Holm on the Hill: February 2008

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Prayer Request

Okay so lately there have been some really good things happening here in Chapel Hill. Last weekend at our first retreat in Asheville, NC, a girl named Nicole- from Honduras- a freshman at UNC gave her life to Christ and it has been amazing to see how her life has changed and her heart has truly been revived by Jesus. Another girl- Margaret, also a freshman here at UNC, realized that she gave her life to Christ for the first time at our Christmas Conference and she is so eager to share this with her friends that are trying to find joy in partying and relationships. I was able to share the gospel with one of these girls- her name is Mimi- last week and am having her over for dinner tonight to follow that up and ask her if she has given any more thought to surrendering her life!

But the further I get into friendships with different women here, the more I am becoming burdened and broken over the hurts in their lives. They have lost close friends in car accidents, had family members suddenly killed, seen their fathers leave their mothers, watched loved ones die of cancer... they wake up and are pushed to succeed academically and socially every day but in their hearts there are deep unanswered questions that lead them to struggle with anxiety and depression.

The blanket of emptiness I see these girls wrestling with makes me hurt. I am not a counselor nor a doctor yet I long to cure them of the pains they carry! There are about 15 girls I am reaching out to right now and each of them is struggling with the claims of Jesus in different ways. If he truly is the Son of God who has come to change our lives and bust our paradigms about religion, then it may cause a major life change for them. It is really challenging me to spend time in the Word, asking God to reveal to me who He is and how He would like me to share Him specifically with each of these women He has placed in my life.

Please join me in prayer as I ask Him to show me specific passages in Scripture to share with these women and for Him to minister to them in their pain in a way that only He can!

Praying that God will break up all unplowed ground like He promises in Hosea 10:12--
"Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you."

What are college students at UNC saying about God?

A video camera stopped a random sample of seven students and asked them what God means to them. Here are their responses:

"I guess for me, God is more of an abstract sort of thing, rather than a person or a figure. Just like the relationships between people, between nature and people, animals and people."

"I personally have a lot of questions about whether I think God actually exists. I think that if God does exists it's in a intangible way."

God to me is a force that connects all of us."

"To me... God is the questions unanswered by science. That's where I draw on faith."

"If there was a God, he gave up on us a long time ago. I think it's a life force and energy."

"I think of Jesus the same way I think of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gahndi, more of a political figure. I think he's a political, historical person."

"He [Jesus] is an amazing man there is no question about that. But I don't call him 'Christ' and I don't think about him as a god... but that's just my god. I think different people have different gods."