Impact Campus Ministries

Discussion on Islam and Koran | RECAP

brett776 — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:57:51 +0000

Tonight we were privileged to have Justin, one of our students from the University of Utah, explain some of the key beliefs of Islam and how those beliefs compare to Christianity. We also read parts of the Koran and discussed the life and history of the prophet Muhammad.

Sukkah–Remembering What God Has Done

tomneyhart — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:25:00 +0000

In Jewish tradition, when the Feast of Tabernacles was inaugurated, God told his people to build booths and live in them for seven days to remember how he had brought them out of Egypt and cared for them in the desert. In modern times the custom is to live in it if possible but if not to at least eat your meals together. The booth itself was fashioned out of impermanent materials and in such a way that at least one star would be visible through the branches that make up the roof.

Ultimately, as you would sit in one of these rickety booths, feeling the wind and the elements blow through the roof and walls, you realize that life and security comes solely from God and not from the structures we build around ourselves. It is the realization of reliance on God’s blessings.

While obviously I am not Jewish, the concept is a good one for me to focus on. It brings about a sense of insecurity and incredible blessing at the same time. Support raising is a little bit like a sukkah for me. A realization that I am placing myself in total reliance to God, asking him to lead and guide others to support our campus ministry. Remember what God has done and remember who God is.

Ministry Update — Summer 2013

marty.solomon — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:34:00 +0000

We interrupt this blog series to give you our regularly scheduled ministry update. Blog series to resume next week!Click here to view our latest newsletter. More →

BBQ + Discussion on Islam and Koran

brett776 — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:27:01 +0000

Click image for image credit

Join ImpactU this coming Monday, May 20 @ 7PM at Tommy’s house (directions) as we get together to grill out and enjoy summer!

We’ll provide hotdogs, brats, chips, drinks and more! Bring friends if you want and join us as one of our students from the University of Utah, Justin, will be sharing with us about the differences between Islam and Christianity. He will also open up a discussion on the Koran as well.

A Part of the Story

tomneyhart — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:22 +0000

Our daily life is part of bigger story, our life span is part of a bigger story still… one that transcends throughout all of God’s creation. It’s his story and we are a part of it if we claim our role in the partnership but that doesn’t mean our part in His story will be easy. I think the toughest part is to trust God’s story that he has created us to be a part in.

Part of that story for me is a role in campus ministry raising support and ministering on campus. Again it comes back to answering the call and trusting God and there are days when that is had to do in my own humanness. Here is an excellent excerpt from my friend and Impact staff member Marty Solomon. To view Marty’s whole post, click here.

“God chooses Abram because he (Abram) trusts the story and looks to the needs of others, not his own.

And if people will do that, God can use them to put the world back together. So immediately upon Abram’s act of faith (or trust in a Jewish mind), God extends the call to partner with Him in putting all of creation back together. God will use this trust time and time again to pursue wholeness in the world.

If we will trust that we have what we need and that God is for us and has given us inherent value…
If we will hear God’s words to Cain in the midst of our mistakes and failures, “Why are you angry? If you do what’s right, won’t you be accepted…?”
If we will trust that God has created the world good and believes that truth so much that He stopped creating and decided to rest and then invited YOU to join Him in this eternal resting and trusting…

God is still looking for partners.”

Tagged: Campus Minister Musings, Faith, Fundraising, Life's Journey, Trust

Buried in a Genealogy

marty.solomon — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:24:00 +0000

The twelfth chapter of Genesis will introduce us to one of the most significant characters in the story of God's narrative. A man by the name of Abram is approached by God and called to leave his father's household. Such a call is much deeper in nature than simply changing locations and moving away from family. In ancient eastern patriarchal cultures, your father's household is where you have your entire sense of identity. Your father's household is you security and your inheritance. It is your provision for the future, as well as your communal and relational infrastructure. Your father's household is what helps you define your vocation, your religious identity, and your socio-economic reality.

Abram is being asked to leave it all behind. Leave his identity behind. Leave his understanding of the gods and of security and of ethics behind and start a new journey with this new and mysterious Creator who calls with His voice.

And most of us have a basic understanding of where this story is headed. Abram will set out to follow the call of God and his faith will lead him to father the great nation that will become God's chosen priesthood.

But the Jews asked a question that, for them, demanded an answer.
WHY did God choose Abram?

