{"id":17404,"date":"2021-11-23T06:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/?post_type=prayerline&#038;p=17404"},"modified":"2021-11-23T16:08:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T16:08:43","slug":"closed-borders-renewed-connections","status":"publish","type":"prayerline","link":"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Closed Borders, Renewed Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block block-core-html\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Closed Borders, Renewed Connections through Alumni\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=mnn44-113bf99-pb&#038;from=pb6admin&#038;share=1&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;fonts=Arial&#038;skin=1&#038;font-color=auto&#038;btn-skin=3267a3\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>As the world was shutting down, in\u00a0the Caribbean\u00a0new things were beginning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>Bruce&nbsp;Fletcher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Francis Warner,&nbsp;two former&nbsp;leaders&nbsp;of IVCF in Trinidad and Tobago, were hatching a plan. Although the pandemic was just beginning and the Caribbean islands were closing their borders, Bruce and Francis saw a chance to remake some connections, reassembling those who were in IVCF alongside them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>If there\u2019s one thing that should never be underestimated, it\u2019s a WhatsApp group. Bruce and Francis quickly gathered 80&nbsp;people, all IVCF students from the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies between 1977 and 1981.&nbsp;Many were not from Trinidad and Tobago\u2014Bruce himself is from Jamaica\u2014and many now live elsewhere.&nbsp;Now&nbsp;mostly-retired&nbsp;professionals, most&nbsp;had&nbsp;not been in touch for over forty&nbsp;years. Bruce and Francis were hoping that these alumni would use what God had given them over the years to benefit the current cohort of IVCF students. The results that came were unexpected and wonderful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>They began hosting events that would create conversation about the impact of the pandemic in the region, and&nbsp;some&nbsp;began to meet every Saturday&nbsp;night&nbsp;to support one another in prayer and intercede for current IVCF students. The impact of this has reached across the world already. Cherelle Thompson is a second-year Medical Sciences student, who represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She praises God that the group \u2018undergirded my Olympic journey to Japan with their weekly prayers to heaven &#8230; Their petitions on my behalf were answered through relationships, resources and faith posture that I needed for every step of the journey\u2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>Group members&nbsp;have&nbsp;also supported IVCF practically.&nbsp;As many&nbsp;participants&nbsp;have felt called to give financially, the movements&nbsp;across the Caribbean&nbsp;have been sustained through the hardships of the pandemic.&nbsp;Group members have also offered to mentor young graduates.&nbsp;Bruce&nbsp;emphasises&nbsp;that as needs are identified across&nbsp;countries in the region, someone from the group is usually able to step in and help.&nbsp;There is an appetite to bring projects that are working in one place to the rest of the movements.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>\u2018Gladness and gratitude\u2019 are the words that&nbsp;Joel&nbsp;Chryskarsten, General Secretary of IS\/IVCF Trinidad and Tobago,&nbsp;uses to describe&nbsp;\u2018Our&nbsp;Legends\u2019,&nbsp;which is how the group is fondly referred to. He says that the financial support of individuals in the group \u2018was vital in helping ensure our financial stability&nbsp;throughout&nbsp;the fallout period of the pandemic.\u2019&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>Where could this go in the&nbsp;future?&nbsp;There are&nbsp;almost 15,000&nbsp;alumni of IVCF, which was founded in 1956.&nbsp;The \u2018Legends\u2019&nbsp;have&nbsp;also&nbsp;been&nbsp;discussing&nbsp;with&nbsp;Regional Secretary Marc Pulvar&nbsp;how&nbsp;other&nbsp;Caribbean&nbsp;alumni could be better connected, even those&nbsp;now&nbsp;living&nbsp;around the&nbsp;world. They&nbsp;are excited about what this&nbsp;could lead to, in the Caribbean and beyond.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-paragraph\">\n<p>Please pray with us for IVCF Trinidad and Tobago, the&nbsp;Legends&nbsp;group, and the CARIFES region:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-list\">\n<ul><li>Thank God that he provided for the Caribbean movements in the pandemic&nbsp;in this way. Thank God for the initiative and willing steps of faith of Bruce and Frank, and&nbsp;the servant-hearted spirit of all the alumni involved.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block block-core-list\">\n<ul><li>Pray that the current&nbsp;IVCF&nbsp;students&nbsp;would continue to be blessed and helped by the care of alumni, and that this would have an&nbsp;eternal&nbsp;impact as they continue to study and move into their adult lives.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Pray for the future development of alumni networks in the Caribbean and beyond, that God would use alumni to encourage, strengthen and bless student movements all over the world.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","area":[454,489],"theme":[],"class_list":["post-17404","prayerline","type-prayerline","status-publish","hentry","area-caribbean","area-trinidad-and-tobago"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Closed Borders, Renewed Connections &#183; IFES Prayerline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the world was shutting down, in\u00a0the Caribbean\u00a0new things were beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 Bruce&nbsp;Fletcher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Francis Warner,&nbsp;two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Closed Borders, Renewed Connections &#183; IFES Prayerline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the world was shutting down, in\u00a0the Caribbean\u00a0new things were beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 Bruce&nbsp;Fletcher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Francis Warner,&nbsp;two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-23T16:08:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/211109-TT-alum.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1212\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/\",\"name\":\"Closed Borders, Renewed Connections &#183; IFES Prayerline\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-23T06:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-23T16:08:43+00:00\",\"description\":\"As the world was shutting down, in\u00a0the Caribbean\u00a0new things were beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 Bruce&nbsp;Fletcher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Francis Warner,&nbsp;two\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/closed-borders-renewed-connections\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Prayerline\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/prayerline\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Closed Borders, Renewed Connections\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fru.ifesworld.org\/en\/\",\"name\":\"IFES\",\"description\":\"A movement of students sharing and living out the good news of Jesus Christ. 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