Fusion

This past weekend was the New England Students Fall Conference calledFusion! Personally, I like the fall retreat much more than the spring one (the fall one is in a hotel and the spring one is camping). This was my 4th year going to Fusion, and as usual it was a great time of fellowship, and most importantly a great time spent in theWord. The speaker this year was Tony Merida. He came my sophomore year as well, and I was looking forward to hearing from him again. The theme of the weekend was "Contending for the Gospel." The conference starts on a Friday night and goes through Sunday morning. The weekend consists of 4 sessions of worship and sermons and lots of free time to build relationships and talk about what we have heard. The session titles were "Following Jesus: 3 Crucial Questions," "Making Christ Known in a Diverse City," "Adoption: the Highest Privilege of the Gospel," and "Love: the Final Apologetic." All of the sermons encouraged students to be bold with the Gospel and to seek out opportunities to share their love through sharing the Gospel. Tony also talked about what it looks like when we withhold the Gospel. If someone is about to walk in front of a bus and you see them, how much do you have to hate that person to not say anything? By not sharing the Gospel with those around us, we are doing exactly that. According to Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord." Non-believers are walking towards that bus, and by not sharing Jesus Christ with them, we are hating them and watching them walk towards death. I think this really struck the students, and challenged them to change their view on sharing the Gospel with others. I pray that students will take what they learned and apply it to their everyday life, rather than toss it aside now that the weekend is over. I also pray that students will become more in love with the Gospel, because it's hard not to talk about the things you are passionate about.

During our free time we played a lot of games and frolicked down the beach! It was a great time of getting to know more students and students getting to know each other more.

I also got to see my friend Sarah Landry! Sarah was a

summer missionary in Providence two summers ago, and is now doing the 10:2b internship in Lowell, MA. I was excited to see her again and catch up briefly during the weekend. There are

currently 5 of us in the 10:2b program at schools in

New England (currently only in RI

and MA), so we thought a group picture was necessary.

(From left to right: Sarah & Lauren (UMass Lowell), Chris (Worcester, MA), and Me & Kim (JWU))

We take a group JWU picture every year, and it's always a struggle to get everyone organized. This year we also took a picture of the leadership team, basically every one of those pictures turned out weird...I guess we were trying to look cool in this one, but Jessica and I ruined it by smiling.

Leaders from left to right: Cat, Arthur, Jessica, Jake, Melissa, Travis, Me, Kim, and Zach

October Goodness

October is my favorite month of fall! The leaves are changing, it's still warm out some days, and there are numerous festivals and fall activities! The past few weekends have been perfect for apple picking and festivals! This past Sunday Kim, our friend Alissa, two students (Natalie and Allie), and I went to the Johnny Cake Festival in West Kingston, RI. Most students at Johnson & Wales don't have cars, so this was a great opportunity for them to do something outside of Providence for the day.

I was really excited to go and told everyone I was going to some cornbread

festival.....Apparently, Johnny Cakes are cornmeal pancakes, not cornbread. However, no one felt the need to correct me until the day of the festival. I was tricked into this idea of it being cornbread by my Serendipity cookbook, which clearly shows a picture of cornbread and a recipe called "Johnny Cakes". It might as well be called "Lies."

On our walk from the car to the festival I found a Rhode Island license plate on the ground---free wall decoration! The festival was small, but had a lot of local vendors with local art and food. The first booth had alpaca products and two real alpacas! This was one of my favorite booths, along with a local photographer, and the free Johnny Cake samples!

It was a great day to be outside and enjoy the goodness of Fall!

A Typical Day...

I can't believe it's already October! The fall semester is keeping me very busy, and I am loving it. Many people have asked me, 'What is a typical day for you?' I never know how to answer this question because I don't have a 'typical' day. Most days there are many things on my list to do such as reading books I am going through with others, making sure I spend time reading my Bible, going around campus to talk to students about the Gospel, meeting with students involved in CSF, working on support, and preparing for Bible studies.

However, campus ministry is a relational position, and when I get an opportunity to meet up with someone, my list gets put aside. I am here for the students, to share the Gospel with them and make disciples. I am currently discipling two girls, Allie and Jessica. Jessica is a student I was discipling last year, and we are starting to read Radical together. I am excited to meet with her again, and continue to see God's work in her life. I am also meeting with a freshman girl,Allie, who was saved this summer. We have been reading a book called Christian Beliefs, and it is such a blessing to watch Allie grow in understanding of her faith. She is bold in her classes, and has been able to bring students from class to church with her. I pray that she would continue to be bold and influence the Johnson & Wales campus.

Kim and I also work through the club roster, meeting up with all of the girls to get to know them and to help build relationships. We often have students sign up at Student Activities Night who never come to any of our Bible studies or activities. We also have students who come a few times, then never come back. By meeting up with each student individually, we hope that they will feel connected, and continue to be involved.

Additionally, most weekends we have an event to build community among the group. Tonight we are having everyone over to our apartment to hang out, and play Wii. Next weekend is my favorite event---Apple Picking! We are going to go apple/pumpkin picking then come back to our place and bake apple delights!

So, there are no set hours or daily routine, but this is the majority of what I spend my time doing each week.

Back to School!

This has been, by far, my favorite year of going "back to school," with the added bonus of not taking any classes! September is flying by as students return to Providence and the school year begins.

Our first event of the month was 'Student Activities Night,' where clubs & organizati

ons set up booths to tell students about their club. Our table looked great this year with our fancy new banner and board explaining who we are and what we do. We gave away cups with information on upcoming events, how to contact us, and a list of recommended churches in the area. Students love free things (as do I), so some people come just to take a cup. Sometimes we are able to have good conversations

and even share the gospel with these students. We also have a sign up list at our booth so students can get our weekly emails. This also helps us to see who is at least somewhat interested in Christianity, and we will use these lists to try and meet with students to disciple.

The next night was our first Tuesday Night Truth (TNT) of the year! We went into detail about our four main ideas for the club, Connect to the Local Church, Fellowship, Discipleship, and Missions. After explaining who we are, Travis (the campus minister) spoke on the importance of the local church. We had a good turn out of both new and returning students.

Our Friday Bible study has been great this year too! Every Friday we have 'Coffee & Scripture.' As the name implies, we meet at Starbucks for coffee, and we read the Bible together. We started reading Acts this fall. The students always ask questions and we

end up having really good conversations as we go.

The rest of the month will be filled with meeting up with students to work towards building discipling relationships, planning

upcoming small group Bible studies, and keeping up with my reading for 10:2b and books I'm reading with students. I am currently reading Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris, which has now gone through a title change and is now called Why Church Matters. It is such a great book, I recommend it to everyone!

Please pray that students would get plugged in to a local church quickly and that they would make Christ their priority as they continue in their college career.