Siena

Here's an update from our staff, Joe, who works at Siena College.
"We weren't able to get a table this year for the club fair (which has put our gears into "high" on getting recognized as a club at Siena). However, students are still motivated and have decided to go door-to-door over the weekend to get 150 students to fill out surveys. Please pray for them this weekend. Aaron (a fellow staff member) has graciously volunteered to help me out and do a follow-up training for the leaders Monday night. Then, we'll begin follow-up on Tuesday. Different plan than we originally thought, but God is still moving. We had 10 students at the initial planning meeting yesterday. 4 freshmen"

Sage College of Albany

We have often shared with you about a student we met our very first year in Albany; that year she was a freshman at Sage College of Albany - a small college of about 400 students down the street from us. She has worked tirelessly and often alone. At the end of her freshman year, we met a young man, a year older who is a Jesus-follower. We were thrilled that she would have a co-laborer the following year, and, together they completed the process for becoming an official school organization ("Cru"). Even though they worked diligently to reach out to the Sage community, at the end of another year, there were 2 more Jesus-following students connected with them. Here's some of an email she just sent this week about this year:

Hello Everyone,

Thank you again for your willingness to pray for CRU this year! I'm here to report that your prayers are already being answered! :-)

In my last note I mentioned that we were going to be having our activities fair last Friday. In all honesty I was just hoping and praying to find one other like minded Christian among the incoming freshman class and hoped at least a couple people showed some openness to spiritual things. Well I must say God went above and beyond!! As of now we've connected with 15 people who have all showed interest in attending our weekly meeting! Now out of those 15 we know for sure that at least 5 of them are Christians. With a current group size of 3 another 5 would mean we've more than doubled in number already. So with so much promise on the horizon we are all super excited! One guy I spoke with helps lead worship at his church and really wants to do so for us too which is way awesome!

So what we have coming up now is a meeting on Tuesday to talk about the awesome response and how we are going to handle it and informal get to know each other/hang out meeting with all the new people on Thursday. Additionally we'll be doing a movie night on Friday which will allow us to connect further with our new people and allow everyone to invite some friends along. Afterward we'll have some pizza and hopefully have some good bonding time and meet more students. Then on Saturday we're doing an outreach for freshman where we'll be offering free car washes and air fresheners for their cars. We're hoping to use that as a good time to start dialogs with students and demonstrate God's love in a tangible way. So we've got a very busy week ahead of us and will despteratly need your prayer support through it all!

This is what you can be praying for this week:
1. That we connect with all 15 people people who gave us their contact info
2. That we bond well with all the new friends who will be coming along side us in our mission at Sage
3. That the Holy Spirit guides all of our conversations with students that we interact with during our movie night and car wash
4. That we connect with many students who are spiritually seeking and are able to guide and lead them in the right direction
5. That God guides and leads us as we plan out where to go next with CRU during the semester
6. That new students are able to get connected at good local churches

Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACP)

You may remember last spring, when our daughter Anna Kate introduced us to her Sunday school assistant, Katie, who is a Jesus-following student at ACP.
Dave reconnected with Katie this fall, as she returned to Albany for her 5th (of 6) year. Dave and Katie met together, along with 3 other young women. They will begin meeting together as a Real Life Group. Pray for men. There is a high demand for pharmacists, so the campus is experiencing significant growth as demand for its services grows. ACP is located near our home on the same block as the law school (untouched) and the med school (currently inactive) right in the heart of Albany. ACP has been the location of quite a bit of prayer over the years. So, we are encouraged to see God's hand at work and His answer to our prayers.

Fall 2010 Launches

Almost every campus within our scope began school on Monday, August 27. Dave and our staff team have been busy! Here's a glimpse at what's been going on:

@ RPI- 400 surveys were taken by college freshmen; 60 of those students asked for a way to connect with Jesus followers on campus or to hear more about knowing God personally.

@ U Albany- 300 surveys were taken by college freshmen; 150 of those students asked for a way to connect with Jesus followers on campus or to hear more about knowing God personally.

At each of our campuses, surveys are followed by appointments and by campus parties. Our small groups, which we call Real Life Groups, begin next week. Pray that we are able to faithfully follow up with these contacts and connect students to Jesus and other Jesus followers!

Wrapping Up Wildwood

Wildwood Stats

1500 Spiritual conversations

1000 Gospel presentations

David returned to Wildwood the beginning of August to help the students "close out" the project - debrief, reflect and prepare to transition back to campus. As you may know, our staff are only at the Summer Project for the first half of the students' stay (about 5 weeks); the students remain, with the same schedule, under peer leadership for the second 5 weeks. At the end of the Summer Project:

*** There are 50 new brothers and sisters in Christ! Praise God!

*** As staff, and more specifically directors, we feel like there has been a breakthrough in our ability to encourage and resource students towards patiently demonstrating and proclaiming Jesus in the workplace. (Their workplace on summer project is their primary ministry outlet.) While this is significant for the Summer Project, it is even more significant as the students return to campus as Christ-centered laborers with tools to represent Jesus well in their dorm, their classroom, and their post-college workplace.

*** There are Incredible numbers of international students present in Wildwood. Entire city blocks are inhabited by only young college students from overseas trying to make money over the summer. Our students began the process of decoding the best ways to have an impact among this group of people in summers to come. Several international students met Jesus over the summer, and several international students who already follow Jesus connected with our project, were a wonderful encouragement to our students, and were encouraged by our students.