And I'm already exhausted.
It was an incredible week, but also super busy. I would leave the house at 8 am and get home at midnight. Even when I'd get home before that I'd still end up staying up til 2 am working on flyers, slides for our weekly meetings, etc. But it was totally worth it.
While this past week was by far the most intense week of ministry I've ever done in my life, it was also probably the most rewarding. Every day for four hours, we set up a tent and table on campus and passed out free Cru water bottles and asked students to take a one minute spiritual survey to gage their interest in Cru, God and spiritual topics. 800 students filled out a survey and received a water bottle, and we met even more just through our first week outreach events.115 students attended our first weekly "CRUcial" meeting, the most we've ever had! Many students came simply because they saw our table and wanted to check us out. We even met a freshman who grew up in Japan and has no spiritual background at all, but said she really enjoyed the meeting and even came to our other events later in the week!
Our events included a coffee & cookies hangout in one of the dorm lounges, going to the UH vs. USC football game (in which we sat in the student section and I had to use all my willpower not to cheer for USC too loudly), and a huge game of Capture the Flag on campus. These events were a major test for me, as we were so uncertain as to how many people would show up and how exactly the events would go. The football game especially, which was given to me to spearhead last minute, forced me to surrender my control to God since I honestly had no idea how to plan for it- not only had I never even been to the stadium, we were unsure of how many students would come, how many cars we'd have to drive, where to park, where to sit, what to do after...basically, the whole event was up in the air, and I just had to be ok with it. But it was great! Because God's bigger than my inability to plan. Every event was really a testament to His sovereignty. God brought new students to every event, students from every spiritual background and from all over the world, including international students from Japan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Norway, even Iran!
Last year, Hawaii Cru's director Shawn had a vision, that "Out of UH the Islands will be reached." This year, our goal is to make that vision a reality. He saw the four freshmen dorm towers as lighthouses shining their light to the rest of the Islands and beyond. This year, we are praying for a huge freshman class to shine their light to their classmates and the university. I truly believe that out of UH, not only the Islands, but the WORLD, will be reached, as these students from other countries were but a fraction of the many nationalities represented at UH.
Now comes the process of following up with the hundreds of students who wrote down their contact info, and hopefully meeting with them and getting them plugged into Cru. This next week we also start up our small groups- once again, we really have no idea how many students will show up, or even the location for some of them, but we know that God will make it happen. It's HIS will after all.
Here are some pics from this past week!
115 students came to our first CRUcial meeting of the year- an all time record!
Worship band at our first weekly meeting
Students filling out spiritual surveys at our table in the freshmen courtyard
Ran into Ruben, my old friend from UH Hilo while on campus! Definitely one of those "What are you doing here???" "Wait- what are YOU doing here???" moments - so great.
Andy being lazy and not wanting to walk...we didn't make it very far. Silly interns.
No comments:
Post a Comment