Compelling 08 Updated

Compelling was a great conference for both students and staff. It was the Fall Conference for the Michigan Division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. There were nearly 400 people in attendance. The schools represented were:

Grand Valley
Western Michigan University
Hope College
Kalamazoo College
Grand Rapids Community College
Delta College
Central Michigan University
Michigan State University
Albion College
Hillsdale College
UM Flint
UM Dearborn
UM Ann Arbor
Oakland University
Wayne State University

During the conference, I was a part of "Sexy on the Inside" (a seminar). Each student chose a track/seminar that they were to be a part of...
Sexy on the Inside
Windows to the World---learning the Christian Worldview
Philippians--- inductive study of the book of Philippians
Missional Prayer
Leadership Essentials
The Joy of Following Jesus
Finding God

Duing the Sexy on the Inside track, we learned about God's design of human sexuality, and unfortunately it has been broken. Many students had a chance to come before the Lord, and admit past mistakes, and hurts, in their lives, including sexual promiscuity, sexual abuse, temptations, etc. It was a joy to watch them seek the Lord, and to pray over these students.

Picture to the right....a cross. Students had a chance to write down their hurts, sins, things done to them....anything that they needed healing from. They wrote them down, and tacked them to the cross, signifying that Jesus has control of their situation, and they no longer need to hold onto it.



The 9 Albion Students that are so excited to be a part of the conference! It is exciting for me to see that this group exists of students that are seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen!!!








Students had a chance to worship God through artwork










Learning to arm wrestle? Really, they were having a great time!


Some of my favorite moments:
-Students are committing to prayer!
-Relationships were built!
-Students began to see the truth in the kingdom of God and were excited about telling people about it on campus.
-Saturday night we had chapter time. I arrived at chapter time late, but only a few minutes, and one of the seniors had started leading it. It was so encouraging to see leadership development work!!! This leader asked students what they would like to see in the chapter back on campus. They all shared and then spent lots of time in prayer. Then, this leader shared his concerns with the chapter, that he feels that students are not committed and therefore we will always lack growth. This leader challenged them to make a commitment to the chapter and being a part of its growth. And then...this leader had us meet in our campus small groups to evaluate how we were doing and what we could do to better reach the campus!!! WHAT???? This made my heart swell with joy, encouragement, as I thought....this is why I do what I do---to help students develop their own leadership. These students are going to be leaders in YOUR churches!

Thank you so much for making this possible. It is because of your prayers and financial support that this is possible. Thank you.