Nexus

We had our first Nexus (IVCF's weekly large group meeting) on Sept.3 and Bethany gave the talk. Here is how the night went.

At 6:30pm, one hour before the meeting was supposed to start, I get a call wondering if I was bringing the mics. I had totally forgotten to get microphones for the worship team and myself so we had no mics! Luckily a good friend leads worship at a local church so he drove down to pick them up for us. I quickly get dressed, head down to campus, and attempt to pull myself together before the night begins.

I get to the room at 6:50pm and connect with the different people I'm working with- student testimony, worship team, power point, follow-up team, and Nexus coordinator. The room is decorated, the chairs are set, and we are ready to start! 45 minutes later at 7:35pm the room is packed with nearly 200 students. We had to go to another room to get more chairs!

Musical worship is great, the MC's welcome everyone to the first Nexus, and then it's me. I asked a senior student, Heather Hammond (pictured to the left) to give a testimony of her transformation from freshmen year until now. She gave a great testimony on how studying God's word in college gave her a bigger picture of who Jesus was and what it really meant to follow him. She said, "As I enter my last year of my undergraduate degree at SSU I recognized that the gospel to me is more messy yet beautiful than I have ever believed it to be before."


After Heather, I got up to begin speaking out of Mark 1. It was one of the most awkward times I ever felt speaking. I had to hold a wired mic that I kept tripping on. The lights were low so it was hard to read my notes. The power point was cutting off words. It was difficult to read scripture off power point. I felt like my voice was cracking. I kept losing my place in my notes. Again and again it was not working for me. I sent students into a time of reflection and afterwards I got back up finally feeling the most comfortable I had all night. I invited students who already new Jesus that wanted to live a more missional life on campus to stand. About 80% of the room stood! After that anyone who didn't already know Jesus but wanted to start following Jesus was invited to stand. 3 students stood up to start following Jesus!

Galatians 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
God is going to work and speak into people's lives even when we feel like we did an awful job. I'm thankful that God is using me and IVCF at Sonoma State to transform students lives. Please continue to pray for the new believers: Kyser, David, and Lauren.