New Student Outreach (NSO) is winding down. The first 6-8 weeks in fall, IV focuses on reaching out to new students. And I mean focus - we stand outside for hours handing out icy pops and getting to know anyone who walks by. College Station in August is so humid that walking outside feels like swimming, but instead of feeling refreshed, you end up hot, dehydrated, and disgusting. I'm proud IV students make the sacrifice. During NSO, we give away free food, play board games, spend a day at the lake, paint pictures. All with people we just met who may not stick around. But we hope they do, so we keep at it!
First week of school, SFA IV handed out 1400 fliers for Large Group, their new meeting to build community, cast vision, and worship God. SFA has 13000 students. They invited more than 10% of campus. They're seeing fruit from the hard work planting the new chapter. When I spoke at Large Group, a student who joined this spring helped me lead an ice breaker, a new student was leading worship, and another (gifted!) musician said she had always wanted to lead but had never spoken up. I'll share more from my talk in my prayer letter this month. Let me know if you don't get that but would like to pray.
Aggie IV grilled and chilled. We invited new students to head to a park just off campus for hot dogs, Ultimate frisbee, and good conversation. Our dog Jack was a big hit. We let him roam, begging for petting from everyone. I talked about food in Bryan/College Station with 2 new students. I love IV's multi-ethnicity - one of the new students was white with 2 adopted Korean siblings, the other a Latina from Laredo; both wanted to know where the good tacos were in town, learned about sriracha from me, and got excited to cook bulgogi in my kitchen.
Okay - last story! A&M IV held a joint Large Group with 120 students attending! My boss, Josh Howell, challenged us to trust that Jesus would get us to the other side, even in the midst of storms, to have faith, and to be loved by the Father. I've been wrestling with what it looks like to trust God. It's pretty cool when you're ministering to others and God speaks to you too.
We do all this because the first 2 months of college are crucial; students make decisions that affect the rest of their lives. Like who they hang out with, how they spend their time, and whether they'll follow Jesus. If they haven't considered the gospel before, they're more open, and those who grew up in church are at a crossroads - will they own their faith, or let it slip away?
Speaking of Crossroads, that's our new student retreat coming up! Sept. 27-28 Gulf Coast area schools (A&M, Rice, SFA, UH, maybe others) will dig into Matthew 14-16 and explore how to "Travel with Jesus." I'm planning our Small Group Bible studies and coordinating lots of details. Please pray for grace and wisdom for me!
Later this week, I'll share about my late-night, cross-cultural story-swapping with Thrive South Asian American students. We were all cracking up!
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