How sure are you that you’re going to Heaven?

That is the question some of our XA students were asking in front of the Union recently. From time to time we make time to initiate conversations with students on campus. We don’t want to just promote Chi Alpha but also to get students thinking about God. You never know where the conversations may lead. Sometimes you run into “scattered sheep,” new students at the school, who went to church, but have failed to make connection with a community of believers since arriving. Sometimes you have conversations with students that have felt burned by the Church or by God. Those are some of the hardest conversations. Increasingly you also have American students, that know about Christianity, but do not have first hand experience with church. More evidence that we are living in a post-Christian America.

As we had conversations this particular afternoon, we approached things in a survey manner so we could get honest answers.Students on average were less than 50% certain they would go to heaven when asked one afternoon on campus.

Less than 50% were certain they would go to heaven.

 

Of course this data is unscientific, but the point is we have a huge need not only on campus but in a generation of young adults who don’t have a relationship with God. And some who have no desire to.

Pray with me for a generation to know Christ!

Every Student A Lifelong Follower of Christ

Prior to classes starting, our Chi Alpha staff had been welcoming and helping international students. In one night Noreen and I had four nations (five if you count the U.S.) sitting at our table for dinner and an exciting game of Spoons (email me if you don’t know how to play). Everyone of these students we had met during international student orientation week. We helped students find apartments and introduced them to the great American store, Wal-Mart. Spending time with these students gives us an opportunity to befriend them. The moment they stepped into our home, we became more than volunteers. We were now American friends who had invited them over for dinner. We must be careful that as we become friends that out friendship is genuine and not just a method to share the Gospel. How else could we have an opportunity to share the story of Jesus with a Hindu from Nepal? Or with 3 non-religious students from Brazil, Burkina Faso, and Columbia.

By the time the night was over, we had developed such relationships with these new students that they knew our cell numbers and became friends on Facebook. When we see each other on campus, we are greeted with a friendly smile and some form of a high five or fist bump. The Word from 1 John 4 comes to life for me,

“12But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.13!And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.14! Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

Having developed sincere relationships with several new international students, it was easy to invite them to our first Chi Alpha service on campus. Three international students made a commitment that night to “re- connect” to God. Of course the work is not done, every student a life long follower of Christ. Pray for Marlon, Yoo Jin, & Joao Carlos as we begin the discipleship process with them and for the other new students to experience a life change in Jesus. I will write soon about the individual life change that is going on.!

Passion and Peace

Daran