Zebib, our assistant cook, came to Canada as a refugee from Eritrea and now attends Freedom International in Winnipeg. She and her family were persecuted and had to hide in the wilderness for days before finding refuge in Ethiopia. Despite limited English Zebib turned out to be a fantastic summer camp staff! She was hard working, took initiative to care for the staff on weekends and made Ethiopian iced coffees for staff each day. Most surprising for us was Zebib’s camper ministry. One week she hurt her foot and had to spend time sitting in the dining hall. While there she met two campers and began sharing about Jesus with them. After several conversations both campers committed their lives to Jesus for the first time and when it was time to go they sought out Zebib to say bye. Zebib’s heart for prayer, evangelism and hospitality showed God’s heart!

I am just sitting here in the office, listening to a boy call home to tell his parents: “Last night I gave my life to Jesus by asking Him to come and live in my heart! Could I get baptized?” What we are doing is making such a difference! God is doing good things through us and the kingdom of heaven is growing! ‘He who called you is faithful, he will surely do it.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

In September we helped Matt’s former student (Gwladys) from Martinique move into her dorm at Acadia University in Wolfville. When we reconnected during our winter retreat, we were surprised to hear not only that Gwladys’ roommate, Vanessa, was also at camp, but that she had just recently became a Christian in October! Praise God that students are still coming to faith! Aimee was able to hear Vanessa’s faith journey, from Gwladys inviting her to church, to them going to a retreat in October, where she felt God moving and she decided she wanted to follow Jesus at a church service where she was baptized that night! We have been so encouraged, and delighted to hear how the Holy Spirit was stirring in her heart, and we rejoice that a new sister has joined the kingdom. Please pray for Vanessa as she now starts this long journey of faithful obedience to God.

Our Brock Leadership Team studied the book of Acts this year. We can say we have seen the themes of Acts 2:42-47 occur on our campus! First of all, Brock, McMaster, Windsor, and other campuses are genuinely enjoying “the teaching of the apostles, the breaking of bread, and prayer…they have much in common… and they continue to meet together on a daily basis.” Whether on campus, or at their respective churches, students experience joy from being with one another and praising God together for what He has done.

Julia is doing her PhD in Psychology at the University of British Columbia. When I first asked her about co-leading a Bible study with me last summer, she hesitated. She didn’t have experience with leading Bible studies and worried she might not know enough. I encouraged her to consider that we minister as before the face of Jesus. Before him, no one in this world is an expert. All of us are learners; always. Throughout the year, I have seen Julia grow in her passion and engagement with scripture, and live her life according to the Biblical story. I have seen her invite friends, show leadership, and share love and welcome and hospitality. She has made this ministry her own!! I’m deeply encouraged by the way that Julia is deepening her allegiance to Jesus our King.

The Fellowship at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay is led by a strong group of students. I was able to visit them in early march to join them on their retreat and attend their weekly Bible Study and Leaders’ Meeting. Throughout the week, I was consistently amazed by the student leaders grounded presence, courageous modeling and attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. During one of the Bible studies on campus, there was deep emotion as students wrestled with Jesus’ charge to his disciples to leave everything they had to follow him in Like 18. The students leading the study navigated this tender situation with wisdom, grace and deep kindness for their peers.

At Scripture Camp in early May, we offered a Workplace Track where 10 graduates who have had connection with InterVarsity in the past attended to consider what scripture says about work. Over 4 days, we studied passages in Daniel and Revelation along with the larger theme of biblical covenant to contextualize what it means to be people “in exile” within our workplaces. We represent Christ, but our workplaces often do not, so how do we do this within work culture? We also shared at length with each other about discerning God’s direction around vocation and career. It was a deeply valuable retreat for all of us. I am excited to offer workplace small groups to upcoming graduates who remain in Ottawa.

Prayer was a big theme during Leaders-in-Training (LIT) this past summer. One of the guys set a goal of praying for the other 27 guys individually. No one had suggested he do it. He decided all on his own. Many of the guys were really blessed by this. This was also the first year that I have been working with LIT that we had fewer behavioral issues with the guys and they were much more willing and ready to learn and grow. I think prayer and examples of good leadership played a role in this.

More than 60 volunteers support our ministry on Vancouver Island, a great encouragement to Campus Ministers Alan Thorimbert and Terri Harburt. The volunteers serve in so many ways: they pray; they bake treats for weekend retreats; they welcome students into their homes for dinners. Their gifts of hospitality are making a big difference in students’ lives.

Bible study was wild today! There were 17 people and they stayed the whole two hours! Believers brought their friends — twelve of them were brand new! Believers being encouraged by meeting other believers! We read all of 1 Corinthians…and unbelieving folks chatted throughout with their various questions about Christianity to their friends or among one another as believers…They introduced each other to The Bible Project…it was a fun time!”