For the western Christian, this question is futile. The Text doesn't tell us and besides (our Sovereignty friends tell us), God gets to do what God wants. If God wants to choose Abram and have no reason, He gets to.

But for the Jewish reader, you are not allowed to lay arbitrary statements like that on the Text in order to answer a good question.

If there is a good question, than the answer must lie in the Text.

"Well," the westerner responds, "too bad. We meet Abram in Genesis 12 and we're not told. Case closed."

But the easterner responds, "Ah, but we don't meet Abram in Genesis 12. We meet Abram in the genealogy of Genesis 11."

You see, for the Jewish reader, the answer to the question lies in four verses — Genesis 11:27-30.

"This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children."

As usual, the early readers noted that there were a number of things amiss in this passage. For one, why is verse 30 at the end of the passage? That makes no sense, it should be located up where the passage speaks of Sarai in the first place. Secondly, this passage breaks a cardinal rule of genealogical record: You don't mention women unless absolutely necessary and relevant to the genealogy. In light of this, why is Iscah mentioned? She has absolutely no relevance to the story.

And so the rabbis argued and argued and wrestled and wrestled. Eventually, they told a story — a midrash — in which Abram takes a wife; but it is not Sarai that Abram marries, but Iscah.

Now why would the midrash say such a thing when the Text clearly teaches it differently? Well, as the teachers dug into the story, they realized something. Sarai in the Hebrew means "my princess". If Iscah were a Chaldean (Mesopotamian) name, it would also translate "my princess". Could it be possible that Sarai and Iscah were actually, in fact, the same person?

If this was true, then the passage all of a sudden begins to make sense. The odd placement of verse 30 is because the entire story is actually trying to get you to realize that it's actually about Sarai/Iscah. It also explains why the genealogy includes the name of a woman who appeared to be irrelevant to the record.

But we still haven't explained why God chose Abram.

Well, as the rabbis continued to study the passage, they also noticed how there translation had recorded the Hebrew. The phrase, "Abram and Nahor took wives" was grammatically incorrect. The phrase had plural subjects ("Abram and Nahor"), but a singular verb. In other words, the Hebrew phrase read: "Abram and Nahor he took wives."

Now this wouldn't always be a call for alarm, except that we had seen this once already. Back in the story of Noah and the vineyard, when Japheth and Shem go to cover their naked father, the same grammatical issue is seen. "Shem and Japheth he took a garment and they laid it over their shoulders…" So the teachers taught that when you see this grammatical "mishap", it is the author letting you know that the subjects are performing a benevolent, altruistic act and they are of one mind together as they do it. They also noted that the first name listed gets credit for the idea. So, in the case of Shem and Japheth, it was Shem's idea to cover Noah and the two brothers were of one mind and agreement to do this together.

If this principle applies to Genesis 11, what it would mean is that the act of taking wives for Abram and Nahor was a benevolent, altruistic act. This immediately made sense. Haran, the father, has died. It is his job to provide for and marry off his daughters. If someone does not take care of their Abram and Nahor's nieces, they will struggle and eventually die without legacy, community and dignity.

It is Abram's idea to marry the nieces (not as weird as it sounds in their culture) and Nahor agrees. They are of one mind when they do this. What is also stunning about this teaching is that if it is Abram's idea, that means that he chooses the barren niece.

(I always have people argue with me that Abram doesn't know she is barren. Not only do I believe that the Text implies otherwise, but the assumption would be at best an argument from silence. Not only this, but the details in the story let us know that Sarah is as old as 60 and no younger than 40 when they marry. In the ancient eastern world, a woman marries as soon as she menstruates. If Sarah has not married at her age, what is the problem? Has she not menstruated? No matter the answer, Sarah would have been given in marriage the moment that she was believed to be fertile. If she has not been married, she would be considered "barren". In short, they know.)

Now, let this sink in. We just wrapped up what I called the "preface" of the story where we began to wonder if humanity was hopeless. We continued to demonstrate an inability to trust God's story and believe that we are OK. It appeared that there was no hope for our depraved state.

But Abram is the first person in God's narrative to trust the story. Because Abram believes that he has everything that he needs, he is willing to give up his own life — to lay his life down — on behalf of another. Because Abram trusts that God is for him, he is able to leave his father's household and let God redefine his identity. Because Abram trusts that he has inherent value, he is able to consistently walk in faith and teach his children to do the same.

