Project Wingnut Update: Surprising info discovered in the ASU Archives

After studying for my Spanish final this week I went to investigate the history of our fellowship in the Arizona State University Archives as the next step in Project Wingnut.

There I found the cross of our beloved Danforth Chapel on display! Apparently it had been removed from the chapel in 1990 after a court battle. It will only be on display until December 15th 2006 and then it's going back to the storage room. Read about it here: http://www.asu.edu/lib/exhibits/news/sensesacred.htm

So after a few hours rummaging through the Archives and after learning how to use a "card catalog," I discovered the October 15 1943 edition of the State Press. A headline on the front page reads "Inter-Denominational Society Organized." The article is about the founding of "Inter-varsity"at ASU! The founder's name is listed along with all of the officers, and even what the Tuesday night guest speaker spoke about!

This makes our chapter way older than anyone had imagined! This is so awesome, and a great step forward for the project! If any of you in the Fellowship want a copy of this, I made a copy of the whole four page October 15th 1943 edition, with its war bond ads and all.

A History of InterVarsity at Arizona State: The Birth of Project Wingnut

" I thought about the former days, the years of long ago” Psalm 77:5

A few months ago I again realized that I know of no one who can tell us anything of our chapter’s history before 1999 and obviously no student is around that remembers anything or anyone in IV before just a few years ago.
We seem so very retrospectively nearsighted. Shouldn’t we consider what has happened in the past? Shouldn’t we praise God for how lives have been changed because they were part of a community like IV? Wouldn't knowing this spur us all on to greater things? Doesn't anyone know when Intervarsity started at ASU? Shouldn’t someone investigate this subject?

And so, after some lengthy pondering and discussion, Project Wingnut was born.

The purpose of this project will be to investigate and write a brief history of the ASU IV chapter. I think this would be something that would eventually go on our webpage at least. So...we will be researching the University Archives and collecting information from our alumni regarding:

1) When did IV begin at ASU and who started it?
2) A brief chronology of important events in ASUIV history as known to you.
3) A brief description of what IV looked like during your involvement.
4) Information about you, when you got involved, what you got out of IV, etc.
5) All the names of people that you believe could provide us with further-reaching info and personal testimonies.

One of the main challenges of this project will be obtaining information from people from before the gap in the fellowship’s continuity during a period leading up to the year 1999. The length of this gap, and its cause, is hereunto unknown.

Michael and I will be working on this project during the break, but if anyone else is interested, will definitely be opportunities for delving into this with us. Email me.

Are you alumni of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Arizona State University? We need to hear from you. Email us at intervarsity@asu.edu

"I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done." - Psalm 143:5

Asian Bible Fellowship Large Group on Fridays

Our sister organization of sorts, Asian Bible Fellowship, meets on Fridays in the MU at 730. Check the screens for the location. We have been invited to attend, so join me there this Friday.

Asian Bible Fellowship

Fall 2006 Calendar

Aug. 18 – 6:30 PM - ABF Welcome Party! (456 E. Larkspur Ln. Tempe, 85281)

Connect Four

1. Connecting to God

Aug. 25 – “God-Initiated Connection” (MU 222 Mohave)

Sept 1 – “Rhythms of His Grace” (Location TBD)

Sept. 8 – “Seeing Him Everyday” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Sept.15-16 –Food for the Hungry “Making All Things New” Conference

2. Connecting to believers around you

Sept 22 – “Components of our Bodies” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Sept 29 – “Unity” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Oct 6 – “Overcoming Group Struggles” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Oct 13 – Praise Night (MU 085 Union Stage)

Oct 20 – “Being Others-Minded” (MU 080 Fiesta)

3. Connecting to people in your community

Oct 27 – “The Uniqueness of College” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Nov 3 – “Diversity and Reconciliation” (MU 080 Fiesta)

4. Connecting to the World

Nov 10 – “Social Injustices in the World” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Nov 17 – “Sharing the Good News with the World” (MU 080 Fiesta)

Nov 24 – International Thanksgiving Dinner (Location TBD)

Dec 1 – ABF Reflection night

Project Mayhem Update

We did it! Soapmaking went sooo well. No great catastrophes, no one missing limbs or eyes, my parent's place didn't burn down, no missing ingredients. I'm astounded... truly a blessing... This is going to be our greatest game ever. It was awesome to see everyone come out and help. We will have to make a soap page on our website...

