Our time together so far

Hello everyone!! I hope you all are doing well!! I know most of you are waiting for spring. Don’t worry, it‘s on its way. Don’t lose hope. Just wanted to share our schedule with you and what we have done so far.

Here is a picture of our schedule. This is what we do each week.

Before I unravel this, the six of us split into pairs each day to go do ministry at the three different campuses.

1.Missouri State University (MSU)

2.Ozark Technical Community College (OTC)

3. Drury University

The pairs are as followed:

1. Dani and Gabriel

2. Esther and Ira

3. Sully and I

Each pair is only on two campuses. Sully and I’s campuses are first OTC (campus 1) and then MSU (campus 2). Each of the pairs are accompanied by a staff member or two when we go to our designated campus for the day. Their job is to show us how it’s done, let us try with help, and finally to do it on our own. They can accompany us if desired after that.

We each have a coach (Which is a staff member) that will do one on one time with us each week.

Monday

We have team time in the morning. This includes the six of us and the rest of the team who are on staff. We have a devotional, discuss what the week looks like (this includes events that need more planning), talk about and answer questions pertaining to ministry, and fill in stats from the past week. Then we (The gappers) spilt into pairs and do the KV Challenge at different campuses. (I will share more details later)

Tuesday

We split into our pairs and go evangelize on our set campus. That night is our own personal time for prayer and reflection with God. During the day, some of our staff teammates have discussion groups at a coffee shop which are great to attend. Also on Tuesday nights, I go to a Bible study on MSU. Wednesday

We have yet to do this, but on Wednesday mornings we all go meet up with a staff member to go over and discuss Cru homework. (That is what I would classify it as.) Later, we split into our pairs and go to our other campus to evangelize. In the evening, (most of the time) we can hang out or do something fun with the staff.

Thursday

We split into our pairs to do the KV Challenge again on the opposite campus of the one we did on Monday. It says there is a campus social time. I have yet to experience that. There was a prayer time at MSU in the evening last week. I believe every week there is also another discussion group twice during the day.

Friday

We have team time in the morning. A little similar to Monday, only not as stressful. We do a long period of prayer time together, and people can go around and share encouraging things they got to experience during the week. It seems like right now they are picking two staff members and two gappers to share their testimonies each Friday. The rest of the day is free.

Saturday

Free

Sunday

Church in the morning and the rest of the day is free.

This Sunday is our last church hopping Sunday before we need to pick a church and stick with it.

I will also bring up that this week Friday and Saturday are Cru’s winter conference. There are seminars online by different people talking about different subjects and worship at the end. There will be discussion times, fun things planned, snacks, and dinner on Saturday. This is for students that are saved and aren’t saved. It’s encouraging that students are signing up. Our full team (that’s us including the staff) will host it at a church. Springfield, Missouri, has moved to a level zero. This is really good. We can now have 30 people indoors.

I can explain what a KV Challenge is. We walk up to students and tell them our ministry on campus is Cru and ask them if they are a leader who is passionate about Christ and sharing Him with others. Most people will answer “No”. If, however, someone says “Yes”, you ask this:

“We are looking for a student who will lead a movement to share the gospel with their peers, help others grow spiritually, develop and train other leaders, and initiate finding the resources needed to do so. IS THIS YOU?”

If they continue to say “Yes”, then we go through the challenge with them. I will put a picture in to show you what we ask them.

If they are still interested, we follow up with them and invite them into an opportunity to see if they want to take the next step. This challenge helps surface new leaders that can then go to share with others and develop more leaders...etc.

When we go out to evangelize at different campuses, my team and I use these cards called Perspective cards. What I love about these cards is that it lets the other person point out what they believe. I do think people want to be heard and have others listen. It gives me a chance to listen well to what they have to say. After listening to what others believe, I am able to point out what I believe. I believe in Monotheism. God didn’t create us because He was lonely or needed someone. He created us with one purpose, and that is to live for Him. Our sin separated us from God. We are broken. Only a perfect person could die and shed their blood to make a way for us to experience God and have a personal relationship with Him. That person was Jesus. We know this is true because of the Bible. It is a great way to not push others beliefs down as wrong. People can believe what they want to believe. In this way, the defense wall isn’t up defending their beliefs, but instead, it is down. It’s in this way that they hear the good news of the Gospel.

Would you all please pray for God to remind me that I’m not alone, and that I can be satisfied and find meaning in Him. Please pray that my team and I would rely on Him and His strength. Thank you so much for praying!

Here are some pictures so far!!

The two bottom pictures are of the Perspective Cards. There is also a picture of us going through the Perspective Cards with a student at OTC.