Greetings,
Chuck here again and I am really excited to share with you about the work that Jesus is doing at UMF through InterVarsity as well as a recent partnership with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes of Central Maine, and the potential start in ministry to International Students at UMF, not to mention all that is already going on in the normal life of the fellowship as we reach out to the campus.
First off I feel the need to express my gratitude to God for granting me an incredibly mature leadership team that not only know their stuff Biblically but are also excellent at gathering, teaching, training, and making disciples of younger students. This group of leaders has done an excellent job of working with the University and establishing a good report with the administration as well as most of the students on campus. Without these future leaders InterVarsity would not be in the great place that it is today. Please pray for these students leaders though as they shoulder a lot of responsibility and are under constant spiritual attacks from the enemy. Pray that they grow and mature and God gives them grace that those they are witnessing to might come to know the Lord.
We started the semester with the students desiring to have a greater emphasis on prayer as it is when we are on our knees before the Lord that he tends to work the most. There are now 3-6 students who meet weekly to pray both for one another and that God would move in mighty ways in the hearts and minds of the students and faculty on campus. We have begun doing monthly 24 hour prayer sessions where we grab a classroom on campus and someone is praying for the fellowship and the campus for 24 consecutive hours. During this time also anyone who needs someone to pray with can come and be prayed for or they can simply come and seek the Lord in silence and solitude. I had opportunity to man the prayer room during the first 24 hour session and was greatly encouraged in my own relationship with the Lord and I am confident it has already had a great impact on those involved as well as, through their prayers, the campus.
This year we sent 32 students from UMF to New Orleans for KRUP (Katrina Relief Urban Project) our alternative spring break trip during which we spend our days working with locals helping to rebuild the poorer neighborhoods in the city. 32 students from UMF about half are unbelievers, many of whom have never really engaged with the gospel before in their lives, and each evening we engage with the gospel hearing from different speakers as well as spending time in small groups studying and talking through the scriptures. Now as of yet I do not believe any students have made professions of faith but evangelism is so much deeper than that and many of these students took important steps in the direction of faith moving from a position of skepticism to being more curious about this whole Christian thing. One of our small groups even decided to keep meeting once they got back to campus because though only half of them believe in Jesus the others wanted to continue to pursue what this life might look like, which is really exciting especially given where some of these students lives have taken them. Four of the non-Christian students who went to KRUP have decided to get involved in our weekly Large Group meeting to continue to learn about Jesus.
Another exciting development this semester have come in area’s that I have had a burden for many years now but have just never gotten the opportunity to make contact. The first of those is with Athletes on campus who are for InterVarsity a practically unreached group of people who make up a large part of the campus. I was contacted early in the Semester by a young Woman named Margaux Shute who grew up in Skowhegan Maine before going off to UNH to play Field Hockey, where she would later coach and only recently decided to work with FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). God was also at work in the heart of a senior named Emma and through their combined efforts FCA and IVCF at UMF have launched an Athletes Bible Study with the hope of it developing into a ministry that will reach Athletes for Christ. At their first Bible Study there were 8 students who showed up. One of those who showed up is a young woman named Keli who is a freshman but has a huge heart for the Lord and she and Emma will be leading the Bible Study this semester. Praise God for the mighty ways in which he works bringing people together to accomplish His purposes of redeeming sinners.
This upcoming semester through a connection with an InterVarsity Staff Worker on the West Coast we are going to have the opportunity to minister to students from southern China who will be at UMF for a year. Most, if not all of these students, have never heard the gospel and we’ll have opportunity through this connection of basically starting a small group Bible Study for them. Please pray that God would work mightily.
Lastly please join me in praising the Lord for the ways in which he continually provides for my and the ministries needs. Over the course of the past couple of years my support raising has gotten easier and easier as more and more of you have taken up the cause of supporting the ministry on a financial level and I just want to thank you once again for all you do and remind you that without this support I would be unable to minister on campus. Thank you all and God bless!
Your fellow worker in Christ Jesus,
Charles William Ellis