God chooses Abram because he trusts the story and looks to the needs of others, not his own.

And if people will do that, God can use them to put the world back together. So immediately upon Abram's act of faith (or trust in a Jewish mind), God extends the call to partner with Him in putting all of creation back together. God will use this trust time and time again to pursue wholeness in the world.

If we will trust that we have what we need and that God is for us and has given us inherent value…
If we will hear God's words to Cain in the midst of our mistakes and failures, "Why are you angry? If you do what's right, won't you be accepted…?"
If we will trust that God has created the world good and believes that truth so much that He stopped creating and decided to rest and then invited YOU to join Him in this eternal resting and trusting...

God is still looking for partners.

* As stated before, most of my Genesis material (this post included) is guided by the teaching of Rabbi David Fohrman; I have also tried to link some additional information in this post to show the validity of the midrashic conversation.

** As a side note, it should be mentioned that I am not the expert for this discussion. My information is the result of an immense amount of personal study. I'm sure that many people would like me to link more sources, however, I do not have enough letters after my name to pose as an authority on the subject. My purpose with this blog series is not to try to claim to be the source, but instead to simply turn people onto to the things that they can look for from the people who ARE the experts. This is a place to learn where to start, not the source with which to finish. I feel as though that disclaimer is important. I believe that this wonderful "Information Age" we live in provides you with plenty of tools to check into the validity of my work and I encourage you to do so.

Buried in a Genealogy

marty.solomon — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:24:00 +0000

The twelfth chapter of Genesis will introduce us to one of the most significant characters in the story of God's narrative. A man by the name of Abram is approached by God and called to leave his father's household. Such a call is much deeper in nature than simply changing locations and moving away from family. In ancient eastern patriarchal cultures, your father's household is where you have your entire sense of identity. Your father's household is your security and your inheritance. It is your provision for the future, as well as your communal and relational infrastructure. Your father's household is what helps you define your vocation, your religious identity, and your socio-economic reality.

Abram is being asked to leave it all behind. Leave his identity behind. Leave his understanding of the gods and of security and of ethics behind and start a new journey with this new and mysterious Creator who calls with His voice.

And most of us have a basic understanding of where this story is headed. Abram will set out to follow the call of God and his faith will lead him to father the great nation that will become God's chosen priesthood.

But the Jews asked a question that, for them, demanded an answer.
WHY did God choose Abram?

For the western Christian, this question is futile. The Text doesn't tell us and besides (our Sovereignty friends tell us), God gets to do what God wants. If God wants to choose Abram and have no reason, He gets to.

But for the Jewish reader, you are not allowed to lay arbitrary statements like that on the Text in order to answer a good question.

If there is a good question, than the answer must lie in the Text.

"Well," the westerner responds, "too bad. We meet Abram in Genesis 12 and we're not told. Case closed."

But the easterner responds, "Ah, but we don't meet Abram in Genesis 12. We meet Abram in the genealogy of Genesis 11."

You see, for the Jewish reader, the answer to the question lies in four verses — Genesis 11:27-30.

"This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children."

As usual, the early readers noted that there were a number of things amiss in this passage. For one, why is verse 30 at the end of the passage? That makes no sense, it should be located up where the passage speaks of Sarai in the first place. Secondly, this passage breaks a cardinal rule of genealogical record: You don't mention women unless absolutely necessary and relevant to the genealogy. In light of this, why is Iscah mentioned? She has absolutely no relevance to the story.

And so the rabbis argued and argued and wrestled and wrestled. Eventually, they told a story — a midrash — in which Abram takes a wife; but it is not Sarai that Abram marries, but Iscah.

Now why would the midrash say such a thing when the Text clearly teaches it differently? Well, as the teachers dug into the story, they realized something. Sarai in the Hebrew means "my princess". If Iscah were a Chaldean (Mesopotamian) name, it would also translate "my princess". Could it be possible that Sarai and Iscah were actually, in fact, the same person?

If this was true, then the passage all of a sudden begins to make sense. The odd placement of verse 30 is because the entire story is actually trying to get you to realize that it's actually about Sarai/Iscah. It also explains why the genealogy includes the name of a woman who appeared to be irrelevant to the record.

