My story began in fall of 2006 when I came to the University of Oregon. I knew I wanted to be in a sorority, because I was a “homebody” and needed a support system away from my family. I went through recruitment and joined Pi Beta Phi sorority, which I still stand by as one of the best decisions of my life. Filled with both friendships and hardships, ups and downs, challenges and one of-a- kind experiences, Pi Phi gave me the home away from home that I was looking for. Then during my junior year, I joined Intervarsity and saw a whole new type of community that I could be a part of. I made a lot of great friends and challenged the way that I saw Jesus and how He taught and loved those around Him.

One day my IV staff worker Joel introduced me to Bethanee, a Greek IV staff worker from Willamette. During our first conversation, Bethanee brought up the possibility of starting a bible study in my house. My first reaction was skepticism, because spiritual conversations are a taboo in Greek life during recruitment, which ends up carrying on through the rest of the year. However, God showed his power through the people He brought together in community as Christians and Greeks. I’ve also had opportunities such as Greek Conference in SoCal, where I was inspired by other Greek IV stories, and girls prayer group with our InterVarsity chapter, where I received courage and acceptance through the whole process of establishing the bible study. God has shown me amazing support from both Christians and non-Christians, both Greeks and non-Greeks.

God hardly ever shows us the path ahead of time that he is going to place us on, but it is amazing to look back and see where he’s taken me during my four years at the U of O. Placing me in Pi Phi allowed me to build a foundation with the women of the chapter and solidify my leadership within the house. Then He gave me the opportunity to lead them in a whole new way and build on my Greek foundation with His love. He gave me the courage and the means to start a Greek ministry on campus and shine His light brightly in traditionally dark places. I am so grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve had, because they’ve not only changed our campus and Greek system, they’ve shaped me into who I am as well. As I look into the future of Greek InterVarsity at Oregon, I am extremely optimistic. I see it growing into a powerful organization on campus and impacting every chapter, both fraternities and sororities, to empower Greek men and women on our campus to change the world.

“I had tried to get a Bible Study started in my house with little success for the past 2 semesters. This Summer I prayed that someone could help me… or some group. When the school year started, Tyler contacted me out of the blue to tell me about Greek IV”
-Chris, a new student House Ministry Leader (HML) in Delta Upsilon

Chris is now getting plugged into Christian community with us. It has been fun to see his eagerness to get involved and make an impact on the Greek System at Purdue.

This is how we got connected to Chris:

Our EXEC members did a series of “table talks” (going to a fraternity dinner and make an announcement about Greek IV) to a few fraternities, one of them being DU. At this table talk, they asked the brothers if they new of anyone that would be interested in “this sort of thing”. They immediately gave us the name of one of their brothers, Chris. I sent an email to Chris asking to get together to talk about what could happen in Chris’ house if he got plugged into Greek IV and if he started a ministry in his house. When we met for coffee I could tell that I was saying was ringing true. Come to find out, Chris had tried to lead a Bible study for the past few semesters without much luck… and he had been praying for help.

God answered Chris’ prayer with Greek IV. Little did Chris know that he was being prayed for all last year as DU has been on our hearts as well. God answered our prayers with Chris. He has started to meet weekly with me and other Greek Christian leaders… and since then, Chris has held a Bible study each week. STILL not one of his brothers has showed up. But Chris now has the support of an entire Greek Christian Community supporting him… and he is not in the least bit discouraged (amazingly!). It is only a matter of time before God breaks through in DU.

I look forward to writing my next story about Chris and DU and hopefully telling you all about how God has started to use Chris.

Please be praying for Chris and DU.

Delta Upsilon

Our EXEC members did a series of “table talks” (going to a fraternity dinner and make an announcement about Greek IV) to a few fraternities, one of them being DU. At this table talk, they asked the brothers if they new of anyone that would be interested in “this sort of thing”. They immediately gave us the name of one of their brothers, Chris. I sent an email to Chris asking to get together to talk about what could happen in Chris’ house if he got plugged into Greek IV and if he started a ministry in his house. I could tell what I was saying was ringing true… Chris had tried to lead a Bible study the last semester without much luck… and he had been praying for help. God had brought Chris and Greek IV together. Chris has started to meet weekly with me and other Greek Christian leaders… and since then, Chris has held a Bible study each week. Still, not one of his brothers has shown up. Chris now has the support of an entire Greek Christian Community supporting him; and he is far from discouraged about the situation. He sees it as only a matter of time before God breaks through in DU.

Lambda Chi Alpha

Our EXEC members brainstormed who they knew in houses that didn’t have Bible studies going on. I contacted the student names that they gave me. One of them was a Lambda Chi named Jack. Currently Jack meets with me and other leaders from houses across campus weekly to study the Bible and share and pray for their houses. Jack has asked a few of his fraternity brothers to help him lead the study. There are now three Lambda Chi’s that are working together to get this Bible study off the ground so that their fraternity brothers can have a place to come to know Jesus.

