aftermath

Missouri Area staff and students at Fall Con 2010

Fall Conference was pretty great! I think it stretched our staff team to pull the whole thing off and lead in different capacities. I think it stretched students as they were called to live as bold witnesses for Jesus on campus. It's good to be stretched.

We talked a lot about how easy it is to say "yes" to Jesus when you're spending a weekend surrounded by other students who are excited to respond to God's call. It's not always so easy when the retreat is over and you're back on campus surrounded by friends who haven't had the same experience that you've just had. Before we all went our separate ways on Sunday afternoon each fellowship had a chance to meet together to plan how we would apply what we had learned.

I sat down with the two students, Jenn and Valerie, from Wash U Christian Fellowship to come up with outreach ideas that we could do on campus. We ended up deciding to host a game night for Valerie's floor in her dorm. Valerie is a freshman at Wash U and she is fairly quiet and reserved. I wasn't sure how she'd fare when it came to inviting her neighbors to a game night so that we could build more relationship with them, but she was enthusiastic about the idea and so we went for it.

Last Friday night I showed up in the lobby of Valerie's dorm with homemade cookies and Apples to Apples. Students from her floor began to gather and everyone who walked through the lobby was invited to play with us. We played for four hours with a rotating group of 8-12 students. At the end of the night one of the students commented that this was the most social the floor had been since before classes began. I am excited to help Valerie continue to build relationships with her neighbors and to discover those who are curious about Jesus.