InterVarsity students have been discussing and trying to determine what it means to truly depend on God and allow Him to use them to accomplish His purposes in the world. Students have discovered that as they place themselves in situations where God has to show up because they can’t find a solution, He often does.
In February, as students traveled to Bear Trap Ranch, an InterVarsity Training and Conference Center outside Colorado Springs, for their Winterfest Conference, snow and dangerous road conditions caused some students to arrive late. The first night’s activities were postponed until the morning. The students realized God’s power in getting everyone there safely. As students explored the amazing grace of God in Christ throughout Scripture, they constructed a stained glass window using pieces of paper on which students had written areas of struggle and frustrations in their lives. Students discovered their common need to allow the grace of Jesus to make something beautiful out of their brokenness and sin. Only by God’s power are they made whole, and nothing they do on their own will erase their sin.
Through another trip, this time to Juarez, Mexico over spring break, twelve InterVarsity students spent a week sharing the love of Christ with orphaned children and the Mexican people. Students shared their testimonies of what Christ does for them in their lives. God showed up to turn these shy students into powerful witnesses to the Gospel and led some of the listeners to accept Christ.
Students are also reaching out to the Laramie community. The students felt overwhelmed with all the work and details associated with launching a new church, but they trusted and believed that God wanted this new church. While students watched people who had never been connected with a church community enter the new Emmaus Road Community Church in Laramie, they discovered it had to be God’s power drawing people into His presence. God is using the members of the church’s Launch team to build relationships with people seeking to know God, reach out to the community through service projects, and be living witnesses of the Gospel during church services.
A few weeks before the end of the semester, God led InterVarsity students to step out of their comfort zones and reach out to others with the Gospel of Christ. They spent their Friday Night Worship time reaching out and serving the campus and the community, rather than holding their weekly worship service. The students divided into two groups, one visiting the residents at the Laramie Care Center and the other knocking on doors in the dorm and cleaning their fellow classmates rooms. The concept of cleaning rooms on a Friday night sparked great conversations with the recipients of this service and allowed students to share about their faith in Christ. The InterVarsity students simply wanted to show Christ’s love in a practical way by serving others. God provided the recipients and opened their hearts to receive the Gospel.
Through many situations over the course of the spring semester, students have discovered they need to be “out of control” in order to let the Holy Spirit be “in control” of their lives. Through these experiences, students have discovered it is always God who receives the glory, and they are the first to admit that it’s not their skills and abilities which resolved the situation, but God’s power.
