Giving Praise!

The first Stint team, of first year Stinters, led the first outreach ever at Vida Estudantil today! It went really well and I want to praise God by sharing with you how it went!

In place of our regular 1pm Tuesday Vida Estudantil meeting, we empowered the students in our ministry to serve the campus in two ways. We had one team picking up trash nearby the Facultad de Arte and another serving up red punch and candy while students came to fill out Spiritual Interest Questionnaires. These surveys help us get an understanding for who is interested in knowing more about God and who would like to participate in our ministry. At first the students were a little shy as we asked them to go up to people and invite them over for free refreshments, but they ended up bringing over 100 students to our table in just an hour! We were able to connect with some of these students studying anything from publicity to medicine and personally invite them to join us at one of our weekly gatherings.

I got to talk with a group of three girls in their first year studying design, and while we didn't engage in a spiritual conversation, they seemed to enjoy the conversation and were already making plans to come together to a Thursday night meeting! Think of all the people that heard that there is a place where people can investigate God and learn how to share Him with the rest of the 160,000 students on this campus. I get excited when I think about who we may have met today that will be one of the forerunners of the ministry later this year. There could be someone who will help lead our ministry in serving the campus at large. There could be someone who will be a great teacher. How many of them will come to know Christ as their savior through conversations that result from this event?

Pray that God would help us maintain contact with the students who came today with interest in knowing more about God and how they can be a part of a community of believers who want to impact the campus for Christ! Pray that our arms would open wider to welcome these new students into our ministry and that Vida Estudantil would be a place where they receive care and spiritual growth. Pray for the Facultad de Arte (School of Art) and the people that spend time near the building. Ask God to place a curiosity about our group on their hearts, that they would see our compassion and love for one another and want to know more about the God that spurs us on to do it.