UCLA

God Still Hits Home Runs

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 14:34:14 +0000

November 26, 2019

Gordon Govier

God Still Hits Home Runs

God spoke to Steve Tengan with a baseball analogy. An alumnus of ��Ƶ at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Steve was working full-time (40 hours) at an engineering job and volunteering with ��Ƶ almost full-time (30 hours). “I really liked being an ��Ƶ volunteer, but I knew it wasn’t sustainable to do both," he said.

He also felt strongly about justice ministry, particularly helping inner-city kids, and wondered if that was the kind of ministry he should be doing. Should he continue volunteering with ��Ƶ or was God calling him to another ministry?

As Steve prayed and pondered, he was reminded that campus ministry offered a unique window of opportunity: to be able to help redirect the lives of students who were being called by God to live a life of purpose, to redirect their lives as his had been. He realized that sometimes new circumstances meant changed priorities. God gave him the analogy of giving up the Giants to become a Dodgers fan when moving from the Bay area to Los Angeles. He left his engineering job and joined ��Ƶ full-time as a Campus Staff Minister.

A Miserable Failure

Steve met ��Ƶ his first day on campus at UCLA when student volunteers helped him unload the family minivan and then invited him to a Bible study. But for his first two years on campus he was apathetic and drifted spiritually. As his sophomore year wrapped up, he vowed to turn his life around, but realized he had failed miserably by the end of that summer.

“If I hadn’t known that I could get forgiveness from God and, with his guidance, make better decisions, I would have considered suicide,” he said. “It was very clear to me in that moment, I didn’t want to mess around anymore.”

Living in community with other Christians, beginning in his junior year, and helping with outreach for a Bible study on his floor, brought focus to Steve’s spiritual life. He was no longer living the double life that made him weary. “I went from ‘having fun’ and neglecting class to doing ministry,” he said.

As he approached graduation, Steve was thankful for how God had redirected his life. He wanted to follow the other five UCLA ��Ƶ students who were joining ��Ƶ staff, but to honor his parents he took an engineering job instead. However, he stayed involved as a volunteer until, through the baseball analogy, God called him to full-time campus ministry.

God continued to speak to Steve through circumstances about priorities. He met his wife Sherilyn on campus—she worked for another ministry—and they were married in 2003. At the time, he still felt that God might eventually call him to inner city ministry. But Sherilyn was drawn to ministry overseas and prayed God would also call Steve to overseas ministry instead.

One day, as he met with colleagues to talk about the challenge of supporting a ministry plant in a country in the Middle East, God revealed to Steve that missions was a social justice issue. “I’m all about the margins and now I'm on a campus with 40 Christian groups,” he thought. “Why not go to a country with less than that many churches?”

It took several years of discernment and preparation until finally, in 2007, Steve and Sherilyn moved to Paraguay as part of ��Ƶ Link. “It was good for my soul but hard to adapt to,” he said later, about their time in Paraguay. The first challenge was learning the language. Then came the challenge of replanting a campus ministry. By the time they left in 2014 there was a healthy and growing student movement.

From Paraguay to Portland

Steve and Sherilyn figured they would return to southern California after leaving Paraguay but were encouraged instead to check with Pauline Fong, who was then Regional Director for the Northwest. As Pauline explained the unique opportunity available in the position of International Student Ministry Area Director in Portland and how living there contrasted with living in L.A., both Steve and Sherilyn were on board.

International Student Ministry (ISM) has a long and rich history in the Portland area but it was time for some restructuring. Two of the top issues Steve is wrestling with are preparing converts for re-entry to their home country, so that their faith remains strong, and building stronger connections between ISM chapters and multiethnic chapters, to help international students develop more Christian friendships.

“I’m excited about God's expanding vision for us,” Steve said, citing successes such as an African student who has blossomed in leadership in a variety of contexts, including with African American students. However, some staff transitions away from ISM have slowed advances.

“We’re not in a big season of harvest right now but we are seeing noticeable differences,” Steve said. “Everybody who has stayed with us for the last five years owns the vision and is excited by it.”

What enlivens Steve most of all is being able to see students transformed by the power of the Gospel. Mark Camp, where students spend the whole week studying the Gospel of Mark, is his favorite week of the year, one of the times when he has the most contact with students. His family staffed the Tacoma Urban Program last summer and he praised God for the spiritual growth he saw in students’ lives. “I haven’t experienced seeing that quick and drastic transformation elsewhere,” he said.

Through it all, Steve’s reminded that God still hits home runs. “I’ve learned that I’m not as important as I think I am,” he said. “I can have all these plans but ultimately it’s not me, it’s God.”

