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!