greek iv stories » Northwestern University

Same fraternity. Different faiths.

Todd Siegel — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:31:14 +0000

Ever since I joined my fraternity last January, starting a house ministry has always been on my mind. Being a freshman, though, I didn’t feel like I was capable to be an effective leader in my house. In addition, my house has a very high Jewish population and I can count the number of practicing Christians on one hand. Every so often, though, I would pray for the courage to start a ministry. Two weeks ago, I took my first step.

After attending Greek Conference in Indianapolis back in February, I made a vow to share the word of God with people in my house. That started with having individual conversations with people about God. It didn’t always feel natural, but I have had a handful of great conversations with people about their religious backgrounds and beliefs. Then, I decided to make an announcement during my chapter meeting about wanting to have a time where brothers in the house could come together and talk about religion or any other topic they had on their mind.

I picked Wednesday night during our dinner time to have the discussion. Amazingly, 16 guys showed up. We started by all sharing our religious backgrounds and upbringings. Then, we moved to current beliefs or questions that we have. The discussion flowed form there and we had an hour discussion about religion. A lot of people posed difficult questions, questions I didn’t have answers to. Even though I didn’t have the answers, we had a really great dialogue between all of us.

I know this discussion doesn’t resemble the typical house bible study, but I feel like I need to take baby steps and my house needs to take baby steps before I feel comfortable incorporating scripture. I will keep praying for God to work through me in my house and I appreciate any prayers from people reading this. If you are reading this and are in a similar situation as I was, I would love to talk to you. I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel great about where my house is right now and I think this Spring will be a great opportunity for me to continue sharing the word of God.

Tears of Joy

Andy Bilhorn — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:41:48 +0000

When I first met Christine, it was in a nice air-conditioned Starbucks on a hot summer day after her freshman year. I had heard of Christine through my staff partner, Emery, as she Christine had an incredibly transformational experience at Greek Conference. We chatted as she was taking care of a child for a program for the summer, and thought to myself that this was a down-to-earth woman who had seen a lot already as a young woman, yet was privileged to have the clear work of God’s healing in her life.

Christine started a house ministry in Alpha Phi the next year, and shortly after became our largest sorority ministry. Her leadership led to the fast growth, and by the end of the year, Alpha Phi had become a strong sorority ministry.

The next summer, Christine and I would not be in much air conditioning as I would spend a summer with her in Cairo serving among the poor. A moment that is frozen in time in my head was when we served an elderly widow who had been rejected by her family, lost everything to robbers, and had no one but God to provide for her. As Christine and I were both moved by her faith in Jesus, as she would be so thankful to have her needs met every day, We walked out together and tears were in our eyes and we realized that we had deeply experienced the presence of God.

Christine would continue to see God’s power realized around her as she faithfully prayed and witnessed to one of her closest sisters in the sorority who was clearly far from God. At Greek Conference, she and I and two other student leaders prayed together for this woman who was clearly wrestling with God. As we prayed, the tears flowed from our eyes as the Holy Spirit was revealing to us the depth of her pain and we prayed that God would deliver her.

Christine’s sorority sister became a Christian that day, a true miracle as we saw God’s saving power on display for us to see firsthand.

It was natural that Christine would become president of Greek IV her senior year – the selection team was unanimous in that decision. As we worked together, the potential that so many had seen became realized in full. My favorite moments as a staff are when I see students leading and I can step into the background and celebrate them becoming the disciples and leaders Jesus calls them to be. Christine was leading and discipling women, as well as bringing a new emphasis on prayer to the Greek ministry at NU. Her presence will not be easily forgotten.

Christine and I were sitting reflecting on our friendship over the years, and she said to me, “Andy, you believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.” As tears welled in my eyes as I reflected on her words, I paused and how much greater God is to have believed in us when were weren’t worth believing in because of the sin that kept us from him and continues to destroy our world.

The privilege of ministry to students is walking alongside them as they become what they never dreamed they could be, believing in them as God believes that broken people can be healed to change the world. Would you pray for more students to believe and walk in obedience the path of following Jesus?

A New Model for Senior Dinners

Emery Silva — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:30:03 +0000

We have 5 InterVarsity chapters at NU now – Multiethnic, AAIV, Black, Latino and Greek. Instead of all of us recreating the wheel, we combined forces.