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��Ƶ Grieves with UCLA

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 00:17:24 +0000

News

June 2, 2016

��Ƶ Grieves with UCLA

��Ƶ grieves with the University of California–Los Angeles community following the June 1, 2016, murder-suicide on campus that took the life of professor William Klug. The day following the shooting, it wasn’t easy to return to campus. A group of ��Ƶ staff and students spent part of the day at Bruin Plaza, offering to pray with students.

Prayers are being said for the families of both professor Klug and Mainak Sarker, his former PhD student who is identified as the shooter. Professor Klug is survived by his wife Mary and two children. At the UCLA chapter’s last large group meeting of the year, chapter members wrote notes of encouragement to Dr. Klug’s family as well as their own professors.

Although professor Klug was not formally connected with ��Ƶ he was known for his faith in God and loved by ��Ƶ students and staff. An ��Ƶ student who took one of his classes and had him as an adviser described Professor Klug as not only very smart but also incredibly kind and genuine.

Professor Klug was a graduate of Westmont College, where a professor described him as "a gentle kind person, without a trace of arrogance." He received a master's degree at UCLA and a doctorate at Cal Tech.

In 2012 the Veritas Forum, an ��Ƶ partner organization, hosted a talk at UCLA on suffering. The talk was titled “Does God Care?” Professor Klug served as moderator.

��Ƶ’s campus ministry goes beyond outreach to undergraduate students to include specialized ministry to graduate students and faculty. The culture of research departments can be very competitive and difficult for both graduate students and professors to navigate. ��Ƶ's Graduate and Faculty Minstries staff members are working on plans for a UCLA faculty prayer meeting.

God does care about suffering and God does care about the students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses. For that reason ��Ƶ has been actively witnessing on college campuses for 75 years.

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Veritas Forum

UCLA

Red Cup's New Role On Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:34:25 +0000

News

October 25, 2011

Gordon Govier

Red Cup's New Role On Campus

The red plastic cup is ubiquitous on campus because, well, students are thirsty. But students are seldom reflective about their drinking habits. Until ��Ƶ’s Red Cup Campaign comes to campus.

This fall the Red Cup Campaign was launched by ��Ƶ staff and students on campuses across the country. The students were trained in evangelism and then set up the Red Cup display on campus. Thousands of students are hearing a presentation of the gospel.

The Red Cup Campaign uses an interactive display (called a Proxe station) that asks students what they are most thirsty for: love, purpose, fun, or success. Their response often starts a conversation that leads to an opportunity to discuss Jesus’ statements about Living Water and eternal life.

Red Cup Gets Results

More than 1,300 conversations took place in one week at the Red Cup Campaign Proxe station at UCLA. Students were invited to ��Ƶ’s Large Group meeting. At the UCLA chapter’s first Large Group meeting of the school year, 47 students stood to make first-time decisions or recommitments to follow Christ.

Over a four day period at the University of Chicago there were 250 conversations at the Red Cup Campaign Proxe station. At the first Large Group meeting of the year, three students stood to make first-time commitments to Jesus. At the second Large Group, 12 people raised their hands to commit to Christ.

Making contact with incoming students at the beginning of the school year is a priority for every ��Ƶ chapter. The Red Cup Campaign not only facilitates contacts, but immediately establishes the evangelical character of ��Ƶ’s outreach.

“Almost everyone who went through the Proxe station heard the gospel and was prayed for,” reported Mac Smith, ��Ƶ Campus Member at Weber State University in Utah. “We had 161 students show up to Large Group and seven students become Christians during the call to faith. More than 60 students who were already Christian believers stood to give Jesus control of an area of their life where they were trying to get their thirsts met on their own. We have never done so well with contacts during the first week of school.”

Students are Lining Up

A Campus Staff Member at the University of Northern Arizona called it their most effective Proxe station ever. “It’s drawn both Christian believers and seekers,” he said.”Thanks for designing something that students are lining up to interact with.”

An ��Ƶ student at West Virginia University said: “It’s very easy to get into conversations with students about what they want out of their college experience and life. I think the transition from talking about our thirsts to talking about the gospel is very natural. I think the Red Cup is effective because it gets college students thinking about how our earthly thirst quenchers never satisfy us.”

Some ��Ƶ chapters jumped into the Red Cup Campaign at the very beginning of the school year, others are setting up the display on campus as the year goes on. We praise God for the effectiveness of this tool for reaching students with the gospel message.

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West Virginia University

Weber State University

University of Northern Arizona

University of Chicago

UCLA

Red Cup Campaign