Starting last Thursday at 10 am was the crazy awkwardness of freshmen moving into SFA for their first time. Statistics show that in the first 6 weeks of school %80 of freshmen will be open to hearing that Gospel, after those 6 weeks the percentage drop dramatically so that by the end of the school year only 20% are open to hearing the Gospel. Is God bigger than these stats? Oh yeah. Should still still plan according to the info we have? Definitely.
So, when hundreds of freshmen roll up on the first day possible we are there to say hi, and give them a helping hand. It is a great time for us because our existing students show up with servants hearts, knowing that they are going to be helping a students hoping to start a relationship where we can share with them about Jesus. Move in went great, we met some sharp students who we were able to invite to the rest of our welcome week events.
That Thursday night we had our first actual event. We called it Cru Coffeehouse. We set up tables in the middle of campus and 9pm that night, and the girls did a great job of creating a coffee ambience feeling. Starbucks donated to us some very delicious and very free coffee which we handed out to the mostly freshmen students who came to hang out.
As with every event we do, we have every students fill out what we call a “contact card”, or basically a survey, in order to participate in whatever is happening. The survey is their contact info and two questions; “Would you like more info about Campus Crusade?”, and “Would you like more info about how to have a personal relationship with God?”. If they say yes to either, then we have a golden ticket to get together with them, get to know them, and give them an opportunity to respond to the Gospel.
Cru Coffeehouse was a great success. It was first night for students to move in, class didn’t start til Monday, and we got 65 contacts to share the Gospel with.
Friday night we piggybacked some other events going on that night on campus, and set up a place for students to get some free ice cream. We are really creative and called it…”Free Ice Cream". God uses this stuff to bring people from eternal darkness to eternal light….amazing. 75+ contacts easily.
Saturday night we tried something new. We had SFA Longest Game of Knockout, in the rec center. Knock out is a basketball game where you shoot from the free throw line and try to get the person out in front of you. To be honest, it wasn’t as big as we thought, but still had 40 people show up. 40 contact cards.
Sunday we were a part of multiple groups who hosted a BBQ in the middle of Campus, no contact cards allowed for us, but a great to to meet and connect with incoming students.
Monday morning, first day of class, the campus is hopping and busy. We set up a station and handed out Freshmen Survival Kits (FSK’s) for contact cards. An FSK is a laundry bag with a Bible, bottle, and a flyer in it. Freshmen love it. We handed out 250 FSK’s. AKA 250 more people to share the Gospel with.
So you do the math that's a lot of people. We spread out the cards to staff and students and began to set up tons of appt for this week. I’m going to let Autumn tell you how our first day of appts turned our but just as a teaser it rhymes with “swirls crusting in sliced”…yes I’m aware that's not even a sentence
