Students reaching Students for Christ

Often when I raise support, I invite people to help me reach students as they reach other students for Christ. This year moreso than any of my other years on staff it’s been clear to me that every single person who’s come to an outreach event, potluck or bible study has done so because of a relationship with someone in our community.

It’s been thrilling to come alongside my students as they boldly reach their peers and share the hope they have in their life.

“You spend a lot of time with these people,” is how a conversation started with AP and her coworker N started. For N, an international Masters student taking 3 courses and working 2 jobs; she couldn’t understand why AP would spend so much of the time she could be working on her thesis, on campus with this community. And so, rather than tell N all the reasons why she chooses to invest in this community, she invites her to come to dinner with us. And then she invites her to come to other outreach events we’re hosting. And then, this summer she’ll invite her to be part of a seeker study with some of their other coworkers.

When I think about the odd community of leaders I had serving alongside me this year, I’m struck at how they are remarkable and unremarkable at the same time. Did I lose you?

Here’s what I mean, each of the student leaders are involved in significant relationships with people outside of our community. RA as an RA in residence, Patchy in a large but intimate engineering program, AP with her Masters professor and colleagues, Dumplings with her Nutrition and Cooking Group friends and Swift, Pink and Beaker with their friends in classes and from high school. If I were to take a poll, none of them would say they have the gift of evangelism, but each in their own way have witnessed to those around them the redeeming work of Christ in their lives in ways that are both remarkable and seemingly unremarkable, as it just flows out of their lived experiences.

Each one has shared about this mysterious and intriguing campus group they serve with, and each one has come around as a community to love and care for each other’s friends.

X is a student who is friends with Patchy. He came to our last 2 events in the fall semester, and turned up at a bible study this February. The study was led by AP, and ended up being a space where X was able to ask his big questions about Christianity. AP then gave him her copy of a new seeker series we are launching designed by Becky Pippert. A few weeks after this study, RA went on a 2 hour walk with X to debrief his experience. She was able to hear his experiences, answer his questions and encourage him to keep asking questions and seeking to understand Christ. X is still on a journey of discovering Christ, but he now knows there’s a community that wants to journey with him.