, “That was really good. I am really glad I came to the prayer meeting.” I have a feeling he will be back.

I have gone to the meeting every school day for nearly three weeks and it has been a wonderful experience for me. It is so encouraging to start each day seeing that there are students at Oregon State who have a desire to sacrifice a little sleep (8:45 am is VERY early for most students) to meet together and pray.

I am very excited to share this with you because it shows me that God is at work here. I have tried in the past to get prayer meetings going but had very little success. This one just seemed to happen. God is giving us a desire to pray more and more. Our students are encouraging others to come and be a part of the prayer meeting. It is gaining momentum. Who knows what God will do through this! Stay tuned for more updates about what God does here.