InterVarsity is entering a busy holiday season with Urbana 15 and year-end projects awaiting us at the end of December. But I don’t want us to move too quickly through Thanksgiving into the hubbub of Christmas, because we have so much to be thankful for.
First of all, we are so thankful for the news from former InterVarsity president Alec Hill that his bone marrow cancer treatment is going remarkably well. He emailed me recently and said, “I’m almost at a hundred days, post-transplant, and still the prognosis remains very positive.” We’ve just learned that Alec is out of the hospital and back home. Alec and Mary still need our prayers as his immune system rebuilds, but let’s stop and give thanks, for the Lord is good. He is delivering Alec and Mary.
Second, the reports of work on campus across the country are wonderful to hear. It’s been a very positive fall, with lots of students and faculty coming to faith. That’s why we exist as a movement, and we can celebrate that God’s deeply at work across InterVarsity. In addition we are grateful to our ministry partners across the country who support us in our campus mission. They are a key part of our ministry.
We can also give thanks because InterVarsity has completed the work necessary to begin the search for our next president. The Board has made the The Opportunity Profile available and we are in the process of accepting applications from candidates. Let’s continue to pray for the Board’s Discernment and Search Task Force as they work diligently to select our next president. Rudy Hernandez, our Board vice chair and a former InterVarsity staff member, is leading the Task Force.
And finally, we can be thankful for what God did here earlier this month as InterVarsity leaders from across the country met for our annual fall meeting. It was a great pleasure to host the national leaders of our movement in our new National Service Center. We were able to have the kind of connections and conversations that don’t happen when we meet at a local hotel. Now we have the space to all be together, and it was tremendous.
During our fall meeting, as we also grappled with some of the intractable challenges we face as a movement, God reminded us that our confidence has to be in him and not in our own abilities. During this transitional time,like any other time really, we cannot move forward without him. Please join me in giving thanks for all that God has done through InterVarsity, and in praying that he will continue to guide us as we pursue our mission on U.S. college and university campuses.
This article is condensed from a presentation by Jim Lundgren, InterVarsity's interim president, in a chapel service at InterVarsity;s National Service Center. To listen to the audio, go to: https://intervarsity.org/sites/default/files/podcast/15/11/2015-11-11jimlundgrengodsworkinus.mp3 Or download from our audio resources page: http://intervarsity.org/audio.
