them spiritual help and encourage ment) is to make every Christian stu dent a witnessing student. As a re sult of this Pauline ministry to stu dents, hundreds of students from non- Christian ba ck g rou n d s, including many students from overseas, find Jesus Christ each year. Discussion groups in fraternities and sororities, all-campus e v a n g e lis tic meetings, weekend conferences with a number of schools participating: all are means to the end that Jesus Christ may be made known in America’s secular schools. Because the training and problems of nurses are different from other students in many respects, a special ized staff of five graduate nurses spends all its time visiting nurse’s training schools. For high school graduates who are planning to go on to college, and for parents and pastors who counsel such students, the decision as to which college to attend is a hard one. Speaking of this, a Christian mother recently stated at a meeting in Philadelphia: “When my husband (an outstanding minister) and I found that we could not afford to send our two daughters t o ----- :----------- College (a Christian school) it seemed as if the bottom had dropped out of everything. They would have to go to a university near home, a univer sity which makes no claim to any thing Christian. But when we heard that there was an Inter-Varsity group at that school, we felt as if God had prepared an ark of safety for our girls, and for the past several years Inter-Varsity has been just that for them.” END. NOTE: Pastors and parents or students who would like further information about the witness for Jesus Christ in our universities or nursing schools are invited to write to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, 1444 North Astor, Chicago 10. Students whose names are sent to this ad dress will be followed up on campus. Please in dicate whether the student is a Christian or not.
college from which the outline of this illustration is taken, one fellow led 13 of his housemates to the Lord in less than a year. The spir itual atmosphere of the house was transformed.) Perhaps of greatest significance, Dan Mitchell discovers that the Christianity he unquestioningly ac cepted back home is a force power ful enough to live by, and to live a moral life by, in a non-Christian environment. It will not be surpris ing if his parents and pastor find that Dan is a stronger and deeper Chris tian when he goes home for vacation. Not that every fellow (or girl) comes through as Dan did. Some dis cover that they never did have per sonal faith but were only living on a borrowed variety. Others forsake Christ because of the love of this world. But even if such students had gone to Christian colleges, it is pos sible that their temporary and bor rowed faith would have collapsed aft er leaving that environment. But for those who do come through in a secular school, there is usually a Christian group on campus or in the nursing school which brings C h ristian students together for strength-. For almost 15 years Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship has been estab lishing and maintaining (through spiritual counsel and help) such groups on secular campuses in every part of North America. Some are stronger than the group at State de scribed here; many are weaker. But all serve the purpose of making Je sus Christ relevant to a program of university or nursing studies and a life away from home and Christian influences. The basic purpose of each Inter- Varsity staff member (about forty of them, most of them recent gradu ates, travel to the groups and give
This is the beginning of Christian fellowship at State for Dan Mitchell. The next night he attends the dorm Bible study, which he finds is led by a senior. He also discovers that there are six other Bible study groups meeting in various other dorms and classrooms each week. Soon his schedule begins to look like this: Daily at 7:00 a.m. Personal prayer and Bible reading before breakfast. (This is so much a part of the lives of other Christian fellows and girls at State that he feels he must do it too. Before long he is doing it for other more important reasons.) Daily at 4:30 p.m. Prayer meeting with nine or ten other Christian stu dents in a vacant classroom in the electrical engineering building, pray ing for non-Christian friends, for Bi ble study groups, for missionary work overseas, for personal needs and prob lems. Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. Bible study in the dorm. Friday at 7:30 p.m. Weekly Inter- Varsity meeting in the student union building, with about 150 students at tending. Usually there is singing, sometimes testimonies, and usually a message from some Bible teacher, Bible-believing minister or mission ary. The students pay the travelling expenses of their speakers, who (be cause of the dearth of Bible-believing men locally) must often come from a distance. Dan also begins to tell his room mate about his faith in Jesus Christ, and the roommate finally accepts an invitation to attend a Friday night Inter-Varsity m ee ting . Later the roommate suggests that they read the Bible together occasionally, and it may be (like many other Chris tian students) Dan will lead his room mate to a personal faith in Christ before the year is over. (At the state
On secular campuses Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship maintains a strong witness for Christ.
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JUNE 1954
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