As a result of recent retreats, several students have gotten excited about sharing their faith. As a student, Mike helped establish a culture of evangelism at Illinois using a tool InterVarsity calls GIGs. GIGs [Groups Investigating God] are Bible studies that students lead with their non-Christian friends to help them explore who Jesus is. This semester, Mike and Annie are hoping to launch a new culture of GIGs at Purdue with both Purdue IV and Greek IV. Over the next few weeks Annie and Mike will work together to gather and train students so they can launch their own GIGs with their friends. It’s a fun opportunity where our chapters’ missions overlap as they share the gospel with their friends. Please join us in thanking God for new partners and praying for them as they step into new pieces of ministry.
In the next few weeks Annie and Mike are looking forward to welcoming some new partners in spreading the gospel on campus as we have two new staff join us at Purdue. Phil [Purdue IV] and Ross [Greek IV] both graduated from Purdue in May and have been raising funds to join us as staff at Purdue. They have both recently moved to West Lafayette to start campus work part time. We’re grateful for peers on campus and prayerful that funds will continue to come in so they can join us on campus full-time!
As a result of recent retreats, several students have gotten excited about sharing their faith. As a student, Mike helped establish a culture of evangelism at Illinois using a tool InterVarsity calls GIGs. GIGs [Groups Investigating God] are Bible studies that students lead with their non-Christian friends to help them explore who Jesus is. This semester, Mike and Annie are hoping to launch a new culture of GIGs at Purdue with both Purdue IV and Greek IV. Over the next few weeks Annie and Mike will work together to gather and train students so they can launch their own GIGs with their friends. It’s a fun opportunity where our chapters’ missions overlap as they share the gospel with their friends. Please join us in thanking God for new partners and praying for them as they step into new pieces of ministry.
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At the beginning of school each year there is hope for what God might do in the lives of students at Purdue. We are blessed to have a front row seat as we watch what God does on campus. Though we are in the front row, we are not the only ones that God uses to reach students at Purdue. We would not be able to do the work we do with students without our many partners. We are so grateful each day to have people that are providing prayer and financial backing to our ministry. Hopefully this newsletter serves as your window into our view of campus! As we gather our students on campus we often tell them of the people that are praying for them, and they are amazed that people they don’t know would pray for them. With the school year comes a new fiscal year as well. Because of our faithful partners in years past, we are not in a bad position financially. This year we are being encouraged to raise the full amount possible. This increased budget means we have substainial need still for this year. Over the next few months we are hoping to be in touch with many/if not all of you, either through phone calls, e-mails, or visits. We’re looking forward to hearing an update from your lives and exploring ways that we can continue to partner with one another. Thank you again for your continued generous partnership in advancing God’s Kingdom at Purdue! For Christ & The University,
Mike & Annie Camps with InterVarsity are often times God uses to bring people into closer relationship with Him. On our Global Project to Russia, we spent 11 days at camp. We found out God uses camp in Russia in similar ways he does in the United States.
Our main task as an American team was to teach English, however we left feeling like we had learned more than we taught at times. We saw how God move not only in the lives of those attending the camp, but also in our own lives. We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to partner with CCX on this trip. We weren’t sure how we would do tent camping for 11 days – okay, Annie wasn’t sure she could do it. But the campsite was beautiful! It was by a lake and it was astounding to take in the beauty of God’s creations. There was a lot of attention to detail around the camp, everything fit into the theme of “King Arthur.” It was clear that the student leaders and volunteers took pride in their work. It was also clear that those volunteering in the kitchen truly cared for those they were serving. Our food was incredible, and those serving were friendly and hospitable. During English lessons, we were pleased by how engaged and teachable the student were. We were impressed by how many students improved their English skills significantly. Throughout the week we discovered that even bigger lessons were being learned. An exchange of cultures was happening as we talked at meals, bonfires, or during free time. We learned and observed great aspects of Russian culture. We repeatedly saw how hospitable Russians are. We were honored to participate in Russian traditions, celebrating Mike’s birthday and our anniversary while we were there. At the same time we explored American culture together as we discussed family life, cultural issues, sports and other traditions. Throughout the time we also got to debunk some stereotypes of our cultures. In these moments, we felt the invisible wall between our cultures begin to come down. The greatest thing we gathered was a bigger view of the God that unites us. Through our discussions we wrestled with philosophical questions. We built relationships and saw people begin to consider how God might play a role in these deep questions. We also saw how Russians reflect the creativity of our God. We played unique games, designed costumes, and lived in a kingdom as we served the King of Kings together. Each evening we gathered around the campfire to worship through music and testimonies. Though we didn’t know every lyric, we reflected on the vastness of our God that He could be worshiped in many languages. At the end of the week it was our joy to see people commit to following Jesus for the first time, and heard how encouraged others were through their participation in the camp. Ultimately, it was a joy to serve with CCX. As we adjust to being back home we bring these stories, and more, with us. We bring new friendships and a bigger understanding of our God back as well. We are excited to share about our experiences with you. We will continue to pray for students in CCX and all of Russia and hope you will join us. We are incredibly grateful for our time in Russia and at camp and how God moved in the Russian students and in us. Click here to see a video one of the Russian students made about camp As you may know, our jobs with InterVarsity give us many opportunities to do fun and life-changing things. This summer we have another adventure coming up. We are going on an InterVarsity Global Project to Russia! The four-week trip will take us to St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk. We will be travelling with our supervisor, Robert, and his wife, Kathleen, and four students. We are excited for this trip and how it will impact us and the Russians we meet. We will be gone from June 22 to July 18. We will fly into St. Petersburg for orientation. We will be working with CCX [ess-ess-ha], the Russian equivalent of InterVarsity. While in