Our New Year's Prayers 2024

Theologian Bernard Lonergan once wrote, “Conversation is the ultimate experience of being in love.” In embracing Lonergan's profound insight, my prayer for the Cornell community in 2024 is that God will move us to become agents of compassion by loving our neighbor through genuine conversation. Moreover, I pray that God will compel us Cornellians to engage in heartfelt and intentional discussions, so that we may break down barriers, foster understanding, and create a community where love and empathy are the driving forces of positive change. I deeply desire that our interactions be a reflection of His divine love that transcends our differences, unifying us in our shared humanity and collective responsibility to uplift one another.

Thus, we went around campus and asked students from the Christian fellowships here at Cornell the following question: With the arrival of the new year, what do you pray that God will bring to Cornell in 2024?

Lydia Yoon, Bethany Christian Campus Church

**Favorite Bethany Memory: Fall Retreat ‘23**
I pray that God would bring revival to Cornell — that people would encounter the perfect love of Jesus; that there would be a revival within fellowships and churches to not be marked by lukewarm Christianity, but that the Holy Spirit would establish and restore the fear of the Lord – and that God would raise up more laborers who will carry the burden of His heart for this campus. I pray that the Holy Spirit would be poured out over Cornell, giving not just students, but faculty and the people of Ithaca, a fresh filling that marks them in a way that brings them back to the Cross in a fresh surrender, saying, “Jesus, you are worthy of my everything.” I believe God loves Cornell so much and desires every soul to be saved – and He’s not looking for sacrifice or something flashy that the word “revival” might connote; He’s looking for lovers. It begins with a revival in the hearts of man.

**Nicolas Paslar Bunemer, Christian Union Vita (CU)**

**Nicolas Paslar Bunemer, Christian Union Vita (CU)**
Favorite CU Memory: Bible Study Camping Trip, Spring 2023
With the arrival of the new year, I pray that God will put eternity in students' hearts. A lot of the time, we can get so caught up in our day-to-day, that we forget our lives are temporary. Internships, grades, relationships, and the stuff we accumulate will all be gone one day, just like we will. I think that a lot of people come across this reality, but brush it away because it's an uncomfortable thing to think about. Yet it's only uncomfortable because we are all inherently familiar with its truth, and sometimes weary of its implications. I pray that God would put that question in people's hearts and minds and that He would draw them to Himself by doing so. At the end of the day, God through Jesus Christ has answered the question of our eternity, and I pray that He would prompt people to ask and that we as Christians at Cornell would be there to answer them.

Toni Marcheva, Graduate Christian Fellowship

**Favorite GCF Memory: Easter sunrise service**
I pray for Cornell’s Christian community, that we can prioritize knowing and understanding our peers and colleagues. Our generation is suffering greatly from loneliness, from feeling misunderstood and from not feeling listened to. My hunch is that if we asked Cornell students if Christians deeply understand their hopes, dreams, struggles, and reasons for their convictions, they would emphatically say no. We’re not loving our neighbors by providing friendships so needed. We need God to build our love for our neighbors especially in this year–when wars and violence wound and anger our community, when the election fills us with anxiety and dread. I pray that as we learn to love and know others more, we will feel more loved and known, because we need it too. I pray that as we learn to listen and understand, we will also feel open to sharing and feel heard.

Ambrose Yang, Chinese bible study(cbs)

**Favorite CBS memory: Spending time on campus with other CBS members**
*Deeper in love with You, deeper in love with You, I love You more than anything in life…* As I was listening to these words from the song “Deeper in Love with You” by Robert and Lea Sutanto, I was imagining a family of believers embracing each other, joined together by our common love for the Lord and by our common pursuit to be deeper in love with Him. So often we are worried about whether we are *doing the right things*: whether we have the right balance between academics and ministry, whether our fellowship is holding the right events, whether we are spending the right amount of time reading the Bible, praying, or meeting up with people. Yet focusing on these for their own sake can tie us in a straitjacket of rules: more of this, less of that, too much of this, too little of that. My prayer is that in this new year we will all strive to be *deeper in love with God*, and that we may help others do the same. The deeper we are in love with God, the more apparent the love of Christ will be in us, and the more meaningful our ministry will be.

Carleton Perkins, CRU

**Favorite CRU Memory: Samaritan’s Purse Trips!!!**
Alas, 2023 was a year that saw division on so many scales. Indeed, apart from self-facing and cutthroat competition on campus, there’s the war in The Ukraine, political division, war between Israel and Hamas, and much more. These events, and ongoing circumstances have fractured our campus in many unfortunate ways. So, my Hope for campus and the world, in this New Year, is for God to reveal and teach His Perfect love in Radical ways. My prayer is, indeed, that God would teach us all to love our neighbor -- especially if they hate us. Imagine a culture of shocking displays of self-sacrificing love modeled after Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice: helping a struggling classmate succeed despite the curve, or having a meal with someone who has different views. May Cornell be a Caring, Connected, and Passionate Community, in Jesus’ name.

Serena Wang, Asian American InterVarsity (AAIV)

Favorite AAIV Memory: Monday Small Group Testimony Night!

“For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” ~ Isaiah 35:6

In the absence of Truth, Cornell is like the wilderness, but God’s Word is as refreshing, strengthening, and life-giving as streams in the desert. My prayer is that God would bring a revival to this campus, where more and more students have a thirst for the truth, courage to speak the truth, and a love to abide in the truth. My hope is that He would raise up a new generation of Christians who act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). My desire is that the unreached would experience the newfound freedom that is in Christ Jesus and know that it is His Truth alone that sets us free (John 8:31-32).