The Blog of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

InterVarsity taught me how to study the Bible like I did my textbooks. I think the ultimate purpose of college is to learn how to learn, how to gather and process information, how to teach yourself. InterVarsity, and the larger Christian community on my campus including the Chesterton House, taught me to appreciate the fact that God is the ultimate intellectual, and he approves of us taking the time to meditate on his Word and how it permeates into everyday life. I could have gone to college elsewhere for much, much less and often wonder what my life would be like now if I had, but then, the memories from Bible studies and evangelistic outings come back, and I thank God again for putting me where he did and leading me to IV.

I believe InterVarsity is crucial on college campuses as it gives us a place to be a body of Christ living out a small part of the early church. As a grad student at a chapter close to UB, I've been constantly reminded of how much the fellowship we've built is part of my college experience. Without the friends I made and the changes I went through with the support of InterVarsity members, I would not be the person I am today. I would have never learned to open up and actually let someone in to my life (in good times in bad), seen the importance of constant fellowship with other Christians as we aren't meant to handle life alone, and who knows what would have happened to the spiritual gifts God has given me. IV is a way to become a leader with support and to know that the power to change lives is in God's hands. Four years ago, I was outreach coordinator (a position that as a quiet freshman just a semester earlier never would have imagined being). That year we started having an annual local missions trip where now I can still see the connections and the projects we've built. Without the fellow Christians holding me accountable and challenging me to do things I never would have imagined, I and the community would not have changed as much as it did. The support, challenge to grow, and leadership training to do new things is crucial as a college student as we figure out who we are going to be in the real world. Our chapter helps make better citizens and helps the world and campus aaround us in many tangible and intangible ways. ~Kathryn, SUNY Fredonia

First day on campus I was introduced to a bright, young man and found that we had 19 credits in the same courses and sections. He led me from class to class that morning and the into a small group room in the Union. Then came the surprizs, "This is Dick Schult, and he doesn't know the Lord." Quite the introduction to IV via a mid-day prayer meeting. What those kids had, I didn't and I wanted it, but come March I met HIM on a train trip and I knew who they had been leading me towards. Over my four years there, the group grew from 13 to over 50 members and at least 12 on-cmpus bible studies. Fifty-five years later, I'm still in touch with six of the chapter and hear of another 6 to10 from them. Our staff worker had 23 schools to look after then; now my old school has two staff workers for the one campus. My thanks to the staff, and fellow students, who were instrumental in leading me to the LORD and who are keeping up the witness today. R W Schult, U PENN '60

I learned about how to live in Christian community at InterVarsity. The friendships I made and strengthened through the group are some of my most important relationships. I didn't know how to make mistakes and be forgiven before I started sharing my life with the people I knew at Intervarsity, and that's a valuable side of God's love that I had no conception of whatsoever before IV. The experiences I had at IV still impact the way I think about God, three years later.

Am a part of the undergrad multi-ethnic chapter of IV at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. IV is a vital wing of the global body of Christ with regard to finding an expression of mission at the collegiate level and taking this transformative model even beyond the campus. I remember my first year with IV at WMU; so much eye-opening revelation about the place of mission in every christian's life and it was packaged in a way that i had never really experienced before. I found so much relevance and purpose in the mission of God, so much joy in being a college student because of this new found mission. I see a lot of peers who have placed no value on mission in their christian walk in college, this turns them to believers chasing the dream of prosperity while banking on God's grace to secure an eternal place of rest for them once they're bodies give out. Mission enables us to look beyond ourselves, beyond our dreams and desires and encounter the heart of a savior who is seeking to redeem the college campus and raise up leaders to influence and change the socio-economic and political dynamics of this fallen world and thereby hasten his glorious return.