Stories from Rez Week

For almost a decade, Campus Renewal Ministries (www.campusrenewal.org) has been spreading the vision of united Campusreaching efforts at campuses across the nation. Their vision is simple: they want to serve as a catalyst which convenes students and college ministers in united prayer and action to transform college campuses and exalt the lordship of Christ among every student.� Their pattern for reaching the campus includes 24-hour prayer rooms and simple expressions of church in every facet of campus life.

Every year around Easter time, Campus Renewal Ministries conducts what they call “Rez Week” – a week to see all the Christian groups come together and create a dialog about Christianity on campus.

Here are some reports from this year’s Rez Week at the University of Texas in Austin:

My partner and I have been meeting with our friend that’s a nonbeliever for over a month now. Two weeks ago, we started watching the passion of the christ and reading scripture along with it. Last week, he went to Rez Week with us, and during worship he was just standing there, but about half way through, he started to worship!� Today we were planning to meet to finish up the Passion. I was on my way to meet him and really hadn’t planned anything, so I was just praying in my car for God to move and lead us, to know what questions to ask and what to do. So we finished up the movie and then we were kinda just hanging out.� I was going to kind of leave it at that, but my partner started opening up discussion and asking our friend questions about how he felt and what he thought, etc. We talked for a while, and basically realized he understood what Jesus did and how God sent him to die for our sins. I asked him if he thought he was at the point where he wanted to accept God’s forgiveness and start living that out and making it apart of his life. He said yes!! So we talked a little more, and then had him pray whatever was on his heart and just invite Jesus into his life. And then we laid hands on him and prayed over him. Then we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and talked to him about the symbolism of it and that when we are in Christ, we are a new creation, the old has gone, and the new has come!!! I read Acts 2:38- “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Then we baptized him on my front porch with a bucket of water!� Praise Jesus and all glory to God, for God can do anything. He is Risen and alive and moving!!
~ Nursing School

I’ve been hanging out with international students and God opened doors for me to share my testimony to three of my friends from Spain, Italy and Belgium. I was getting a little tired of not seeing any more doors open, but yesterday God showed my that the friendships built were not in vain. When I shared my testimony with my friend from Belgium he was sooo surprised that I believed in God, because he doesn’t really know anyone who does. He started to share his beliefs, and I was thinking that this kid is so far from knowing God. I was wrong. Yesterday during lunch he told me that he felt confused because he found himself defending religion in one of his classes. He told the class that one should be open minded to the thought of God existing, and that he thought that God may exist. Through this I can see God breaking the hearts of the unbelievers and it showed me that not one person is far from knowing God.
~ International students

Last Thursday at the Marketplace Prayer time after Rez Week one of my “mentees” prayed with us for the medical field. I’ve gotten to pray with her and encourage her several times, especially this last Sunday when she told me that her grandfather had passed away. Last Friday, another girl I mentor in lab showed up at Rez Week and we sat together. I didn’t know she was a believer, but we talked afterwards about our faith and relationship with God. I shared with her the vision of reaching out to the people in our lab and eventually praying together as a community and she seemed really excited. And THEN I was studying today and another girl I mentor in lab walked by and we started talking. Her parents are Hindu and she’s a Christian but she doesn’t meet with any other believers at UT. We talked about prayer and obeying God and she said I was one of the first people she’s met at UT that talked with her about faith. I also shared with her the vision for reaching out to the people in our lab using Tea Time to serve and love them. Tea Time is going well, by the way…� I’m excited about continuing to build these relationships and encouraging them to live missionally on campus.
~ Freshman Research Lab

Last weekend, I went to South Padre with our civil engineering group for a technical competition.� On the way back to Austin, I had the opportunity to share my faith with the others in the car. They seemed a little interested in what I had to say, and I hope God will continue to give me opportunities to tell about him with these people.
~ American Society of Civil Engineers

I was blessed with the opportunity to share the gospel with a girl who lives here in Moore-Hill.� I realized she has a lot of misconceptions about following Jesus and she does not yet see the glorious beauty of the Gospel.� My brothers in Christ and I are praying and seeking the “God-option” in all situations.� We are asking that God would bless each of us with the opportunity to each lead one person to saving faith in Christ by the end of the semester.
~ Moore-Hill

I have been reading through the book of Matthew with my friend, who I met in Calculus class last semester.� On Thursday night, I watched Benjamin Button with him at the Union. The movie lasted from about 9 to midnight. We then walked back to Jester dorm together and grabbed some Wendy’s. After we got our food, he walked back to my dorm with me. We had been talking about the movie and why he likes it, and we got on the subject of love. This led to us sitting at a picnic table, and him basically spilling his guts to me, telling me about what he was least proud of involving a past relationship. I won’t go into details out of respect for him, but he feels that he wronged someone in a way that had no excuse and he is not sure he can be forgiven. He still carries some guilt from that. He told me that sometimes he thinks it would be comforting to know that there is a God who is looking out for him, but he’s still not ready to believe. After we parted to go to bed, I went to a nearby hill in front of my dorm, fell on my face and wept for him. I was crying out to God, knowing my friend needed him, and begging God to show himself to him. After that, I spent the next hour or so praying for him, singing praise songs to the Lord, and enjoying His presence. I got to bed around 2 AM.
~ Aerospace Engineering

A group of about 10 civil and architectural engineers (CAEE) met up this past Tuesday night to talk about our faith. We sat around a big table and discussed what it means to be a believer in CAEE, and what we hope to do as a united body. We decided to meet up for 2 hours every Monday morning (come & go freely) to share and pray with one another. We decided that our focus must be to share Christ with our peers and professors and to pray for God’s presence. We don’t know what will happen, but we are going to seek God together and encourage one another!
~ Civil and Architectural Engineering

