Its a fun time to be on campus. Freshman act like they know what they are doing but really they don't. Sophomores think they are the coolest people around. Juniors are just thrilled they are upperclassmen and seniors are covering up their freak out moments about 'real life.' Its fun to be a part of it. All the while, campus is busy and students want to do things!
That means we, Campus Crusade are busy doing a lot of things to capture student involvement and invite them into what we are doing.
Last week I spent a lot of time working with international students. The start of my week was spent on campus while the end was spent on my computer communicating back and forth with dozens of new international students.
This weekend, we have had two freshman events. Friday we hosted ultimate frisbee and ice cream on the quad and met about 30 new students. God willing, they will find Crusade as a safe place for them to investigate Christianity or grow in their faith. Tonight, we are a part of something called Plaza Live. Many student organizations will have a presence there, promoting their group and giving basic information. We will do just that, hoping to connect with new students.
Tomorrow morning, we leave with our leaders for a leadership retreat to Atlanta. We will only be gone until Tuesday night, but its a time for us to get away and connect with those students and help align us as a group for what the year will be like. Its at this retreat that Jeff and I will talk about our vision, mission, priorities, and steps we are taking to reach the campus. We are praying for our students to excited about what we have in store while getting to connect with one another. It should be a fun trip to Atlanta!
Wed the 19th is what I'm now calling 'the operation.' I'm likely the only one calling it that, but its just what I think of when I think of Wednesday! Here is the basic run down. We have 4000 jump drives, preloaded with gospel materials (videos articles, links etc) In the morning, we are giving them away to the freshman class in exchange for their contact info. That afternoon our student leaders will put their information into a database and then get in contact with each person (either through phone or text). We will be inviting those students to an event that night, free pizza and a social gathering, to hear about Crusade and what we are about. From there, we launch our freshman bible study. We hope to meet in that group for three weeks before dividing into smaller groups. Its a way to create momentum while building community among the new class. Its quite a lot of pull off, but could be great!
Other things on our plate that don't have dates, are distributing several hundred bibles in foreign languages to international students. We also have several hundred greek planners with gospel materials for the greek system. Everything we had out has a way to connect back to us (our weekly meeting, community groups, etc)
We will be launching a lot of new community groups in the next two weeks or so.
Needless to say, we are going to be quite busy. I keep reminding myself that we do all this because there are students at this university who don't know Jesus, and its worth going all out so that they might know the truth.
Thanks so much for following whats going on at Alabama. I appreciate your prayers and your investment in me!
Blessings
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