College Students Losing their Faith Makes Headlines

Yesterday The Washington Post published this article with research and statisitcal analysis on why college students leave the church. Over 100 InterVarsity student leaders and staff will reach out to thousands of incoming UCSD freshmen next week. The next two-week window is crucial for the hearts, faith and destiny of these of young college students. Click below to read the full article

Pray for new students coming to UCSD:


Over 5,000 freshmen are finishing packing and getting ready to move into the dorms at UCSD this weekend!  Our hope and prayer is that they would all find witnessing Christian communities that love them.  InterVarsity's first meeting is this Wednesday night 9/21.  We are praying for 700+ students to attend and for students to make decisions to follow Jesus that night.  

200,000 students coming to San Diego... who will meet them?

It's that time of year again... back to school! For San Diego, that means hundreds of thousands of college students flooding back into our city and onto campus. Almost all of the campuses have begun their New Student Outreach, trying to meet as many of these students as possible!

How can we meet this wave of students?
Every student needs to find a community that cares about them, yet so many of them struggle to find good friends and a place to be know. Currently, we have 19 staff on the ground, on-campus, reaching students. That's not enough! We need more staff to be able to reach these 200,000 students.

God has heard our cry, and he has raised up 7 new staff in the past 5 months. These 7 men and women have heard God's call to the campus, and I (Sarah) am working with them to prepare them for campus. They are in an intensive fundraising process, and hope to be on campus as soon as possible.

Here's a little bit about each of the new staff. 

Nick: Recently graduated from SDSU, Nick came to faith through GreekIV, our ministry to Fraternity and Sorority Students. He worked for his fraternity, SigEp for a year, traveling the country working with fraternity guys. Now, he's committed the next four years to work with GreekIV, and reach fraternity and Sorority students for Christ at San Diego State!

 Jonny: This new staff is exciting for both BJ and I. Jonny has been a student at UCSD, and a leader of the surfing ministry with BJ. He also came on the first San Diego Urban Project with us. Jonny will be working at UCSD, continuing to reach out to surfers, and help college students get involved in our city. He is pictured here with his fiancée, and they will be married in October!

 Kelsey: Kelsey is our first student from CSU San Marcos to come on staff! This is an exciting moment for our division. Kelsey chose to follow God's call to minister to students, even though she had already been offered a prestigious physical therapy position in San Diego. She lived in and ministered to the dorms at CSUSM, and is excited to get back on campus.


Pat: Another SDSU Greek IV graduate, Pat also came to faith in the Greek IV. He is our youngest staff, having graduated in 3 short years! Pat will go back to San Diego State and minister to the Greek system there with Nick. These are our first two fraternity men that we've hired in San Diego. They will surely transform a Greek system that is fraught with drug use, promiscuity, and a pervasive loneliness. 

Aaron: (Pictured here with InterVarsity USA's president) Aaron is a product of our community college ministry. I knew him as a student at Southwestern, when he helped lead worship for the group there. He transfered to San Diego State and got involved with InterVarsity, and came on as an intern last year. He is transitioning to part-time staff this year, and is excited to continue to reach students in the Filipino community on campus. 

Jenn:  Jenn also graduated from San Diego State, and will be returning there to work with the undergraduate fellowship. She helped lead worship for the fellowship after returning from studying abroad. Jenn has been a strong leader her entire time as a student. We are so excited to be sending her back to minister at SDSU.

Patrick: Our most recent new staff, Patrick (on the left in the photo) is coming on staff part-time to help reach our community colleges. He has been volunteering at San Diego City College for the past two years, and now will join Alan (on the right) at Mesa Community College. Patrick has a heart for those on the margins, and will help us continue to pursue community college students. 


As so many students arrive on campus, will you pray with us that God would send out these new workers into the harvest soon? They are currently developing their support team, an important step in being sent out to the campus. If you're interested in joining any one of these new staff's team, please email me!

Blowing doubt away.

http://threetrees-art.blogspot.com/2009/11/focus-focus-focus-and-then-focus.html

At the end of every fiscal year, there is always a time of panic... will God provide what we need this year? Even after nine years in ministry, depending on God, and watching Him provide for our budget without fail, my faith still wavers.

