Veritas 2015

Veritas exists to "engage students and faculty in discussions about life's hardest questions and the modern relevance of Jesus Christ." Campuses invite a speaker to present on a topic that will interest students, staff and faculty from a variety of spiritual backgrounds in order to bring Christian scholarship into the fray of academic discourse. On the Palouse, almost a dozen campus ministries come together to promote event and host speaker.

This year, we invited Mary Poplin who speaks on worldviews. She recently released a book with InterVarsity Press called, "Is Reality Secular?" which covers similar themes. If you're interested, I recommend watching her talk from Reed College two years ago which is similar to the one she presented in Moscow and Pullman.

In preparation for the forums (April 7th at WSU and April 8th at Idaho) InterVarsity hosted interactive displays to ask students about debt and hope. We started conversations by asking about personal debt and how much hope students had of paying those off. Then, we moved to telling stories of individuals freed from slavery through International Justice Ministry's work and asked how can we hope to change systems like human trafficking. Finally, if students were interested, we shared the hope we believe Jesus brings to change us and the world. 

At Idaho, three different campus ministries came together to host the display. Staff and student leaders lead 20 people through all the questions including sharing how Jesus is hope for the world. Idaho staff Tyler commented that, "the whole group [of student leaders were] pumped about how easy it was to share the gospel. Everyone left really excited." 

At WSU, staff John met a student who wanted to learn more about Jesus and how He is hope for the world. John and this student now meet regularly to study scripture.

We're thankful for all the resources we get to use to see students transformed, campuses renewed and world changers developed.

Vision for LaFe (Latino specific ministry)

"Hey northwest region lets do this! #encuentro15 #northwestlafeconference #lafe" John Paradis, 2.7.15

How do you help students see what's possible? How do you make an idea more than just words coming out of your mouth? One answer within InterVarsity: take them to a place it's already happening.

WSU staff worker John Paradis drive 6 Latina students from the NW over 16 hours to go to such a place: Encuentro. 350 Latino students and staff gathered to ask what it means to be Latino in Christ and how they can reach out to their communities.   John showed the women what God can do in gathering Latino college students.

In response:
- One decided to follow Jesus.
- One committed to starting a new Latino specific small group on her campus
- One grew in her understanding of the power of community asking how her current small group could reach out to Latino students across campus.

For John, these responses made the hours of driving (a few in a torrential downpour) worth every second.  Continue to pray for these students that the vision they saw at Encuentro will be imprinted upon their hearts so that they can pursue God and His kingdom back on campus.