But we still haven't explained why God chose Abram.

Well, as the rabbis continued to study the passage, they also noticed how their translation had recorded the Hebrew. The phrase, "Abram and Nahor took wives" was grammatically incorrect. The phrase had plural subjects ("Abram and Nahor"), but a singular verb. In other words, the Hebrew phrase read: "Abram and Nahor he took wives."

Now this wouldn't always be a call for alarm, except that we had seen this once already. Back in the story of Noah and the vineyard, when Japheth and Shem go to cover their naked father, the same grammatical issue is seen. "Shem and Japheth he took a garment and they laid it over their shoulders…" So the teachers taught that when you see this grammatical "mishap", it is the author letting you know that the subjects are performing a benevolent, altruistic act and they are of one mind together as they do it. They also noted that the first name listed gets credit for the idea. So, in the case of Shem and Japheth, it was Shem's idea to cover Noah and the two brothers were of one mind and agreement to do this together.

If this principle applies to Genesis 11, what it would mean is that the act of taking wives for Abram and Nahor was a benevolent, altruistic act. This immediately made sense. Haran, the father, has died. It is his job to provide for and marry off his daughters. If someone does not take care of their (Abram and Nahor's) nieces, they will struggle and eventually die without legacy, community and dignity.

It is Abram's idea to marry the nieces (in their culture, this is not as weird as it sounds to us) and Nahor agrees. They are of one mind when they do this. What is also stunning about this teaching is that if it is Abram's idea, that means that he chooses the barren niece.

(I always have people argue with me that Abram doesn't know she is barren. Not only do I believe that the Text implies otherwise, but the assumption would be at best an argument from silence. Not only this, but the details in the story let us know that Sarah is as old as 60 and no younger than 40 when they marry. In the ancient eastern world, a woman marries as soon as she menstruates. If Sarah has not married at her age, what is the problem? Has she not menstruated? No matter the answer, Sarah would have been given in marriage the moment that she was believed to be fertile. If she has not been married, she would be considered "barren". In short, they know.)

Now, let this sink in. We just wrapped up what I called the "preface" of the story where we began to wonder if humanity was hopeless. We continued to demonstrate an inability to trust God's story and believe that we are OK. It appeared that there was no hope for our depraved state.

But Abram is the first person in God's narrative to trust the story. Because Abram believes that he has everything that he needs, he is willing to give up his own life — to lay his life down — on behalf of another. Because Abram trusts that God is for him, he is able to leave his father's household and let God redefine his identity. Because Abram trusts that he has inherent value, he is able to consistently walk in faith and teach his children to do the same.

God chooses Abram because he trusts the story and looks to the needs of others, not his own.

And if people will do that, God can use them to put the world back together. So immediately upon Abram's act of faith (or trust in a Jewish mind), God extends the call to partner with Him in putting all of creation back together. God will use this trust time and time again to pursue wholeness in the world.

If we will trust that we have what we need and that God is for us and has given us inherent value…
If we will hear God's words to Cain in the midst of our mistakes and failures, "Why are you angry? If you do what's right, won't you be accepted…?"
If we will trust that God has created the world good and believes that truth so much that He stopped creating and decided to rest and then invited YOU to join Him in this eternal resting and trusting...

God is still looking for partners.

* As stated before, most of my Genesis material (this post included) is guided by the teaching of Rabbi David Fohrman; I have also tried to link some additional information in this post to show the validity of the midrashic conversation.

** As a side note, it should be mentioned that I am not the expert for this discussion. My information is the result of an immense amount of personal study. I'm sure that many people would like me to link more sources, however, I do not have enough letters after my name to pose as an authority on the subject. My purpose with this blog series is not to try to claim to be the source, but instead to simply turn people onto to the things that they can look for from the people who ARE the experts. This is a place to learn where to start, not the source with which to finish. I feel as though that disclaimer is important. I believe that this wonderful "Information Age" we live in provides you with plenty of tools to check into the validity of my work and I encourage you to do so.

I’m Going to Kenya!

Sarah Koutz — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:30:00 +0000

It has been a dream since I was in grade school to visit Kenya and the time has finally arrived. I wanted to post a copy of our itinerary so you can be praying for us. I look forward to sharing lots of stories with you when I return.

There are still a few uniforms that are needed for this trip. It is only $10 for each uniform. Please consider helping us with this project. You can give HERE.

