Campus ministry with Andy Liimatta 635 Vine Ishpeming, MI 49849

Small and Active Giant 4-toed chalk footprints showed the way from the dorms to our meeting place on the other side of the campus. A screen tent under a towering white pines served as a 24-hour place of prayer for the campus. Four days were spent in the middle of the academic mall with an interactive Gospel presentation. Students staying up late having spiritual conversations with new friends they made. It has been amazing to see the core of 8 student leaders lead our chapter this fall. It is often hard for this generation of students to take risks or stand out as different. Continue to pray for our leaders; that God would care for them as students and as campus missionaries. (to give you an idea of turn-over with campus ministry; 6 of them graduate between now and May!) Christian-Chapter President Becca-Womens discipleship/Prayer Josh-Evangelism/Prayer

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Northern Michigan University 2013

Fall Semester

Our Mission Field: NMU

8,451 undergrad students 586 faculty 637 admin/staff

Our Goal:

Develop a chapter of missional students and faculty of such size that during a students time at NMU or a faculty or staffs career they have an understanding of the Gospel and a compelling personal witness of Jesus.

My Month with 7 students

During the month of July my family and I were at a 4-week camp with student leaders from around the Midwest. called the InterVarsity Leadership Institute. The 7 students in our small group were a joy to get to know. I really appreciated how deeply the students in our group opened up to one another. Although the morning curriculum and evening speakers helped students prepare to be better Christian leaders; our time together in small group allowed them to share hard things in their life that they had never given voice to. Students shared about selfishness, abuse, hard upbringings, as well as struggles to see themselves as leaders. I particularly appreciated one student who for the first time felt safe enough to confess that she wasnt sure if her faith was real or if everything she was saying was simply to please others. It was a privalage to see how God continued the good work in their lives and is continuing to bring healing and faith. The student who had a crisis of faith is now serving her fellowship with her whole heart and with greater joy. It is often when we draw away from busyness and direct our ears to God that we begin to hear him speak. Thank you for allowing us to spend the month at IVLI! It was a great place of ministry this summer! At IVLI we: did an evangelism project to Macinaw Island; learned how to communicate vision; talked about failure; conflict; team building; ethnicity; studied through 1 Timothy; heard from 3 speakers over three of the weeks including a speaker from Jordon.

Ellie-Plans weekly campus-wide meetings Bri Plans weekly campus-wide meetings; small group leader Shannon Small group leader Tim Mens ministry Taylor-Evangelism, Worship leader

Our Strategy: Over the next

several years to train and send students and faculty to lead evangelistic small groups on 30 dorm floors and among other affinity groups such as nurses, artists, native students, fraternity houses, and sports teams.
*statistics from fall 2012

A Big Deal in Big Bay

The first month of school we put on 12 events around campus. The purpose of these events was to get to know new students. So we tye-died in the Magers/Meyland commons, played ultimate Frisbee outside Payne Hall, hiked for a day at Pictured Rocks and played board games in the lobby. The month ended with our Cross Training weekend in Big Bay, MI. At Cross Training students new to our fellowship took a track called, On Campus, On Purpose. As they looked at Daniels commitment to remain faithful at the university of Babylon; they to had time to consider following Jesus as Lord at NMU. The training was a big deal to these freshmen as they shared with our chapter the things they were learning (the rest of the chapter were taking various other tracks that weekend). As they shared I heard themes of God calling them to a life of prayer for the campus as well as to be more open about their faith and sharing the Gospel with non-Christians.

New Faith Growing in Students

A couple quick faith stories from this semester
(names changed)

Various strategic things to Pray for: Leadership Development of current leaders and 7 freshmen students. The first weekend of second semester we will do training on how to lead a small group campus Bible study (Jan 17 & 18) Chapter Retreat Pray for the planning of this weekend as we determine a theme and for good attendance; as always we hope that it helps the students spiritually and helps us with our mission on campus. (Jan 31-Feb 2) Apprenticing Program Over break I will be a two different Conferences (Wisconsin Dec 9-12 & St. Louis Jan 7-11); I will be learning about how to establish an apprenticing program for students to better learn to be leaders; also I will be learning about how to help Small groups multiply. Maddie Mortell graduated last May and is up in Marquette volunteering with IV as she studies for graduate school admintence tests. Pray for discernment as she considers IV staff work. I really appreciate the many hours she is volunteering! As always pray for funding! I really appreciate those who give and pray so that this ministry can be well served!

-Tom was an atheist at an evangelical Christian college and along with other atheists activitly sought to mess with other students faith and cause problems in class. After transferring to NMU he says it is ironic that he is at a public university sharing about Christ at our outreach and standing up for Christ in class! -John lived off campus with a roommate in IV. He is a senior in Art and Design and lapsed Catholic. Through the hospitality of a Christian couple whose house Intervarsioty student frequent; John saw Jesus and is growing by leaps and bounds and is an active witness for Jesus. Julie sat across the lobby from our dorm talk on Jesus last year; an IV student engaged her in conversation which began a long process of gaining trust with Christians. Now Julie is very attracted by the Gospel and involved in our chapter and close to a decision!

Family Updates

Treasure Island
There are 12 residence halls at NMU. Each hall has 3 floors, and each floor is made up of 2 houses. Part of our 7-8 year goal is to have a community of students active on each floor of each dorm. These witnessing communities of students will be involved in the life of their floor, building relationships as they pray for each student, sponsor Bible studies, and serve fellow students. Our pilot group this year is in Treasure Island house on the 3rd floor of Magers Hall. Bri, Shannon, Christian, Ellie, and Bethany live in this house. This past week they baked cookies and handed them out in their hall. They have been inviting other students to their Bible study on the Fruits of the Spirit. Please pray for Treasure Island. Pray for our witnessing community to grow so that everyone in the house would feel loved and appreciated by the Christians there. Also join with us in praying for an expansion over the next year to an additional

David is very proud of the catapult we built for 5th grade science class. We had a great time playing laser tag to exhaustion with 4 of his friends when he turned 10 in Oct. He finished up cross country and is enjoying basketball. Bekah is a model 2nd grade student. She loves playing around the house and doing art projects. She can hold her own in any light saber battle. Anna is in preschool and making great strides in learning to communicate better. She still has big blond curls and lots of energy. Each day she falls asleep on the short bus ride home. Karen is still active at Birchview Elementary as an aide and enjoys being in the classroom and the relationships with other aides and teachers. Karen had a great time with family celebrating her amazing grandmother who past away 2 weeks short of 100 (Grandma Lamberts had long shared that she never wanted to see 100) I did a lot of biking this summer before straining a 40 year old muscle. Campus ministry is still a joy and place for service and personal growth

I have had the joy to watch several InterVarsity students give testimony to their faith in Jesus through baptism with their local church in Marquette ! (they all say Lake Superior is cold :)