Nathan served as a writer for InterVarsity for five and a half years. He currently works for a ministry serving adults with disabilities. He enjoys writing and drawing and staying in shape.
Ultimately, I've come to see that suffering (whether big or small), struggle, and pain are realities in the Christian life. That's why we need to get real with Jesus and trust that he is at work.
You’ve heard college horror stories: stacks of books to read, professors with high expectations, vague directions and having to wing assignments. These things might definitely happen in college. But it doesn’t have to result in extreme burnout and stress. Here are some tips to help you find a healthy balance between school and fun
So even when it’s hard to say yes, know that on the other side of that yes, on the other side of your fear and uncertainty, there is a better, richer intimacy with Jesus.
To celebrate Black History Month, we’re featuring God’s work through InterVarsity’s Black Campus Ministries (BCM) in Alabama. As a student herself, all Summer wanted was a deeper relationship with Jesus. Now as a campus minister, she gets to witness Jesus drawing students closer to himself. Read more of her story below.
Zelma had some joyful and some traumatic childhood moments. She was baptized as a kid, but turned away from God as she grew up. When she attended College of the Muscogee Nation, she struggled with nightmares, sleeping, and drinking. But eventually, she accepted Jesus transferred schools, and stumbled upon the InterVarsity chapter, making friends, reading Scripture, praying, and having her many questions answered. By the next year, she was leading a Bible study.
Inherently, we know that the act of breathing, blinking, existing isn’t enough. We were made for more. We want to feel alive. And whether we’re aware of it or not, the way we go about our lives shows what kinds of things we believe will give us life.
Zacchaeus’s story is no less a miracle than the feeding of the 5,000 or the healing of the paralyzed man. For it’s the story— the miracle of a changed heart—that still resonates with us today.
Over 40,000 students on eight campuses with only one known campus ministry in the most post-Christian city in the US. That was the situation InterVarsity Associate Area Director Jessica Pafumi found herself in when she felt God calling her to plant campus ministries in her hometown of Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 2019.
What if we had more childlike wonder in our lives? How would our interactions with God be different? How would we interact with family and professors and classmates differently? What would we talk and dream about?