-------------------

May 17-18: Travel to Nairobi. The team will travel in pairs to Amsterdam and fly together to Nairobi.

May 19: We will worship together with a church in Nairobi and Impact’s president, Bill Westfall, will be preaching that morning. We will have lunch with the church leaders after church and spend the afternoon exploring, picking up last minute supplies and adjusting to the time change.

May 20: We will spend the day at New Life Homes, touring the facility and getting a picture of their work. We’ve volunteered our time to help wherever we can while we are there.

May 21-23: During the three days we will be working with Missions of Hope International (MOHI). After going through an orientation, we will spend time visiting families that are living in the slums of Nairobi. We will also visit some of the schools that MOHI has established and gain an understanding the programs they are utilizing to combat poverty.

May 24: We will fly to Lodwar (Turkana) on Friday and begin to adjust to the heat of Turkana. (Yes, I am very excited about being in the 90 degree heat!)

May 25 - 26: We will spend time in Turkana visiting MOHI's school, as well as the Turkana Bible Training Institute. We may have a small work project at the TBTI. Our time here will focus on the importance of local leadership, as well as some historical perspective on missions in Africa. Sunday, we will visit a church in a village. During these days we’ll be visiting the school in Choki-Chok, where many of you have helped provide uniforms for students.

May 27: We will spend some more time with our host families and fly back to Nairobi. We’ll spend the night there and prepare to head to Narok the next day.

May 28-29: We’ll travel to Narok to be with New Mission Systems International’s ministry, AfricaHope. We will have a variety of activities here, mostly focusing on the topic of AIDS, and its impact on much of Africa.

May 30: We will rise early and head back toward Nairobi...the slow way. We will spend the day site seeing (on safari).

May 31: This will be our final day in Kenya. We will have the day to do some final shopping, site seeing, and debriefing.

June 1: Back home!

I’m Going to Kenya!

Sarah Koutz — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:30:00 +0000

There are still a few uniforms that are needed for this trip. It is only $10 for each uniform. Please consider helping us with this project. You can give HERE.

-------------------

May 17-18: Travel to Nairobi. The team will travel in pairs to Amsterdam and fly together to Nairobi.

May 20: We will spend the day at New Life Homes, touring the facility and getting a picture of their work. We’ve volunteered our time to help wherever we can while we are there.

May 24: We will fly to Lodwar (Turkana) on Friday and begin to adjust to the heat of Turkana. (Yes, I am very excited about being in the 90 degree heat!)

May 27: We will spend some more time with our host families and fly back to Nairobi. We’ll spend the night there and prepare to head to Narok the next day.

May 30: We will rise early and head back toward Nairobi...the slow way. We will spend the day site seeing (on safari).

May 31: This will be our final day in Kenya. We will have the day to do some final shopping, site seeing, and debriefing.

June 1: Back home!

Lessons in Trust

tomneyhart — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:43:34 +0000

There are moments when you come to the sudden realization that God is clearly directing you to a specific passage of Scripture. This past Monday I was on my way to South Bend for our Impact South Bend staff meeting. As I crossed the railroad tracks in town, I caught a red blur in my peripheral vision. Turns out it was a bright red cardinal flying along side the car about 10 feet away. Immediately my thoughts turned to the passage that Jesus spoke about the birds of the air. They neither sow or reap and yet God feeds them. I let the thought sit, and then turned my attention to dialing into the support raising accountability call I had that morning. On Tuesday, I was talking with my friend and co-worker in Impact, Brett Ricely, who had his push to be on campus last August. Brett encouraged me to spend some time on Matthew 6 because he had found it beneficial during his final push. On Thursday, as I met with a student and Matthew 6 came up again so I figured it was time to listen a little more closely to God’s leading. Two different people mentioned the same passage the “work” week started off with my thought on the same passage though I didn’t realize it at the time.

Support raising is not an easy task. Ultimately we are at God’s grace and mercy to provide, and He always comes through. The temptation is to worry when support doesn’t come in a way or time frame I think it should. During this final push for full support, my faith and trust in God is tested in so many different ways. Matt 6:25-34 is a daily must read for me as Jill and I push forward in our endeavor to be fully funded.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Tagged: Anxiety, Campus Minister Musings, Fundraising, Matthew 6, Worry