Relive the Magic of ABF's Respond

It was February when Asian Bible Fellowship had invited the InterVarsity Multi-Ethnic Chapter to participate in "Respond: Humble Reflections Rendered to a Creative God." It was to be an event in which creativity and art would be displayed and performed as a response to the Creator.

ASUIV student leadership had found itself faced with a tantalizing opportunity.
But how to respond to God? Art? Song?

The thoughts were stirred around in futility until March 17, when the search for a 'response' drove a pair of leaders all the way to Blakely Manor in Seattle, to seek the counsel of the Beaver, a former leader in their ASU chapter. With the wisdom they received, perhaps mixed with the continuous rain, foraging for food in dumpsters, and torturously long back to back days of Settlers, creativity and clarity were soon to pierce into their classroom-stiffened minds.

Music from a band playing in the living room at the Blakely Manor's St. Patrick's Day party vibrated picture frames hanging on the wall in the small room into which the two had retreated from the crowds. They had convened yet again with the Beaver. It was 2 AM. Sounds of people jumping and shouting filtered under the closed door, while one of the two sat slumped in a threadbare futon, drifting in and out of consciousness, with rain and art sifting through his half awake mind. The few others were softly reading, almost chanting, pages of words and phrases from an Indonesian dictionary, pausing to hear the thump of Irish jig dancing beginning in the basement.

Someone left to get more soda bread. Then a spark of vision! The futon was now empty. Paper was in hand, figures were being drawn, outlines and sticks, platforms, wheels under hollow trees. The two chattered and laughed and others looked on in curiosity. Poetry, sculpture, trees…El Bee, of course.

Time was short. The pair was soon flying back to Phoenix to share the vision with the others, to procure materials, and measure the back hallways of the MU and ride the freight elevator.

The answer they searched for was found in nature, where God speaks so clearly and so constantly and still many fail to hear Him there. This tree was made to celebrate Him, His voice, in nature and trees, in symbolic destruction and creation, to celebrate the best response to Him in the true acknowledgment of a changed life.

A familiar enemy visits our table

The devil appeared for a brief moment while the InterVarsity guys were tabling this Tuesday. This daylight sighting was a shock to many spiritually naive onlookers, but to faithful Christians, well, we almost expect to have the devil harass us when doing the Lord's work, bearing the wounds of the enemy’s fiery arrows like crowns of heavenly honor.
He felt quite discouraged by our pious presence there, as seen in this photo taken by Miss Nguyen, and resorting to puffing himself up in his proverbial fashion, he made futile attempts to scare us away.
Undaunted, Colin led the faithful few in the Lord's Prayer as Andy and I knelt beseeching our Heavenly Father for strength. The enemy realized once again that the victory had already been won long ago on Calvary's hill, and he let out a shrill snort of defeat as angels began to smite him with lightning bolts from Heaven's pearly gates.
In a recent prayer meeting it was revealed that because of the devil’s personal preference for ASU, for convenience he has compelled his angels to tow the depths of Sheol closer to Tempe than anywhere on this rocky orb. (The heat here obviously attests to this fact as the earth’s crust beneath the city thins for more rapid soul descent during the mid-year months).
As Heaven’s punishment struck the area around the MU, the earth trembled, and opened up as crowds of sinners were carried alive down to Sheol right through the hair-thin crust that often separates the Tempe campus from that fiery inferno.
Suddenly the earth was still, and the ground had closed up. The sound of a mall preacher on the corner startled us as his voice had grown louder and more shrill. We glanced over at him, and when we looked back, the devil had strangely disappeared, but I had a feeling that he had not gone far.