An Amazing Year of Growth

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Growth in Depth: God isn’t just increasing the breadth of the movements though. We are seeing community and ownership happening like never before. The picture to the left are BHCC students at a birthday dinner. In the past it was a rare occasion for something like that but now it is a regular occurrence. On Monday 34 students from both schools met at a restaurant and spent hours together hanging out and having fellowship. They brought friends and it was all organized by a student. How cool is that?

At UMB we’ve long had an office space for our club that for years had been unused. Just this semester it has become a place where on a daily basis students hang out, study and bring their non-Christian friends to take part. Community isn’t supposed to be happening at commuter schools, but it is! God is able to do anything he wants, anywhere he wants!

Ending With Vision

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Last Friday we held our final Boston CityWide meeting, complete with our in-house band from Berklee College of Music, dozens of homemade sweets and a couple of hundred students from campuses around Boston. Pat McLeod, the director of Cru in Boston, spoke to students, and called out the seniors in particular, on what truths they base their lives upon.  It was a moving talk that challenged students to be missionally minded as they entered the workforce.  Following the talk the seniors stood up and were commissioned by Pat.  It was a great celebration and we can’t wait until CityWide starts up again in the fall!

 

Big Break: Big God

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I’ve been to the Big Break Conference over 10 times and every time I go I’m amazed at what God does in and through the lives of the students there. This year was no exception. We had 18 students attend from UMass and Bunker Hill which was more than ever before and almost 3 times as many as last year. It is clearly an indication that God is working in the lives of the students that we are seeing this kind of response. Through our students, 5 people heard the gospel and received it and became new believers!

A few stories…The day before the conference Estella from UMass told Emeka and I that she didn’t want to go to the conference. However, God wanted her on that bus the next day. On the trip, GiGi talked to her about what it really means to live as a Christian and for the first time ever, Estella understood it. Throughout the week I saw her change. She went from being very negative and often concerned of what people thought of her to one of the most positive and thankful people on the trip. She now looks to God for acceptance and not other people. She also was willing to approach anyone and everyone on the beach. Her new found faith made her excited to share it with others.

Angela from UMass told me that before going out to share the gospel she reviewed a booklet that she was going to use to share the gospel and realized she had never received (John 1:12) Jesus into her life. She had believed in Him but never really made the decision to make Jesus the Lord of her life. She had a great experience at Big Break and upon returning she shared the gospel with her boyfriend Jayson who also decided to receive Christ into his life. Angela is now the most excited student at UMass to go out and share the gospel on campus!

How about a story from some Bunker Hill students? Michelle (above), had the privilege, along with Bianca to lead two girls to faith in Christ during the conference. Michelle actually got started sharing her faith before the conference. She shared the gospel with a guy that came to a campus meetings a few weeks before the meeting. She was going to just hand him a booklet explaining the gospel but she said she had remembered hearing a speaker say that you should always take the time to go through it with a person and explain it. So she did and afterwards the guy prayed to give his life to Christ!

Changed Lives at Epicenter

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We were blessed to bring 27 students from UMass Boston, RCC and Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) to the conference in Albany, NY!  We had been praying that God would use this conference to compel our students to share their faith and to grow together as a community. We saw this happening at the conference and it has continued since with two large group dinners and students getting together individually. They are excited to share their faith back on campus when classes start up this week. This type of thing has never happened amongst our students so needless to say, we are very excited at how God used the conference in the lives of our students.
 
We are not always sure at what place our students are at in their walks with the Lord, or if they are walking with Him at all. One such student was Nelson (on the far right in top photo) from BHCC. Nelson had been attending our weekly meetings at BHCC but never spoke about his faith. We’ll let Nelson take it from here:
 
“From the moment I got to the conference I’ll admit that I was in complete awe, seeing everyone with such a passion for Christ. For the entire week I felt confused about the whole thing. On the last night I randomly had a conversation with another student. We talked about Christ and if was ready to accept Him. I said yes because I really did feel like I was ready to accept Him into my life. After I prayed, it felt like right away that He was working in me and I felt this joy which I’ve never really felt before.”
 
Isn’t it awesome how God randomly sent this student to share with Nelson at the point when he was ready to accept him into his life? Maybe not so random! Another student from BHCC, Amanda, was trained to share the gospel at the conference. When she returned home she shared it with her mother and she accepted Christ! Amazing!
 

Fall Retreat and My Experiences of Community in College

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What an amazing experience we had at the Fall Retreat. I was blown away not just by how many students were there but also that in just one weekend I saw the students leave changed. God showed up in these students lives major way at this retreat. It was beyond my expectations for the weekend. During a campus time on Saturday night I wanted to communicate to the students how much I desire for them to be in life-changing transformational communities like I was in college at UMass, Amherst. I was recalling a story of God working between a dear friend and former roommate of mine whose name is Chot. I got very emotional recalling this story which I hadn’t even planned on sharing but I believe God brought it to mind to show the students how important it is to have community with other believers in college. Our students are all commuters and thus have no dorm experiences so many of them are starved for community. I hope that they come to realize that they’ve been missing out on something and seek to bond with their fellow brothers in the fellowships at UMass Boston and Bunker Hill.

Chot was my best man and I was his. We are still close friends to this day. I also mentioned our good friend and roommate Dave who I also went through a lot with. I closed the time by telling them to look around the room and ask themselves who’s going to be your best man or maid of honor one day? Who’s going to be your Chot or your Dave? Both of these guys continue to impact my life nearly fifteen years after I graduated from college. I want our current students to have similar connections in fifteen years.