This year, I organized the senior banquet for all five InterVarsity chapters and we make it a really big deal. We typically hold it during finals week and get a good turnout. The Catholic center on campus has a great basement room that they’ve lent to us for free. Our area team budget sponsors a catered meal from a local Thai restaurant and then I’ve asked alumni and donors to donate desserts and drinks. I send out an Evite, with staff reinforcements, inviting the seniors and telling them it’s a semi-formal affair. I ask them to bring their checkbook if they’d be willing to write a check for $2 to IV. We decorate the room with tablecloths, candles, and table decorations.

After some time for them to eat and enjoy each other, we have a program. We invite a bunch of alumni back, which is fun for them to see their friends. The alumni sit with the seniors, and they are part of the program. They also help with setup and clean up. Usually, I have one alumni couple share some tips for life after college, with some of its realities and challenges. Then we have about five alumni on a panel discussion to answer relevant questions. Finally, a staff or donor asks for partnership on three levels – prayer, service and financial. Then we have them write checks and fill out the graduating senior forms. I also give out all the free stuff from IV and a senior dinner packet full of info, plus a book like Following Jesus in the Real World. One other unrealized goal is to have a google doc running where they can all enter in their names, contact info and area of the country they’re moving to, so they can connect with each other in the future (if they attend different chapters, they might not know each other). Then they hang out and take lots of photos together. It’s been really fun and we’ve gotten about 30-40 seniors total each year. It’s a big investment of staff time and money, but I think it’s worth it.

“Why should you be any different?”

Andy Bilhorn — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:47:54 +0000

‘How many of your friendships have started with the following conversation, “I hate Christians-why should you be any different?”

Thus began my friendship with Carrie. Carrie’s sorority sister, Jamie, was interested in starting some spiritual discussions with her sister. While Carries was interested in religion and exploring the deeper questions of life, she despised hypocrisy and was jaded by several folks from various Christian communities. She had a working knowledge of Scripture, was as sharp as a tack, but recently came off of a winning bout with brain cancer and had several deep questions of how God could allow such terrible things to happen to her?

Over the last two years, I’ve learned that students today first need to find people that they are able to trust before they can be confronted with issues of truth.

Carrie, Jamie and I began by looking together at mini-biographies of several influential Christians in history-Martin Luther King, Dr. Robert Coles, G.K. Chesterton and others. One week we got to two Russian authors: Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky.

My prior meeting with Carrie and Jamie was difficult to say the least. I had to challenge Carrie’s beliefs, and while it was not easy, we had enough of a trusting relationship where we weren’t afraid to disagree. But nonetheless tears were shed, and I left wondering if she would return. I arrived for my regular meeting with Carrie and Jamie slightly early, sat in my booth, and prayed that Carrie would show up with a willingness to continue her journey in finding faith.

I opened my eyes-and there was Carrie! She sat down and pointed to a section of the text regarding the lives of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, “We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute ideal, as Tolstoy did, we have nowhere to land but with Dostoevsky, in the safety net of absolute grace. Carrie said, “I’m done running-I need to understand grace.” We talked and she said that she wanted to follow Jesus. Jamie was overjoyed and I left the appointment with tears in my eyes.’

Messy Courage

Andy Bilhorn — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:10:55 +0000

“Sometimes Jesus is messy – and that’s OK.”

I didn’t know what else to say. So these words just came out of my mouth.

I was praying with a student at a retreat after I spoke words of challenge to steep ourselves in the reality of God’s love. Her tears came freely, and I didn’t have any other words to say to them as I was praying.

Sandra* didn’t feel like anyone really knew her. She struggled with an eating disorder. She came from a broken home. She looked to escape from the problems in looking for the next party. She came to her senses and humbled herself and recognized she needed help. She was willing to accept Jesus on his terms because she knew He loved her.

I’d like to tell you that this was the exception rather than the norm in ministry at an elite university like Northwestern – but I’d be lying. Very few students get to a point of honesty where the words they speak conform to the messy reality of their inner being. I told her she was courageous and humble like Jesus.

As we enter the Christmas season, I’m beginning to see the scenes with picturesque snowscaped rolling hills with smoking chimneys. I will soon see the city of Chicago lit up beautifully and the shopping lines of Michigan Avenue. But they have little to do with the first Christmas, where the destiny of the world rested in the choices of two rural teenagers in a messy situation.