We’ve been in one spot long enough to see former students returning to do research. One from 13 years ago is back and introduced us to another visiting scholar who is keen to know about Christianity and the Bible. At their first study Shirley showed the researcher where they’d find the Jesus stories, to which she responded, “No, I want to start at the beginning. I want the context!” Pray for these Bible studies, that this woman would come to know Jesus.

At IFES World Assembly, I had the opportunity to lead a small group with staff members and directors from the USA, Tanzania, and Nigeria. I was very encouraged by the members of my small group who provided me with an abundance of wisdom and practical steps to reach students on my campus. They encouraged me to integrate my campus group more into campus life by fostering meaningful conversations with non-Christians on campus and inviting them to serve at local organizations with our group. In Psalm 9, David is touched by God’s goodness and is compelled to share what the Lord has done for Him. When we studied this Psalm at World Assembly, I was touched by David’s exclamation of God’s goodness, and after hearing the stories of many other attendees, I began to see the true value of sharing how God has transformed your life. This encouraged me to share the joy of the Lord with others by talking about His goodness, how He has cared for me, and how He transformed my life. While studying Psalm 90, we discussed the brevity of life and the eternity we have in Christ. Part of this discussion was centered around considering how we can raise up leaders behind us and pass things onto the next generation. As a student leader, this has inspired me to examine how I can better serve the students in my campus ministry and encourage my other student leaders.

For the first time since 2019, we were able to host TWO waffle nights in a semester at OCAD! We made and served approximately 450 waffles this term. In addition to the joy of resuming these outreach events, we had the opportunity to partner with alumni and other student groups on campus. One of our newer students, O (who had a class during our November event) was only planning to be at one of the two events, but at the end of the first night, she told me she was having so much fun that she’d try and free up her schedule for the next one, and she did! For most of the evenings, O was stationed near the entrance, and joyfully welcoming people and inviting them to participate in the collaborative artpiece that she helped create. She made people feel seen and cared for, even before they received a waffle! For these events, the art prompts encouraged participants to make some magnetic or black out word poetry. I loved seeing how people engaged with the artpieces and seeing students and volunteers take ownership in hosting and serving the campus.

What a joy to meet many new students during New Student Outreach the last week of August and the first week of September. We set up a table in a busy hallway not far from our office in HUB mall to meet students as they passed by. We are guessing 200+ students came by our annual Ice Cream Social as we went through about 72 litres of ice cream! About 85 (including volunteers and our family) were at our home for the first Friday night supper of the school year. We thank God for great opportunities to welcome and serve International students.

At our IFES World Assembly, 900 people from about 150 countries gathered together to journey through the Psalms. As I reflected on what I saw and heard, it is hard to put World Assembly into words. It was like a taste of heaven as we worshiped, prayed and read Scriptures in different languages. We also ate together and shared stories of God’s work. It filled my heart with joy and awe. Our days were packed and busy but we did have space to stop and have Selah, a reflection time where God invited students and I into the new season. Psalms are not just songs, it is book of wisdom. It was great to reconnect with other staff and students from IFES.

One of the highlights of my year was leading intercultural training for three different InterVarsity camps. Historically, our camps have been predominantly white — but nowadays, the campers and leaders are coming from many different cultures and even different countries. As the summer staff teams prepared to welcome hundreds of campers we began to reimagine how camp could become places where people of all cultures could flourish.

Here are some of the things staff reported back through the summer:

• “Kim, remember that [cultural simulation] game we played? I was hanging out with the Afghan campers and it was exactly like that game but in REAL LIFE! I had no idea what was going on, so I asked them to share some of their stories. It was so cool!” — Cabin Leader
• “In my country, the #1 cause of death among young children is drowning — so that means everyone learns how to swim. When a group of us staff went to go for an early morning dip in the ocean, one of the guys was taking forever to decide if he’d come or not. I was so frustrated! But then he told me that he never grew up swimming. It made me realize that I can’t just make assumptions about people. If a camper is hesitant to get into the water, I need to be patient and find ways to make them feel comfortable.” — Waterfront Staff
• “Kim, I made fried rice today, just like you taught me! I used to be so scared of doing it. The campers loved it!” — Kitchen Staff

This semester I started meeting with an international student from Latvia. I told her that ChSA does not have an official fellowship on campus just yet, but if she wanted to meet together to pray and study scripture, maybe we could start something new! She enthusiastically said yes and we started praying that more students would join us. A week later I got an email from another international student from Ireland. I wasn’t sure he would be interested in joining our very small group but he came to check it out and the three of us have been meeting regularly ever since. We have been talking about what a life committed to Jesus looks like as we read through the book of Luke. Please pray that the students would grow in their relationship with God, other students would join us and that we would find a way to meet on campus.

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