St. Petersburg we will host a few seminars for the Russians students involved with CCX. We will then fly to Chelyabinsk and participate in 10 days of an evangelistic camp organized by the Russian students and CCX staff. Apparently, Russian students really enjoy camps like this. The American team will be part of the draw because for many Russians speaking English is a highly desired skill. As we share the Gospel with them we will help them learn English. And maybe we will pick up a little Russian while we’re at it! Due to the political situation in the Ukraine, we are drawing up alternate plans to serve in another country with their student ministry if needed. However, our hope and desire is to serve in Russia. We would appreciate your prayers that we are able to go and serve the Russian students. Thankfully the current situation does not effect our trip and we pray that continues to be the case. We would like to invite you to partner with us in this exciting opportunity. Each person on the trip needs to raise $4,250, which means we need to raise $8,500. This covers travel, room and board, and miscellaneous expenses while we are in Russia. If you would like to contribute, you can make a check out to “InterVarsity Christian Fellowship” and return it using the enclosed envelope. All contributions are tax-deductible and you will receive a receipt. We will call in the next few weeks to see if you have questions or want to know more about our trip. Feel free to contact us by phone or email. Thank you for considering how you might be a part of our trip! For Christ and the University, Mike & Annie Zientara Mike: [email protected] 847.533.2513 Annie: [email protected] 614.738.1093 This summer we have an exciting opportunity to step out of our comfort zone. Neither of us have been out of the country except for short vacations. In June and July we will be joining a team of InterVarsity staff and students to go to Russia! We will be partnering with CCX (pronounced s-s-ha), the Russian sister movement to InterVarsity. Our team will help the Russian students hold a leadership conference and an English-speaking evangelistic camp. Russians love to learn English so these camping trips can be very popular.
We are looking forward to this trip but know there will be challeng-es. We have read plenty of books on crossing-cultures but it’s another thing to actually do it! We hope we can teach the Russian students, but we know we will learn so much from them too. For Christ and the University, Mike & Annie In our last letter we told you that we had begun house hunting. The hunt is over! We have moved into our new home and are settling in. God certainly provided this home for us – we bought it before it even went on the market! One of our favorite features is the open living room, kitchen, and dining room lay out. We can’t wait to have people over. Then we might finally get to use all the serving dishes we received as wedding gifts! The house is part of a neighborhood that the city rebuilt as part of a federal grant to improve the area. During closing, the woman who works for the city was saying the neighbors often have cookouts and progressive dinners. We are excited to become part of the community and build relationships here. We are thankful for God’s provision. For Christ & the University,
Mike & Annie Z. We have embarked on a new adventure in married life (as if married life itself isn’t enough): we started house hunting! We plan to be in the greater Lafayette area for a while so we decided to look into settling into the community. We have looked at dozens of homes online and gone to a handful of open houses and showings with our realtor. We are looking forward to making this community our home and feeling connected to the people and the area. While dreaming about all the things that could happen in this new house is fun, there are very real fears and challenges that come with it! It’s scary to head into a new stage of life with new responsibilities. The challenge is deciding where we want to be and what to do with our apartment. Our lease is not up until July. We are seeking guidance from God and know if we depend on him things will work out. We appreciate your prayers for discernment in this process. And hope someday you might visit us in whatever house we end up with! For Christ and the University, Mike & Annie Recently, we got involved in the International Friendship Program at Purdue. The program pairs us with international students at Purdue that get to be our friends. This provides the students an opportunity to get into an American home, which unfortunately most don’t get to do. For us, it is a chance to learn about a new culture, and get to know even more students at Purdue. Last week we met our friends for the first time. Yi Yi, Ray and Zara are all students from Malaysia studying at Purdue. We learned about their favorite foods, which they hope to cook for us the next time we meet. As we shared about our lives, the two girls were particularly interested in our wedding pictures. They loved the fact that the guys had worn orange shoes [and couldn't believe how many shoes Mike owns]. We love that we are able to build relationships like this and it is another way that we can serve God as a team. For Christ and the University, Mike & Annie Mike and Annie have been adjusting to married life and now we get to adjust to life back on campus. The school year has started and it’s moving fast. Mike and Annie have enjoyed finding ways to be involved in each other’s ministries and the students’ lives. Since we both love our work and each other’s students, it can be a challenge to make sure we find time to rest. But we recognize more each day how much we appreciate working together. It gives us the flexibility to go to some events together. We hope that as we build relationships with each other’s students we can be an example to them of a God-centered marriage. As always thank you for your prayers, support, and partnership! Between wedding gifts and ministry support, we have been astounded this summer at God’s provision through people who love and care for us. Without you we would not be able to do these ministries that give us so much life.
At Epcot for our Honeymoon!
We can’t believe that we have been married for almost a month already. We had a blast at our wedding, and were blessed by those that could be a part of our wedding day. As we watched people dance the night away and enjoy conversations at tables we thanked God that our hopes had come true. In Luke 14 Jesus says that the Kingdom of God will be like a wedding banquet, and we hoped that ours would reflect that. We believe that it did, and we couldn’t be more thankful to our family and friends that helped make that happen! A central theme in our wedding sermon was that, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Robert, our supervisor gave the sermon and wanted us to know that we would never walk alone. The people who were there were encouraged to remind us of that fact often by texting us the acronym YNWA. The reality is, we are constantly reminded that we never walk alone into our ministry because of our partnership with you. Thank you so much for your continued support of our ministry. As we begin another year on campus at Purdue, your partnership is crucial to us. If you ever have questions about the ministry, want to know how you can pray for us, or just want to remind us YNWA, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you for being a part of God’s plan for Purdue. |