Mary’s unplanned parenthood brought disgrace to her family. She was nearly divorced by Joseph, and was on the run for the first few years of Jesus’ life. Yet Mary was the first to accept Jesus on his own terms, despite such high cost. Inconvenient hardly begins to describe her circumstances. Impossible is better.

Accepting Jesus on his terms is difficult and messy. But through the most humble of ways, God connected with his helpless children through becoming helpless himself. As I prayed with the student, it became clear that she was connecting with God and was experiencing God’s love for her. The tears were followed by hugs of acceptance and joy from true friends.

The good news of Jesus became real, and she became part of the celebration – just like the angels on that first Christmas day. May you experience that blessing as well this season.

*not her real name

A Changed Life!

Living in Lawndale

Emery Silva — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:29:24 +0000

When Sarah opens the door to the apartment, the heat greets me before the students did. Two-year-old Emma, my staff partner’s daughter, wears a bathing suit, chosen only because it allowed her to sweat more than a t-shirt, and reclines in a chair, unusually slowed by the weight of tem-perature. Three Asian-American students crowd around a kitchen the size of my bathroom, chop-ping avocadoes and arguing over the best way to fry enchiladas. Another student takes a cold shower after cleaning up a vomiting toilet, while the fifth stands awkwardly, watching.

Five Northwestern students sensed God’s calling to spend eight summer weeks in Lawndale, one of the poorer, primarily African-American neighborhoods in inner-city Chicago, on InterVarsity’s Chicago Urban Program. During the weekdays, they serve as co-teachers (in partnership with Lawndale-native college kids) at a church-run summer school to help Lawndale kids get ahead. In the evenings, they learn about issues of justice and racial reconciliation from a Christian per-spective. “We weren’t really close in the beginning,” Jenny confesses to me, just out of earshot of the group. “We’re very different. None of us would have hung out on campus.” Yet here they are, living in close community in an apartment in Lawndale for eight weeks, with restricted email and cell phone access, and a stipend for groceries that forces them to shop with each other’s in-terests in mind.

In my dinner visits throughout the summer, I learn more about the team. Rob, a twenty-year-old Chinese-American about to enter medical school, loses his appetite when he cooks, so he just watches us eat his creations and tells us about his family. Sarah, the lone white Greek I-V student on the team, struggles with her co-teacher’s approach to curriculum development as they teach fifth-graders together. Joe just graduated from NU and asks mostly for prayer for his own ability to focus on a disciplined., vibrant relationship with God. Emily, who just finished her freshmen year, expresses her despair and outrage at the seemingly impossible nature of helping her stu-dents reach reading levels appropriate to their age. “The system is failing them. And I feel like we’re failing them. We’re not doing enough while we’re here.” Jenny agrees heartily, wishing more of her kindergarteners had time with the reading specialist. She also wonders why her co-teacher doesn’t seem to like her.

I share about my own journey in our multiethnic neighborhood, how it’s easy to make assump-tions about people of another culture and how much it’s helped me to actively build relationships instead of judging. We talk about ways they can help kids this summer and how they can use their future career and lifestyle choices to help the poor. By my next visit, Sarah tells me that she and her co-teacher have become allies in the classroom. “He stood up for me to the kids,” she shares proudly. Rob and Emily ask me to pray for them to know God’s calling on their lives. “What if God is calling us to live in a place like Lawndale? Can you still follow God and be comfortable?”

It hasn’t been an easy summer for the students. They’ve wrestled with issues of race, money, food, conflict, authenticity, and justice. The Chicago Urban Program staff team have ministered to the students and run the program daily, while three of us NU staff have visited them in Lawndale throughout the summer, to help them process the experience now and when they return to cam-pus. We’ve prayed hard for breakthroughs for the students in the times when they’ve seemed stuck, maybe in the same ways that Jesus prayed for his disciples before he left. I’m encouraged to see God growing them in visible and invisible ways, each time I visit. Last I heard, Rob finally connected with the Lawndale Medical Clinic (run by the church we partner with), after begging any LMC doctors he ran into on the street, to give him a tour, and found his home. Sarah asked me on our last visit, “How can we talk more about social justice at Greek I-V this fall?”

Our hope is that these students encounter God in powerful ways that last a lifetime, both in per-sonal discipleship, in their ability to engage in Christian community, and in understanding God’s heart for justice for all people. Please pray with me that God impacts each one in these last days of the program, as well as in their reentry weeks to come.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/senor_codo/

Tears of Joy