Short Circuit Vol 3 Num 5

We have had a great start to the school year! Before school began the student officers and I spent a part of two days helping move freshmen into their dorms. This is a great way to be of service, meet new students and get our name before the students and parents. It is actually a lot of fun also!

The weekend before school began we were able to give away used furniture to international students who came to the US recently with only two suitcases. There were 117 students who came out this year! That is about twice as many as the year before. We had to ask them to take just one piece of furniture per family or household, since we only had about 100 pieces of furniture to give away.

The day before school started we did our third annual ice cream survey on campus. Between the staff, associate staff and students, we did about 500 surveys in three and a half hours!! It is exciting to see the students gain a heart for their peers as they hear their disturbing answers about their concept of eternity and where they think they will go and why. However, we know this, and that is the reason why we spend our Sunday afternoon reaching out to the campus. Since then we have been having five teams of two go out every Tuesday night and share the gospel with those who took the survey and are interested in talking.

The student with whom I was teamed up got to share with two different ladies. The first one was very open, and we left a tract with her after talking. I let my teammate start the conversation and share the gospel with the second person we visited. She did a great job! She shared that she was very nervous, but I would have never known it. After she shared the gospel, the other two people in the room got involved in the conversation, and we were able to share with them as well. We talked for about 40 minutes. It was so exciting to engage all of them in a conversation of eternal truth and challenge their thinking! It is one of the most exciting parts of my job!!

We have just finished our fifth week of school and also our first retreat. Our theme for this year's fall retreat was purity. Our speaker opened the Word of God and reminded us that we are to be holy as the Lord is holy. After the first session, we had each person write on a sheet of paper what the opposite sex needed to know about purity from the other sex’s perspective and also how the opposite sex could help them stay pure. Then we had separate men's and women's sessions in which we talked openly about what those of the opposite sex had said and how we could help them. It was very powerful for each group to hear what the other had to say. I am looking forward to what God will do in their hearts as a result of this retreat.

Theresa Beaghan