Starting the year out right.
We’ve had a good and busy beginning of 2024. As you can see from the pictures below, we have had endless engagements with students at the university, students with all kinds of beliefs and backgrounds. We have spoken with Jews and Muslims, Catholics and Protestants, atheists and agnostics, and other various groups. Students come from all over the world to our universities. Doing evangelism at the university gives us the opportunity to touch nations without ever leaving the country. For example, I spoke with a young lady named Sophie just a few weeks ago. She is from Austria. I summed up our encounter in a Facebook post:
One student I spoke with was a young lady named Sophie from Austria. She told me that she didn’t believe in God, nor was raised in any religion. I told her about Jesus and the gospel, gave her some evidence for God, and gently answered her many questions. I sensed the Spirit working in her heart. There happened to be a group from a ministry on campus only a few yards from us. I called over one of the young ladies from the ministry and introduced her to Sophie. Amazingly enough, this ministry had a special outreach just for international students and was meeting this Friday. She invited her, got her number, and promised to follow up with her! She is at UF for one semester. Perhaps the Lord brought her here just for this!
Continued below…
I don’t know if Sophie will come to the Lord or not, but what I do know is that God moves people around for a reason. He knows how to get the right people in the right place to accomplish His purposes and His plans. Who knows if the nation of Austria could be impacted by her life.
God’s People on Campus
We encounter quite a bit of Jews on campus. I have been surprised that there are so many. In fact, we hardly have one day of evangelism in which we do not encounter at least one Jewish student. They are not always open to the gospel, with some of them citing only the fact that they happen to be Jewish as their reason for rejecting Jesus. However, sometimes God moves in their hearts. The following is an account of a Jew I spoke with a few weeks ago:
A Jewish student stopped to talk to me. He was very open to what I had to say. After going through the gospel with him, I asked him what might prevent him from trusting in Jesus. He said, “Because I’m Jewish.” I said, “That’s wonderful! Jesus is Jewish, all his disciples were Jewish, and the New Testament is written by Jews.” I proceeded to explain to him that Jesus is the Jewish savior of the Jewish people who was prophesied over and over again in the Old Testament. I showed him how Jesus was rejected by His own people, just as Moses was at first, and Joseph, and Jeremiah, and all the prophets. I told him that His suffering and rejection was foretold in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. I explained from Daniel 9 that the Messiah had to come and die before the destruction of the 2nd temple. And I reminded him that forgiveness only ever came by the shedding of blood and that Jesus’ sacrifice was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. I finished by opening my bible to Jeremiah 31 and reading about the New Covenant that God promised to establish. I believe it was a wonderful ‘God moment,’ for the words flowed from my mouth with a supernatural ease. He left with the gospel of John in his hands. Pray with me that this Jewish boy finds his Jewish Messiah.
Continue to Pray for Us
We are believing for a mighty move of God at the campus of the University of Florida. University campuses may be a cesspool of sin, but the Scripture declares that ‘where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.’ I am praying that God convicts these students of their sin and shows them the vanity of it all. They think they are doing what will make them happy, but it only leads to misery and death. However, the way of the righteous is like the shining of the sun, shining ever brighter. Convincing them to see this is no easy task. We need the Spirit of God to be merciful to them and to touch them. Pray with us that He will do just that.
Continue also to pray for the Chaffee family. Baseball season has started and I am coaching my sons’ team! I am excited about coaching and believe that it will be a special time with my sons. However, it is a big time commitment, and I am a busy man! Please pray that God will give me the grace to be able to accomplish all the things that I need to do! Continue also to pray for our church. We have big prayer request this year as a church. We’re believing to double our missionary giving, grow our congregation, increase our finances, and pay off one of our mortgages! These may be some lofty goals, but we serve a big God! Please pray with us that God would do exceedingly above all that we could ask or think. In Jesus name, amen!
Hal Chaffee Ministries 