New Student Outreach Is in Full Swing!
The new missional community planted last year at Mohawk Valley CC [Community College] needed to be replanted with most of the students not returning this year. I wondered and prayed about who would lead. God used my local church to provide a missional freshmen, Liam. I was skeptical about how he would engage students. But at the Activities Fair he winsomely engaged 20-plus students for three hours!
The staff member at RPI [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute], Niki, was wondering how the IV students would [staff the] table effectively with the radio station blasting music right next to them. But a more introverted sophomore student meaningfully engaged 50 students and invited them to join their community. An event that [ordinarily] would yield less than 15 contact cards was crushed by a soft-spoken student willing to meet and greet students!
Last year staff [member] David at SUNY Poly and I prayed about who could lead IV. Within 24 hours Gianni texted David and said that God told him He wants Him to lead. On Tuesday they crushed it and all of them engaged in conversation with interested students. [A] Muslim student who came every week to Bible study last year and I had a lengthy conversation about what Jesus means to us in taking away our sins and assurance of eternal life. Pray for “A” that the Lord would break through and bring him to Himself.
One student named Naima came to faith at SUNY Binghamton. She paid to go to a frat party last week, but Joshua invited her to the large ground meeting instead. When IV staff Sophie gave a call to faith, Naima stood!
In Upstate New York, we met and invited over 3000 students to our welcome events. So many students have attended our events like Boba tea at Cornell (over 800!) and ice cream give-away at Onondaga CC as well as a bracelets and bouquets event at SUNY Binghamton, [where] we ran out of supplies!
Thank you for your prayers, support and partnership. Please pray we integrate the students we met during tabling and that God would raise up more paid staff for the harvest fields of Upstate New York, especially Western NY.
Blessings,
Cathy Craig