In This Issue:
- Dare to Hope
- Be Still & Retreat
- January Outreach
- Leadership Coaching
- NCF Student Membership
Welcome to Spring Semester 2021! I love how each new season holds the hope and promise of renewal and revival! We are praying for you this spring as you encourage, equip and empower nursing students on your campus!
Dare to Hope
Katharine Provost, BS, MA • NCF National Campus Staff Minister
I don’t know about you but as I compare the beginning of 2021 with 2020, they carry a very different feel. In January 2020, I was preparing for my dream vacation and doing well in my health goals but I can’t imagine what the next vacation will look like and health goals have gone out the window. Things change, plans get cancelled, we hardly know what the next few weeks will hold. I heard a radio personality say that this year people seem to be missing a desire to dream...to hope.
Many of us have given up trying to plan and dream because we just can’t imagine what the future will look like. But isn’t that exactly what we are told is the hope that faith requires in Hebrews 11:1?
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
How do we put hope in something we do not see or understand? The image of boats comes to my mind. They move from the current and winds but when they need to stay in a fixed location, they use an anchor that is firmly planted into something solid, not itself. For us, this is the solid trustworthiness of God.
In firmly planting our hope in him, we don’t need to have a lot of time, or for our circumstances to be perfect. Through small but intentional daily connections like prayer, worship, study, and solitude, we plant our anchor in his certainty and have the hope that God has more good for us that we may not see in our current situation. NCF chapters provide communities to grow in our spiritual discipline along with places for us to see the hope ahead. Yes, we lament together over the rough patches, but we also encourage each other to continue to press into God and look with his hope into the future.
So, let us take this time when we cannot see clearly what the future holds to be an opportunity to anchor our hope in the solid foundation, knowing that it will be growing our faith every time we put out our anchor through daily steps with God. A faith that God has purposed for good.
Be Still & Retreat
Join us February 6th at 10:30 am CST for 2.5 hours spent in worship, Scripture, small group processing breakouts and individual reflection as we start off our semester being still, letting the Lord shape us and direct us this spring! Click here to register.
January Outreach
Not sure how to reach new students? Check out our self-care Instagram graphics! You can take 30 minutes and create your own IG story to have a conversation with your friends and nursing classmates around self-care by copying and pasting the graphics we've provided. We have plenty of examples for you to choose from. It's perfect for January outreach as the semester starts!
Not sure about it? Join us for a one-hour training on how to have conversations with friends on Instagram! Click here to register. The training is Monday, January 25th at 8 pm EST / 7 pm CST / 6 pm MST / 5 pm PST.
Leadership Coaching
Leadership in a pandemic can be hard. Don’t reinvent the wheel; try one of these ideas gathered from NCF groups across the country. As always, you can reach out to ncf@intervarsity.org to schedule a 30-minute coaching session to plan next steps for your campus context. If you have not been meeting because of COVID, I encourage you to start. It does not have to look the same as it used to but now, more than ever, nursing students need an encouraging community around them!
NCF Student Membership
Did you know you can join NCF as a student for over half off the regular price of membership? For only $25 (online-only Journal of Christian Nursing access) or $35 (print + online JCN) for an entire year, you will receive all the benefits of NCF membership like FREE CE, discounts on nursing products (think scrubs, stethoscopes, and compression socks for a full day of clinicals!), books, members-only resources, and more! Join today and see how you can connect your faith and practice.
In Christ,
Student Ministries Director, Nurses Christian Fellowship/USA
jen.wojtysiak@intervarsity.org
