After a jam-packed weekend of seminars, breakout sessions, speakers and a lot of fun, I could tell something was different about my sister. During the final night’s general session, the main speaker asked for students to place a marble into a jar if they had accepted Christ that weekend. I was sitting near my sister and when I saw her stand up to go place her own marble into the jar, my heart jumped for joy. I was so happy she had made the best and most important decision in the world! I could not have been happier to see my little sister surrender her life to Christ. That moment was one of the best in my life: knowing that I will see my little sister in heaven with me, and Jesus.

We have interviews in our fraternity where our new members have sit downs with the actives and have a nice little interview session with them. I was having a phenomenal interview with one of the new members named Robby. We ended up talking for a solid hour and a half – way longer than any of the other interviews. After exchanging personal question after personal question, I definitely noticed how selfless and big his heart was. Before the very end of our interview, I ended up asking him about his spiritual background.

Robby told me that he prays every now and then but doesn’t really know what higher being he believes in. I thought that was interesting he’s not really sure who he prays to, but he prays for guidance and even says he receives it every now and then. I then asked what his thoughts were on Christianity and Jesus Christ. He said he didn’t know a lot and wanted to know about him. I then asked him if he wanted hear me talk about it because it was going to be for a while (especially since we’ve already been talking for such a long time) and he said, “yes.”

First thing I did was rip out a page in his notebook and draw him the four circles diagram! After going through it, he said that it makes so much sense and then he started asking me some questions about common misconceptions. I explained how Christianity isn’t all about ‘religion’, ‘laws’ or ‘rules’ but about an intimate relationship with God. I explained how sin isn’t necessarily bad acts towards others but it is merely the absence of good; just how darkness is the absence of light.

He continued to reaffirm how much it makes sense and then I shared with him my very first testimony when I was unsure about accepting Christ and I told him how I experienced the Holy Spirit. After I said that and him saying how much it makes sense, I asked him, “Is this something that you want in your life?” Thinking that he’d say no since that’s how most of my conversations went and he said, “Yes, I want that.”

I FREAKED out.  I asked him twice just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and he still said, “yes.”
I started thinking, “Oh my gosh, training didn’t help me with this part!” After that, I explained to him how to accept Jesus in his life with prayer and told him what kind of prayer to pray and he was very nervous about it so I ended up having him repeat the same prayer that I had prayed at an event earlier.
After the prayer, Robby said, “Man, I feel really, really relieved.”

I bought him a bible and wrote, “October 26th is a day that the angels rejoiced for you in Heaven” and told him to start reading Matthew. He’s coming to the bible study tomorrow!!!!

“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.

This year, however, I was not looking forward to the start of school. I was excited to see my students, but I was tired from the year before. We have a lot of students coming to our in-house ministries, but a very small percentage attending our events! And I was tired of trying to get students at events, being told no, and most of all feeling like an event planner!

So I came back to campus a bit fearful and anxious of the year ahead.

Due to the fact that women must be at recruitment two weeks early and fraternity men drag their heals as they back to school, we couldn’t find a time for a back to school retreat. Fearful of another event to have to recruit students to, I decided that we would start with a praise and worship night.

Partnering with Colton, a Junior from Sigma Epsilon Phi, we hosted a worship night on Herdy Field. A week before the evening I asked our partners to help by praying during the 24 hours before the event. During those 24 hours I felt God give me peace about the event. Emails came all throughout the day about how our partners were lifting Greek InterVarsity up in prayer.

Later that night as I walked onto Herdy field I began to get nervous. Was this going to be another event that nobody to came to? Do I really have to offer free food to get students to show up? But as my brain starting spinning into worry mode I felt embrace from all the prayers throughout the day.

As Colton began to play more and more students joined us. A new freshmen even wandered into the mix. While there were a few a hiccups (the guitarist played a couple songs we didn’t have words to and one of our leaders lit the grass on fire), the majority of our night was amazing. As we lifted our voices up in praise we were united as one body. For the first time, Greek InterVarsity praised the Lord as one movement!

Today I left a group of students who were passing out fliers for Greek InterVarsity. For the first time the students are unified and ready for the new year. They are excited about what God is going to do, not just in their fraternity/sorority, but excited about how they are going to transform the entire Greek System.

God, through a powerful night of worship, unified students in a way that will transform the UGA Greek System.

On our first day, we looked at vision. We asked God to give us a theme to work towards our vision throughout the year. God gave all of us the idea of being a more unified movement, as we continue to reach out to the Greek System. It was amazing to watch the students listen to God, and than to begin planning the year on a vision that they owned and that God had given them!

Throughout camp, the leaders grew closer together, and more unified as they thought about their mission to the Greek System at UGA.

While they were growing more unified with each other, they were also developing cross ethnic relationships with students from other campuses; specifically the schools from Georgia! They were able and willing to enter into relationships with people who were different, which helped them to be unified with the big body of Christ that is trying to reach campuses across the southeast, and students of every nation!

Our leadership team also had a small conflict during camp. When we came together to deal with the conflict, God grew our team together, bonding us with more than just a shared mission, but with a deep love and trust for one another!

At the end of camp, we anointed each of the student leaders to go back to campus. As I put the oil on each of their foreheads, I got excited about their generation. The past two years, have been me leading the students towards a vision God had given me, but that night I realized that God was giving them the reins and the vision! They we’re becoming world changers ready and excited to impact UGA’s Greek System!

Even though we struggle with personal invitations, God has continued to grow our chapter. This year we actually have ten graduating seniors! At the beginning of the semester one of the Kappa Alpha Theta Seniors, Kathleen and I were looking at the calendar for a night that we could celebrate the growth of our chapter and the seniors. Due to busyness, we actually had to have the event in mid March.  We wanted to have something special, since these seniors helped us found Greek InervVarsity at Georgia. So we planned a night of good food and a speaker to talk about life after college.

As a surprise to all the seniors, including Kathleen, I also planned an additional thank you to the students, where I highlighted how they had each grown in their relationship with the Lord and their contributions to Greek InterVarsity. The surprise included a special present for Greek InterVarsity!

The night before the event, while I was buying the groceries, I get a text from Kathleen that says she’s invited an additional 11 students from different houses, because she thinks that they need to hear about life after college from a Christian perspective. In the middle of the grocer store, I started trying to calculate, how much additional food I needed to buy, where was I going to get more presents, and could I randomly thank women and men who had never met for their contribution to Greek InterVarsity? In a moment of panic put back my groceries and ran home.

As I’m sharing my tale of woe to my roommate, she asks, “Haven’t you been praying that God would help teach the students how to be invitational?” God had answered my prayers; Kathleen had seen a need for her friends to know about Jesus and how to handle life after college in a way that honored him. She wasn’t worried about the details or how things would work out because she trusted that if the Lord wanted them there, then he would make sure there was enough food. Kathleen was teaching me that to be truly invitational, was trust that the Lord would provide for all those that we had invited.

Our party was a success! Not all the pieces came together, there weren’t enough senior gifts, we ran out of side dish, and the Chocolate Molten Lava Cake erupted before we served it, creating a chocolate mess! However, it was great night, because we got to meet two new friends and as a community God gave us the opportunity to love one another and extend that love to our new friends.