Hamburgers

Check out a short story about our BBQ and carwash on Saturday.  We're learning and growing as we make these changes.  Luckily, we have plans to use the rest of the hamburgers.  http://lisaglasier.com/blog/lisa/20-burgers-and-40-bucks-pr

New Student Outreach

The Fredonia semester begins tomorrow and returning students (with a few new ones) started the semester with a Old-Timers meeting.  Here we announced to more of the chapter our renewed vision and some of the ways we hope to see the students and faculty transformed, the campus renewed, and world changers developed.  While we are still adjusting to the many chances and not quite ready to take huge risks in every area, the changes are coming through.
The first three weeks of the semester are NSO: New Student Outreach.  Through a wide variety of events, we hope to connect with many freshmen and transfers to get them involved in our chapter.  So far we've done a carwash to raise some of the funds we need for events like the BBQ on Saturday, the picnic and bonfires this weekend, and others.
Please be praying for the chapter members as they sacrifice their time and effort towards this vision to connect with the new students and to work towards the new vision of InterVarsity.

Also, Kathryn is almost at the goal of having 70% of her funds so she can begin on campus.  If you are interested in donating please contact her at Kathryn_Pilgrim@ivstaff.org or click the button on the side.  As an answer to prayer, she does now have office space.

Healing

Over six years ago, I lay in my freshman dorm room trying to go to sleep at midnight.  My heart felt like it was racing and I had limited strength despite the fact I had not done anything except sit and walk to two doors to the bathroom for over an hour.  After a few hours, I got up and drove myself to the hospital.  I was sick of not knowing what made it so I could so easily lose energy as this pulsing went through my body.  Unfortunately it took until the summer for me to learn what I had: a hiatal hernia.

This is the one kind of hernia that does not require surgery soon after discovery.  I have no idea what caused my hernia as none of the frequent causes made sense to me, but I still remember looking at the picture that the doctor took of my stomach skin in my esophagus.  For the next few years I paid close attention to what I ate, what exercise I did and the time of day, the kind of music I listened to, and my stress level.  All of these things could set my hernia off to a long, painful, pulse that knocked the energy out of me.  Most of the time I could monitor it before it got too bad, but a few times it took me out for 24 hours or more. 

I hated having to ask my friends to turn the bass down in their car so I could make it to the destination safely, or to step out of worship cause I couldn't handle the drum or the bass guitar.  During my summer jobs, I would sometimes need to rest away from the music or from the stresses, but if I could feel any vibration in my room (like from the lathe making a baseball bat next door), it was almost worse than pushing through.  It was worse when I was in Australia, having to bike 2km home at 3pm right before taking my next pill in my 3 a day sequence and I remember a few times that I had to just rest with a friend nearby in case it got worse.  Thankfully, even on the day I couldn't walk to the dining hall but had to cruise downhill I was still able to keep pushing on.  

Lately, I've been getting more frustrated with having the hernia and needing to so carefully watch everything I did.  I mean I ate most things still and it wasn't an obvious problem, but the mental energy it took to consider if I could do something was hard.  And as I joined InterVarsity, I've been in more places where the worship music is louder and more bassy so I hated having to step out.  I knew it wasn't going to go away in time and it would be around for my lifetime unless...

See I have a God who works miracles and many coworkers who believe in His power.  While I was at Orientation for New Staff with over 130 of my new coworkers, I finally hit my breaking point.  If I really trusted that God could heal why didn't I ask Him too.  Sure I had prayed to Him about it before, but I had never truly believed He could do it. And I was still trusting in my own strength, plus I did like being able to use it as a true reason to take a break from an exhausting job.  Again I was laying on my bed finishing up some time talking to God when I realized that it was time to move on from this controlling so much of my life.  I wanted the freedom to exercise whenever I wanted to, to worship with my coworkers and others in InterVarsity, and to eat without the fear of losing energy.  I knew that IV always provides a prayer room during conferences so I went up to meet with one of the guys in my small group up there.  It was going to take more than just me to pray for healing for this, but it was time. 

Three of us gathered together, with my hand over the hernia knot in my chest and their hands on my back.  We prayed passionately with trust that God could heal.  We prayed that He would chose to heal me so that I could better serve Him and not have this concern anymore.  As we prayed for the knot to be released I felt it moving around in my body.  It was such a strange feeling, but I knew God was working.  That day He healed my hernia and I had it confirmed by a doctor a few weeks later who angrily stated "I don't see anything here at all, who said you had a hernia."  

Today, as I relaxed on my couch I could be thankful that I did not have the pulsing state in my chest.  Yes I could feel my heart beat and yes the pounding of the roofer above my head still annoyed me and yes I still have stomach issues that limit my ability to eat everything.  But I learned that I can rejoice that my God is now in control of when I need to rest and my stress level, not part of my stomach where it doesn't belong.  I am free to worship Him without fear now.  

Regional Staff Conference and almost able to start

I (Kathryn) just returned from five days with the NY/NJ staff members.  While there we were reminded of the needed changes required to reach the 1.4 million students in the region.  Fredonia learned at Basileia that many changes were needed in our chapter to reach the campus effectively and to build an ethnically diverse witnessing community.
My track taught us how to lead change, through the many stages and years it takes.  I have been reenergized to change the campus and see the extreme urgency.  The plans the student leaders and I designed in May have been adapted and modified to better fit the needs for this coming year.  Many things are changing from last year impacting our prayer, worship, small groups, large groups, outreach, and leadership program.  Yes, this is almost everything that InterVarsity focuses on.
While I am ready to see these changes implemented, I'm reminded that I am not yet on campus.  At this point, with one week before students arrive to start our carwash fundraiser and just days before the Resident Assistants and International students arrive, I need an additional $3,000 to start.  This would get me to the needed 70% to begin working on campus, helping the students to cast the vision and implement the revised changes.  So for anyone thinking or praying about starting to financially support the ministry of InterVarsity at Fredonia, I invite you to begin now.  Your contribution would impact the success of the changes for this year and the years to come.  Please consider starting today!
To support the ministry of InterVarsity through Kathryn, please visit https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate/to/kathryn_pilgrim