August 18th: Our staff team started meeting to plan the upcoming semester of events!
August 21st: We invited our student leaders to a dinner to hang out and catch up after the summer away. These students are so important to our ministry and such a blessing. Some of them are living in the dorms for the purpose of doing ministry; some are athletes trying to influence other athletes; some are Greeks trying to reach out to the men and women in fraternities and sororities. ALL of them are trying to walk with God and share His love with those around them!
August 22nd & 24th: We passed out nearly 700 Freshmen Survival Kits. We do this every year as students are moving in to the dorms. Freshmen are able to get a laundry bag with a Bible, a book like Blue Like Jazz or The Case for Faith, a fun gift, and a set of hangers. The best part is that these are completely FREE!!!! Students fill out a quick questionnaire about their spiritual beliefs and let us know if they are wanting to get involved in a Bible study or if they want to talk with someone about a relationship with God. This year we had positive responses from more than half of the students who filled out the questionnaire.
August 25th: Classes start! Campus was buzzing the first day of class and our staff team gathered to pray together for the coming year. We also went out together to follow-up students who said they wanted more information about Campus Crusade or talk to someone about a relationship with God.
August 27th: Our first FUEL meeting! FUEL is the weekly meeting of Campus Crusade here at the University of Montana. Every Wednesday night at 8pm students come from all over campus to worship, hear from a speaker, and get re-charged in their faith. We have a band that is made up of students who lead us in worship! They are extremely talented. We meet in the largest lecture hall on campus and are praying that one day every seat would be filled with a student wanting to walk with God. This first meeting there were about 150 or so students!
September 2nd: I had my first Life Group in Knowles Hall! Life Groups are what we call Bible Studies. Our heart is that these would be places where students would be living life together and learning about God. I was so shocked when 5 girls showed up for that first meeting! This is my second year in Knowles and God has blown me away with His faithfulness. The following weeks I was able to see at least 9 girls come to Life Group! Please pray for Katie, Hillary, Meg, Kayla, Ashley, Megan, Maria, Sarah, Kathryn, Morgan, Jacki, Amelia, Melissa, and Emily.
September 6th: The Amazing Raft Race! This is one of our biggest events of the year and students look forward to it and talk about it all year long. This is a raft race that takes place on the Blackfoot river. Our student leaders captain boats and fill them with friends and hopefully freshmen. Then they take off down the river and have to complete different tasks ranging from trivia questions, finding $1 in change buried in the sand using only their feet, bobbing for onions and other things. The winners not only get bragging rights for the year but get to take their team out for a nice dinner. This year we had nearly 100 students come, many of them new to Campus Crusade!
September 12th: Bonfire time! This was so much fun! We wanted to do something fun and offer an alternative to the party-scene so we built a fire, ate some s'mores, and just hung out together. It was such a great time of community building for our students. About 60 students came throughout the night!
September 20th: MY FIRST GRIZ GAME!!! I now officially feel like a true Montanan after attending my first Griz football game. Not only did I get to go to a game, but I got to go to the Homecoming Game AND sit in the student section. Since I am a lover of sports, it was so fun to watch a football game, however, it was hard to watch the students around me. For the first time I really saw the depravity and darkness that students face every day in college. Please pray for this campus; that God would unleash His power into the hearts of students.
October 3rd-5th: Fallapalooza!!! Every year, we plan a weekend getaway for our students. We head up to a camp on Flathead Lake and spend a weekend hearing from a speaker, worshipping together, playing together, and enjoying God. I need a whole blog to write about this so check back soon! :)
October 13th-18th: We just wrapped up the iPod Outreach to the students living in the dorms. For one week students had opportunity to enter to win a brand new iPod if they would take a minute to fill out a spiritual survey online. I really wanted to enter, but I'll just have to get my iPod the old fashioned way. :) There were about 218 students who entered and we're praying that this will give us more opportunities to share the gospel with students who are desiring to learn more about God. Would you pray with us?
Well, that brings us up to date. Whew! That was a LONG blog. Thanks for sticking with it. I hope you're encouraged by what God is doing and how He is using YOU to help change lives here at the University of Montana. I couldn't do this without you.