I would like to share another account of the Holy Spirit moving. I have been interceding for my roommate all year, unsure of how I should approach her with the gospel. I know that her background is Hindu, but other than that we have never really talked about spiritual things.� Lately, she has been asking me about Rezweek and my involvement in it. She has also been curious as to my involvement with the CHOP (Campus House of Prayer) and what I do there.� So this past Saturday, we were eating dinner and I asked her what she thought about Easter. She said that she had heard about Jesus only in parts. I asked her if I could tell her about Jesus from my own heart and she didn’t refuse. I went through some scriptures with her and explained what they meant. Then I just described God’s love shown in Jesus and what I’ve experienced. After telling her the good news, she said that Jesus seems like an interesting person and that she would want to hear more from other perspectives and accounts. Maybe from some of you!!!� I’m praying that this interesting Jesus will constantly be on her mind and that her spirit will be hungry to know more and He will be revealed to her.
~ Littlefield Dorm

After praying for weeks for something tangible to do for the school, the Lord ANSWERED and guided us to highlight Easter in the school by starting where most of our classmates are with their knowledge of Easter: Easter eggs/candy. Utilizing the name and desire to publicize the social work organization, Alliance for Christian Social Workers (ACSW), our group gave out 250 Easter eggs at a table in the foyer of the school Thursday and Friday. In addition, we had a free speech poster taped to the ground throughout the week with the question: “What does love look like to you?” Our desire was to encourage dialogue about Christian spirituality, love our classmates by serving them, and unite with other Christians in the school in an effort to begin to build relationships. Through this event, we had some students desire to be apart of ACSW, multiple conversations about Jesus, and MANY people write their thoughts about love and Christianity on the speech board. There were a few comments about the love of Jesus and the Biblical impact of Easter. However, many comments discussed how students define love through the lens of acceptance, tolerance, equality, understanding, and social justice. One person wrote our group a note that said, “You can be a Christian AND a social worker?” It is questions like this that make me excited to be able to share and live out my love of Jesus in a school that, for the most part, sees Christians as oppressors and people that pass judgment. We have such an awesome opportunity to love these people that don’t know/understand the freedom and love of Jesus and at the same time pray for God to move mountains, open eyes and hearts, and be mighty to save.
~School of Social Work

I have been praying for the Lord to highlight people in the School of Social Work for me to specifically reach out to. This past week, God laid on my heart a friend/classmate that I know has a very ritualistic background of God, but does not quite understand the freedom and love of Jesus. I invited her to spend Easter with me and another classmate that is a believer. She was not able to come because she was going to be out of town for a wedding. However, her response to the outreach of love my classmate and I were able to extend, was incredible. She sent us an email and a voicemail that said how she wished she didn’t have to go to the wedding so she could come with us, how loved she felt by us, and how our passion for Christianity and loving for others was nothing like she had ever experienced through her background of religion. My believer classmate and I are continuing to pursue this girl through loving her and sharing our relationship with Jesus with her, while we pray that the Lord reveals himself to her in a deeper way.
~ School of Social Work

God has opened the door for me to meet regularly w/ my TA from last semester who is Muslim. We have met 4 weeks in a row for coffee/meals and have talked about God’s justice and mercy in salvation, the Bible and the Qur’an, and just personal things. I am currently praying about how to proceed in this relationship. Pray that God will soften his heart toward the gospel and that Jesus would reveal himself to him in a personal way. Through this relationship I met another guy who just moved to the U.S. from Morocco a few months ago and works at Kismet. We are going to be meeting up so he can practice English and I can practice Moroccan dialect of Arabic. He is likely Muslim, but I don’t know how devout. Pray that he also would be open to the gospel and that God would show me the best way to share with him.
~ Arabic Department

I talked with my friend this afternoon. She is a Muslim from Bangladesh and moved here for college three years ago. We have talked about God, Jesus, and spirituality many times. Today I realized that I do not need to convince her to follow my religion. All I need to do is talk with her about God and share what I know to be true about Him. If she begins praying to God as the Father, laying her hurts, requests, and desires before Him… I know He will reveal Himself to her. She also discussed going to church with a friend this Sunday to support him and see his perspective in Christianity. I will continue to focus on Christ in our conversations and encourage her to ask God about who Christ is. She is open and willing. She desires to pray more and to seek Him more. God is bigger than religions, and I believe He will reveal Himself to her as she seeks Him out.
~ Muslims

Two nights ago, a friend and I met with a Muslim friend from Senegal. We read through and talked about John 1. It was kind of intense for a while talking about whether Jesus is God, or just sent from God, but for now at least my Muslim friend believes that there is something special and different about Jesus, when compared to the other prophets. He has never read the Bible before and said he would like to read it because he definitely considers it to be God’s Word.� At the end, he mentioned that he hurt his wrist playing basketball. We asked to pray for his wrist. He said ok but kind of laughingly, probably not expecting anything to happen. We prayed, and he said it felt a little better and he expected it to heal. We told him that in the Bible he will read about Jesus healing instantly, so we asked if we could pray again. We prayed, and this time he said his wrist was better but there was still pain in his thumb. So we prayed for his thumb. He said his thumb felt a little better. So we prayed one more time, and he goes, “It’s gone!” We’re like, are you sure? Is it completely gone?� He’s like yes it’s all gone.� He goes, “Good job.”� We said, “It was Jesus!”
~ Muslims