2 months in

The semester is in full swing...actually we are now into midterm season. Students are hurrying to study and stressing over big point tests and projects, and trying to stay sane. The IV students are not immune to such things, and are even trying to add into their time InterVarsity events, prayer, and community time.

It has been both a victorious time, and a war bearing time in the life of the WVU chapter. Many students, especially our younger ones, have begun to see the value and importance of sharing their faith with their peers, both relationally and through proclomation. They are taking time to eat lunch with people they don't know, have conversations in the student union, and engage people as they walk by one of our proxe stations or hot chocolate booths. The women's small group is even seeing an evolving into the "outreach group".

Students are also growing in their understanding of prayer, and how it is absolutely vital to the health and growth of our chapter and their own lives. We now have 6 prayer groups that meet mon.-fri., each attended by at least 5+ students. This has been a great area of struggle for us in the past, so it is exciting to see this completely turn around and devotion in just a year's time.

We are seeing spiritual growth, as well as numerical growth, as we are now seeking to expand our ministry into a bigger space for our weekly meetings.

With all these great things, we have great resistance as well. This semester alone, we have faved 3 family related deaths among staff and students, with little time to process and grieve. There has also been a constant flow of sickness throughout the chapter. Not only have we received these physical and emotional attacks, but there have also been spiritual hardships as we minister to students who are hardened and living lives that are not God centered and lead to death. It has been an area of sensitivity as some of these things have been seeping into the lives of students in the chapter, and has brought with it hurt feelings and betrayel.

We also saw the desert of souls a few weeks ago when we held a panel for the students. We invited 4 "mature" and wise in years Christians from different backgrounds, to answer spiritual questions students had. An overwhelming theme of wanting to know how to hear God and have effective quiet times, how to live godly, dripped from the questions. That night we saw the spiritual drought of the souls in the students, and their hunger for more of Jesus.

However, even with all of this, we rest in knowing that God is the God of all, and over all. We celebrate the great things that have, and are continuing, to happen, and we are being watchful as gatekeepers, and facing issues as they come with a firm but holy hand.

Are we perfect? No. But, God is sovereign, and he is already making new many lives in the WVU IV chapter.