105 (30 Days of Gratitude)

I am so thankful for the miracles Jesus is doing at CSUN and in IVMCF this year. Our leadership team sat down today to complete a Fall Field Report (a fancy term for basically looking at the numbers in our fellowship). In May we set a goal to have 80 students involved at least 50% of the time. We knew back then how much work it was going to take to go from 65 active students to 80 active students (and we lost about 10 to graduations). I was scared to be honest we weren't going to meet that. I knew God had been doing amazing things but what if we didn't meet the numerical goal. What would that say about my leadership, our focus, our plans, our structures? God is sovereign over all of these numbers but old fears and worries definitely came slowly to the surface.

But I was blown away today. When we finally counted how many people are actively involved in our fellowship we saw that we had a 105 people involved. 105! Since InterVarsity was planted at CSUN, the numbers have never been that high. The closest was 70 people in the Fall of 2009. Last year at this time we only had 60 students and at the end of the school year we had 65. We have grown by 40 people in the course of one semester! First off, I'm so thankful for the 105 students at are a part of our fellowship, the 105 people who are willing to let Jesus speak into their lives and who are want to be a part of a movement to see a multi-ethnic community be built that shares the love of God with all 39,000 students at CSUN.

This is a miracle. Oh we put in the hard work but it is still a miracle. Our job is to obey and God's job is to get it done. I'm grateful for the faithfulness and willingness of each of my student leaders to obey where God called them this semester. We obeyed - we were faithful to put on events, to follow up with students, to reach out to the new students on campus, to sacrifice homework and sleep and even money to reach out to the people God put in front of us. And God was faithful to do his part in bringing students to us and keeping them there. It is nothing short of a miracle and is worthy to be praised. Praise the Lord for the work he is doing at CSUN and through InterVarsity and I can barely imagine what is in store for us next semester and the years to come.

I'm grateful that I was brought here to this campus and to this fellowship. It was a difficult road to get here and I certainly did not expect myself to be on staff, by myself, at CSUN of all places. It was a hard road that lead me to this campus but I wouldn't want it any other way because the work that God has done in my life over the past two years has I feel has brought a new level of trust of the Holy Spirit in my life and in the lives of the students I minister with. It is amazing the work that God does with a single staff worker and several willing leaders. I am grateful to be a part of it, I'm grateful to see this happen, I'm grateful our heard work of NSO (New Student Outreach) more than paid off, and I'm grateful that God is showing up in our fellowship, in our division, in our region, and in college campuses across the world and I'm grateful I get to be a part of this movement.