This year, because we have been disappointed and greiving, it has been that much harder to trust that God will come through for us in this area. It has also been a hard year for fundraising in general, with the recession catching up to us and our support base. BJ and I have struggled in prayer and in our minds, weary and frustrated.

Earlier in the year, I was praying and got an image of what we had left to raise, at that time $25,000, and God's breath blowing that number away. At first, I was excited and wanted to hold onto that picture, but also hold onto the ease at which our lack was blown away. As with many images or words from God, doubt crept in. Was that just my own imagination? Was that really a promise from God? And as we marched towards the end of our fiscal year and I wasn't seeing God blowing away our deficit, I really began to doubt.

Where was God's miraculous provision? We would hear stories of other staff receiving thousands of dollars in anonymous gifts, or people giving large gifts of $5,000 or $10,000. Why wasn't God doing that for us? Isn't that what the image was? Fundraising weighed heavy on us, and I wrestled with understanding if I heard the voice of God or not.

This June, and particularly the last few weeks of June, some sort of light has been breaking through clouds of anxiety and doubt. Everyday, we check to see if support has come in. Everyday, we see gifts appear. Friends, family, strangers... offering what they will to the ministry and our need. Everyday, chipping away the amount that is left to raise, and chipping away the fear that God will not come through for us.

We are very close now. With two days left, it really seems like all we need will come in. I was thinking about that image again, and wondering... did that actually happen? It doesn't feel like God blew it all away with one mighty breath. But then another thought quickly followed... many, many people have been blowing it away, slowly, surely, with the breath of God that is within them of generosity, caring, and sacrifice.


"But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding." Job 32:8

Stories of Student lives transformed (this year!)

Meet Sean. I met Sean when he attended our spring break camp, having only prayed once before in his life. He went in looking to see if God was real. By the end of the week, God became real to Sean when he saw his friend encounter God at camp. After that, Sean dedicated his life to God and just weeks later, he shared his testimony in front of dozens of fraternity and sorority students at a Greek IV event.

Meet Marshall. As an SDSU freshman, Marshall was high on drugs when the Holy Spirit put on his heart to repent and come back to Jesus. Marshall was raised a Christian but fell away from his faith. His mom continued to pray for him daily and Marshall had a drastic turnaround when he repented. He stopped drugs, sex and alcohol and began ministering to students through prayer and is now looking to enroll in Bible school. 

Meet Lisa. Previously a hardcore skeptic, Lisa was invited by her roommates (two SDSU InterVarsity leaders) to our annual Fall Retreat at Catalina Island (where I was the keynote speaker). At Catalina, she had an amazing encounter with Jesus but afterwards attempted to ignore God’s call. God did not take no for an answer and continued to press deeper into her life through her roommates. Towards the end of the Spring semester, Lisa came to faith in Jesus!

Meet Tyler, Joanna, and Marcus! Watch a video about three new Christians at UCSD!

This year 53 students became Christians at UCSD! And 149 students began their relationships with Jesus across the 9 campuses in San Diego InterVarsity! Praise God!!

Summer Prayer Letter! Fresh off the press!

Click on the image below to download our latest prayer letter!

And... special insert!
5 ways to spiritually preparing your kids for college!
Click on the image below to download... and pass it along to any parents of college-bound students you know! (Read more on our blog.)

Good Reads for tough questions college students face

Here is a short list of good reads for college students, high-schoolers going away to college, or parents!


True Story by James Choung is a sure winner! James is our former San Diego Divisional Director with InterVarsity and wrote this book in response to a lot of the specific questions InterVarsity staff in San Diego were getting from college students while doing evangelism on campus. Make sure to add this one to your reading list! Out of all the books listed here, this might be the one your child makes it all the way through!

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis  This is a classic and will help your student deal with atheist professors (Lewis was a staunch atheist into his 50s). It is also a great intellectual apologetic for our faith in Jesus. Out of all these books, these first two would be great summer reading for a pre-college student!