Sigma Chi

For the past three years I have tried to start at ministry at Sigma Chi, but all my efforts seemed to be failing. This year a Sigma Chi that I had been meeting with the past two years sent a few of his brothers to “check-out” our large group. They came. One of those who checked out Greek IV was Dave. Dave is a sophomore who also “happened” to also be their house chaplain. He likes what he has seen so far in what God is doing in Greek IV, and he is going to begin meeting with me weekly for the next few weeks to connect with other leaders and to catch a weekly vision for reaching his brothers in his house. He hopes to get the Bible study started soon, and looks to be connecting with our community. God has been at work in Sigma Chi over the past 3 years… and Dave might be the one that God has been raising up to finally kick the Sigma Chi ministry into gear.

Alpha Phi

I talk about fraternities a lot compared to sororities because, well, fraternities are more my thing. However, I can’t help but mention what God is doing in Alpha Phi. To start the semester, there was no Bible study or ministry of any kind going on in Alpha Phi. I received an email from another staff at a different school telling me there was a recent alumni of theirs that was coming to do grad work at Purdue, and wanted to help out. She happened to be an Alpha Phi. Sarah (the other Purdue Greek Staff) and I, encouraged Jessa to “stick with Alpha Phi” – build relationships with those girls, and maybe get something started there. Last week, Jessa ate dinner at the Alpha Phi house and the next day she brought three girls to Greek IV – two who now want to get a Bible study going in that house. We are pumped and Jessa is excited to continue building relationships with girls in that house and help launch this Alpha Phi ministry.

Fraternities are random. Each night that I crash in one comes with its own blessings and challenges. Each night is different. Who I meet, the conversations I have, the challenges and questions I face, and the excitement that follows. Sometimes I hang out with just my House Ministry Leader (HML), and others I hang out with him and his non-Christian brothers and friends. And of course, each night I am bound to get only a few hours of sleep.

I have a whole load of stories that I could share from each of these nights… but for now, I will share just one. I was crashing Delta Tau Delta one particular night and the Delt HML and I hung out for a while, getting to go beyond the typical “coffee shop” conversations. Soon however, his room was invaded by 4 of his fraternity brothers, all coming in from campus, and each excited to put their academic worries behind them and play a few hours of the video game “Super Smash Brothers”. As they took turns playing and shouting at each other and laughing, I soaked it in. This time was priceless. I got to support my student leader who is doing ministry in a challenging place… from HIS turf. I noticed that his brothers know him, love him, and trust him… and each “Super Smash Brothers” hour is another hour of friendship built with him. Not only that, but his brothers got to know me apart from my “Greek IV Staff role”. For me personally, I got to see and experience our ministry from the front lines and be refreshed in the challenges and the beauty of what God is doing in houses. This time was priceless… for everyone in the room.

Nobody shared the Gospel that night. Nobody came to faith in Jesus for the first time that night. But it is times like those that are what God uses to build relationships of trust, respect, and love. And when the Good News of Jesus Christ is finally shared and discussed… faith barriers are down so that maybe, just maybe, they might finally “hear” it for the first time.

This fraternity, Robbie, and the others… will never be the same again.

Taking his experience back to campus, he joined an Inter-Fraternity Bible study that I am leading to grow deeper in his faith and find out more about Jesus. Little did he know that as he started to feed on God’s Word while surrounded by fraternity guys who are living out their faith in their fraternities, that he would want to take his faith from something that was “just his”… to something that was for his entire house. Those questions have started to brew in his mind, and I am praying they will flush out into his taking a step of faith to lead his fraternity brothers in the direction that God has been leading him.

Please join me in prayer that Grant will grow in his courage and desire to do just that, and that he will join us at Chapter Focus Week so that he can get equipped to lead ministry at Pikes. This will be crucial for him to develop authentic friendships in Greek IV that will help him persevere through the difficult beginning phases of leading House Ministry.

“For about the past two years, I had put God on the backburner. I was battling depression and was never happy because of personal situations in my life and the passing of my grandparents. To me God was non-existence because if he was he would not be putting me through so much pain and suffering.”

“However, throughout all of my denial the Lord never gave up on me like I had on him. He put people in my life to get my back on track and return to the Lord. He gave me a great friend named Payton Miller and worked through him constantly. Payton was always around for me to talk to and be that hand pushing me back to the Lord. Payton got me involved with our Bible study, took me to Greek Conference, and was just a figure in my life that I couldn’t continue to push away.”

“Now, I am back on track and in a much better place in my life. I have gone back to church, am involved in two bible studies and am always looking for more ways to find the Lord in my life each day. I thank God that he put a person like Payton in my life to bring me back to faith.”

Carl recently came up to me and said, “Tyler, I have to tell you something”. Carl went on to tell me of three conversations he had in the past few days with his fraternity brothers about Jesus. His brothers are noticing a confidence in him, they are asking questions, and Carl is sharing gracefully and boldly. Also recently, he asked me “how do we get other fraternities involved with Greek IV”. He not only has eyes for his house and his brothers, but for the entire Greek system.

The extent to which God will be able to work through this willing freshmen in his house and in the Greek System as a whole remains to be seen, but I am filled with hope of the possibilities!