For\nalmost a decade, after the last students of the small campus ministry at\nPrinceton University graduated in 2008, we struggled to build a community of\ndisciples on that campus. However, God is always moving and it has been a\nfaith-building experience to reflect on how he has worked in Princeton the last\ntwo years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\nI moved to Princeton in New Jersey in the fall of 2015, I started as the only campus disciple <\/strong>with the local church in the\nregion only just beginning to meet on its own, still without any full-time staff.<\/strong> I joined the campus bible talk\nat a different university and grew alongside them for the first two years, but\nI definitely had my challenges as the only disciple in my school. I had to\nsacrifice a lot of time and money to travel much further than everyone else for\ncampus events. I struggled with feeling lonely and isolated from the other\ndisciples, and I faced persecutions for my faith on campus without a fall-back\nof a group of other students behind me. Although I struggled many times with\nstaying obedient, committed, and hopeful, I kept dreaming and praying that God\nwould build a ministry in my own campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These\nprayers were answered quickly the summer of 2017. Paris and Zainabu Cunningham\nmoved from New York City to lead the local church full time; a teen sister \u2014\nJamie \u2014 committed to starting Princeton that fall; a current student, Caton,\nwas baptised in Virginia while he was home for the summer; and yet another\nstudent, Jason, started studying the bible with our sister church in California.\nIt was truly a miraculous summer! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our\nfirst year as a small and very new campus ministry helped establish our\npresence on campus through bible talks and drew us closer together as brothers\nand sisters fighting for God on campus. We kept dreaming and praying, and the\nnext year we gained another sister who started graduate school at Princeton. We\nbaptised five current students and\nsaw many lives changed. In such a small ministry, it was evident that God\nneeded and used each person\u2019s strengths to build the group to where it is today\nthrough reaching out, leading bible studies, serving at church, and being a\nlight on campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nshowed us that the scripture saying \u201cthe harvest is plentiful but the workers\nare few\u201d is true and is true everywhere, even on college campuses that are\nhistorically sceptical of faith. Being on the other side of these last four\nyears, I never could have foreseen graduating\nwith a ministry of 9 strong disciples<\/strong> or even how God would come to change\nme, humble me, teach me, and use me in so many ways. Now I am looking\n forward to the coming year, as I continue working at Princeton and being\na part of the ministry here. I\u2019m excited for what God will continue to do\nthrough faith despite the fears and limitations of myself and my circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renee Louis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This June, not only did we see Renee graduate summa cum laude (highest distinction), but we also saw the impact she has had in Princeton the past 4 years. When we were there celebrating with Renee, many of her friends in Campus, staff at the dining hall (where she worked part-time), her professors and the christians in the Mercer County church came up to us and shared how Renee touched their lives in different ways. As we were basking in the summer sunshine on Campus, our hearts were glowing with pride, yet thankful to God for blessing our decision of faith 4 years ago. Most inspiring of all, we saw a thriving ministry of 9 awesome disciples in Princeton University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66,25,23],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n