A New kind of Christian by Brian McClaren 
Some people don’t like McClaren, but I do. This book is going to meet your child in a way that few others can. Let’s face it, your kid lives in a post-modern world and thinks and interacts with the world in a completely new way than CS Lewis did. McClaren knows how to write about it and ask hard questions about faith from this context.

Finding God in the questions by Dr. Timothy Johnson is another great book, in 2004 it was #8 on the NY Times Bestsellers list, and its from InterVarsity Press!! (can you feel the pride?) Here’s a quote, "Doubt doesn't have to tear down belief, however; it can purify it. When it does, the beliefs on the other side become more certain. This is why I would like to affirm that it is possible to find God even while you are still asking the big questions."

Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?: A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity This is a fun one, I read it a couple years ago. It’s a compilation of emails between a pastor and the atheist lead singer of a very popular punk band called Bad Religion. If your kids are into music try this one, it’s a good book because this guy is a very, very smart atheist, and yet his arguments can’t discredit the pastors answers to his questions. Also by IVP!

Mind Your Faith: A Student's Guide to Thinking and Living Well by David Horner. This is a great handbook for your student! For young Christians about to embark on the collegiate experience, Horner provides a guide to thinking as a Christian. Carefully exploring how ideas work, he gives students essential tools for thinking critically, contextually and coherently, unpacking worldviews and discerning truth.

Is Believing in God Irrational? by Amy Orr-Ewing. I haven’t read this one, but if you or your child is struggling with this, it’s a good one. The author addresses key questions and objections that many people today have about God. She probes whether the Christian claim to a unique personal relationship with God is plausible in light of other world religions, and how anyone can continue to believe in God in a world of pain and suffering.

God on Campus: Sacred Causes & Global Effects By Trent Sheppard. This one is about the prayer movement of young people on campus and the impact that they are having on the world. If you are in doubt about sending your kid to college, read this to be inspired with what God wants to do to change the world and what He can do with young passionate hearts.

Finding God at Harvard by Kelly Kullberg. 
Another great IVP and Boston Globe Bestseller. In it she finds and records the testimonies of 42 Harvard professors. Encouraging that God is still moving at some of our most prestigious institutions and explodes the myth that Christian faith cannot survive a rigorous intellectual atmosphere!

Shaping the Spiritual Life of Student: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teachers & Campus Ministers By Richard Dunn. In this book, Dunn shows you how to set the pace with sensitivity to the unique spiritual issues that occur during each stage of adolescent development: junior high, senior high and college. It seems like a good spiritual development book for parents of kids of all ages.

Spring Break Round Two! (community colleges)

Community College students raising money for their spring break camp

Last week, I (Sarah) traveled back to Catalina Island for Spring Break, round two! This time the community colleges were on spring break, and I didn't teach anything,but got to simply hang out with my staff and students.

The three community colleges that I supervise are Mesa, San Diego City, and Southwestern colleges. These colleges are taking more and more of the students in San Diego that can't afford a four-year university, need to get GEs out of the way, or are working on a more technical degree, like heating and air conditioning for example.

Many of these students will go on to be the nurses, firefighters, technicians, and teachers in San Diego. They could be what you call the "backbone" of our cities.

These community colleges are also becoming more and more crowded as students turn to a more affordable and accessible higher education.

We took about 20 of these students to Catalina Island, to study the gospel of Mark for the week. There were ups and downs throughout the week. It's an intense schedule, and can be a challenging way to look at scripture... especially on Spring Break. Many of these students are dealing with tremendous brokenness in their homes and families. More than your average 4-year college student.

I spent a lot of my time praying with students, listening to their insight into Mark, and being impressed with my staff as they taught and pastored their students. Even though it's hard to be away from home for another week, whenever I spend time with community college students, I am more and more convinced that InterVarsity needs to be reaching these campuses.

These students need God's love, healing, and power because they often face overwhelming circumstances in their life. They are a forgotten people, often on the margins. They are exactly who Jesus would be seeking out, calling into wholeness, hanging out with.

So as I spent the week before Easter with these students, I was reminded over and over why Jesus went to the cross for us, a broken people. It was because of His great love for us, especially those who feel forgotten and overlooked.