Big Break!

We're holding down the fort here in Mankato, but 15 MSU students and 20 Southwest Minn State students and a handful of staff arrived in Panama City Beach, FL on Saturday for Big Break. Please pray for them as they step out in faith to plan outreach events to share Jesus with other spring breakers on the beach. Our students often come back from this conference more confident in sharing Christ with others and excited to share with their friends on campus. Its awesome!

Gustavus ministry

Just 12 miles up the road from Mankato lies the town of St Peter, the home of Gustavus Adolphus college. Gustavus is similar in many ways to Augustana, where Matt went to college. There semester just got started 3 weeks ago and Matt's been working to connect with students there. The past two weeks he's had a group of 5-10 students show up for Bible study and this past week he got to meet up with a football player there who says he wants to be a leader in Cru and help get things going.  Praise God for the inroads He's giving us at this campus!  Pray for Matt to have wisdom as he continues to minister there.

Brownies, the Holy Spirit, and serving like Jesus

Last night at my (Kristin) dorm Bible study, we talked about how Jesus came as a servant. Then we had a great conversation about things we could do to serve/encourage other people and show them Christ's love. One girl, Brenda, mentioned a friend of hers who recently found out she has cancer and was 6 months pregnant. The baby was delivered early and is ok, but very premature and she's still dealing with cancer. Another girl, Kelsey, mentioned a friend from home who's husband died suddenly from cancer. Brenda asked if our group could make cards to encourage these women, so that's what we did last night at the beginning of Bible study. It was fun to show Christ's love in this small way...and we're excited to find more ways to continue serving as a group.

We also started a new study on the Holy Spirit. It was fun to talk about the Trinity, how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate and to dig into what it means for us as believers to be filled with the Spirit. Should make for some great discussion in the weeks to come!

what did you do for Valentine's day?

We didn't really have any plans since our weekly Cru meeting is on Tuesday nights. I (Kristin) don't usually go since its at 8:30 pm and Maggie goes to bed at 8, but I was planning to take her along this week. Then, around noon on Tuesday,our team leader, Jake, got a call from our speakers (a married couple) that they were sick and couldn't make it to speak. Jake and Matt spent a few hours on Tuesday afternoon putting together questions for a panel (consisting of Matt and me and Jake and his wife, Hilary) on relationships and love to take the place of what the speakers had planned.  I got home from campus at 5 and had a few hours to eat dinner and look over the questions before we headed back to campus (one of our teammates babysat for us!) to be on the panel. Crazy day. It was fun though, to share things that the Lord has taught us through marriage and to encourage students to view love in a biblical way and not in the superficial way our culture promotes it.

Another fun surprise of the night was the thoughtfulness of the guys involved in Cru. They pooled their money and bought enough red carnations to give to each girl there in addition to making pink cupcakes and singing a song up front just to honor their sisters in Christ.  I LOVED watching the girls' surprised and happy expressions as they got their flowers. It was such a treat for them to be pampered by godly men of Cru.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cru

Just a fun testimony of what God's doing on campus here in Mankato - last night we had 79 students at Cru, our weekly meeting!  That is 11 more than have come all year.  We're not all about numbers, but we're rejoicing because it shows that our students are stepping out in faith and inviting their friends and that God is working in students hearts as we talk with them!

Sharing with students

Today I (Matt) had the opportunity to get into the freshman dorms with Jake (also on staff with Cru) and follow up with some people who indicated interest from our survey shown in the last blog.

In following up, we had a great conversation with a couple roommates Dominic and James.  These guys were both friends from high school, growing up in southern MN and playing baseball together.  They were really interested in hearing more about Cru and our ministry's involvement on campus.  We talked for an hour or so hearing about their time in college and hearing about where they are at in their faith.

Dominic and James are both now interested in getting involved with Cru and and actively pursuing growing their walk with the Lord at MSU.  When leaving their room, they thanked us for taking the effort to come to their dorm and connect with them on matters of faith.

I believe that there are many students like Dominic and James who want to grow in their faith but have not found opportunity.  Kristin and I have the opportunity to be a light to these students. 

Thank you for your prayers as we work on the MSU campus!

kicking things off...

We made it back from TCX and are in the swing of things on campus now in Mankato.  Classes just started up yesterday, so we're busy trying to meet as many students as possible.  Matt's working to start a freshman Bible study in Gage, the biggest freshman dorm on campus.  I'm hoping to help one of our part time staff start up a women's study in the same dorm.  Below is a survey we're using to connect with students as they wait in line for dinner...we've found this is a great way to get the word out about Cru and to find students who are spiritually interested.

Please pray with us as we meet new students and have spiritual conversations with them...pray that our words would be Spirit-led and that students would be open to considering Christ.