Back with a Vengeance

A new semester is here!

The year is still fresh. It’s a great time for catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. There are new living arrangements to settle into. Classes are just starting up so there is an eagerness to learn but the cloud of tests and papers is still a ways away.

This is an exciting time for us at Renewal as well. Our student leaders are back on their campuses, rejuvenated by the summer away and eager to launch new creation care efforts in their communities. We just had our first leadership conference call of the semester and are very encouraged by the goals and plans our students are developing.

We are also noticing a higher volume of activity going on at the college and university level over this same time last year. Updates come in almost every day from new Christian campuses which are making environmental stewardship and sustainability a priority in one way or another. They do this through starting or expanding recycling programs, coordinating a composting system, raising awareness among freshmen during orientation, organizing campus gardens, planning a “green week” or even “green month,” and much more.

And we are finding good ways for Renewal to partner with and help resource these growing efforts. One of the key ways we are doing this right now is through the production of “Green Awakenings” a campus creation care report expected to come out in November that will highlight growing efforts led by Christian students on about fifty campuses across the U.S. and Canada. Between now and the release date we have lots of research, writing, and editing to do!

Yes, there is much going on and we want to start off well and in focus. So we could all really use your prayers and support.

Please pray for our student leaders that they will have a strong vision for initiating change on their campuses and among their classmates. Pray that they will be able to balance ministry and service with being full-time students. Pray that God will provide the colleagues and resources to do all this well.

For Renewal, please pray that we will have a strong vision for initiating change across the student movement and within our generation. Pray that we will be able to mentor our students well and model sustainability and creation care by practicing a sustainable work ethic and caring for our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies. And please pray that God will provide the colleagues and resources needed to do all this well.

One of Oswald Chambers’ many challenging quotes is that , “prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work.” So as we ramp up our on-campus efforts again this new semester, we are grateful for all those who partner with us in this very real and critical way. Prayers are the heavy lifting that empowers all our other work.