International students or not, we simply don’t have control over the pandemic. But we do have control over how we respond. This is an opportunity to extend and be blessed by friendship.
God’s invites us to not only join him in the suffering around us; he is also inviting us to explore our own personal disappointments and losses on a deeper level. This difficult time can be an opportunity to cultivate newness.
I haven’t felt like praying lately. Of all times you’d think I’d want to pray more, it’d be right now—alone in my one-bedroom apartment in a foreign country during a global pandemic.
I don’t know what you are facing, but God does. He wants to meet you in the reality of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the gospel—our hope. Let him meet you there and, if necessary, seek out others and let them help you as well.
So what can our community look like in this new season? Scripture outlines key practices that communities of God can engage in, even in our new socially distanced world.
When part of our story ends abruptly, loss, grief, and confusion follow quickly after. Probably no one is feeling this more acutely right now than college students. What do you do when life ghosts you?
Sometimes it can help to have a prayer that’s already been written and to pray it in community (even if it has to be online community right now). Here’s one prayer you can pray aloud with others to help spur you on to pray more.
Our lives are being disrupted. We are forced to let go of things that have felt both normal and essential. In all this, God invites us to come to him, to be passionate about our love for him and others.
In this new season, real hope isn’t a cliché. No, God, in his wisdom and sovereignty, guided us to this theme two years before COVID-19. He knew how people would crave tangible hope right now.
We are not called to live life alone or in fear. So how do we get ourselves unstuck? Here’s some advice on how to deal with loneliness (both short-term and long-term).