Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and College Bible Study in River Falls, WI.

College Bible Study

We have been meeting the last few weeks “Phygitally”. This is a new word that we learned at the Burning Dog Radio Evangelism Summit earlier this month. This means that some of us have been meeting physically, and some have been joining digitally.

Being flexible and being prepared to change formats at a moments notice has been important this semester. After the first few weeks of school, the campus went into shelter in place mode for two weeks. We met digitally during this time. Some students then decided to move home for the rest of the semester, so we opened up a digital opportunity to those students.

Also, each week we continue to have new students. Normally, during this time of the semester it is rare to have new students. They already have set routines. But, due to Covid, we found students have more time. Recently, we even had a student come because of the coffee giveaway we did at Mariachi Loco the first week of school. It has been exciting to see how God is still at work during this time.

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Plants for Sale

While the weather was still nice, we did an outdoor plant sale and “potting bar”. Our goal was to meet students and have a chance to interact with them while they were planting. They got to pick a plant, a pot, and then plant it with us. It was a lot of fun and we met a variety of people.

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Coffeehouse

We are happy to soon be opening up a few seats in the coffeehouse. This has been a sorely missed feature for both us and many visitors. Last year we built relationships with a core group of students that would come to the coffeehouse and study. We hope this will continue this year – especially since the students are not allowed to hang out outside of their dorm rooms on campus.

Prayer Requests…

• Pray for real discipleship to happen among the college students.
• Pray for face-to-face connections with people in the coffeehouse.
• Pray for insight and ideas for our short-run Bible Studies.

For Further Information

• River Falls Ministry Website
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Website
• Believers Church River Falls Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Facebook

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and College Bible Study in River Falls, WI.

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and College Bible Study in River Falls, WI.

College Bible Study

The UW-River Falls students started moving in near the end of August. It has been fun to see returning students and meet new ones. Due to campus guidelines, we are meeting this year as Believers Church College Bible Study. We began meeting in person again for the last 3 weeks starting with coffee together and moving into a Bible study. A few times we even met in the park.

Also, we are currently prepping about 1000 of the new Word On The Street magazines to be sent to freshman, and are planning a plant sale and “potting bar”.

Blind Munchies Coffeehouse

We have also been able to use the coffeehouse to engage students. During the first 2 weeks of September, we had extended hours and offered a $1 off student discount. Also, the Mexican restaurant, Mariachi Loco, let us set up our coffee kiosk in their lot to give away cold brew to students. This allowed us to be right next to where the students get their textbooks.

Prayer Requests

• That the new students will find where and how God wants to use them on campus.
• That we will continue to be ready and able to adjust as needed as guidelines at the school adjust for COVID.
• That God will guide the Sunday evening community outreach, and that we will meet new people.

For Further Information

• River Falls Ministry Website
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Website
• Believers Church River Falls Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Facebook

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Church Outreach

In early August, we did a coffee giveaway in Veterans Park, downtown on Main Street. We had a beautiful day to give away several gallons of cold brew, coffee, and Blind Munchies stickers. While we served the coffee we handed out information about our weekly Bible studies and also had several good conversations.

Recently, we restarted “live” Bible studies here in River Falls. We have, of course, had to change the flow of things to adapt to the current situation, but we are happy to be getting back to meeting in-person. Also, we’ve started eating simple meals outside after the our Sunday evening meeting – the time of fellowship time has been very welcome.

Additionally, it’s been fun for us to host one of the Wednesday night discussion groups from Menomonie. Each week different people have been traveling here and meeting at the coffeehouse for the discussion. It follows much the same format as in Menomonie, but we are watching the video live stream of Pastor Tim rather than listening on the radio. We follow it up with the same simple discussion format.

Street Level

Our preparation is fully underway for the Fall semester at UW-River Falls. This is the time of year that we start to see a lot of new faces and make new acquaintances. We hope some of these turn into friendship and discipleship relationships. We’ve recently brought on a new student president and have been working with her to navigate the fluid virus-influenced changes.

While we don’t know exactly what to expect, we are doing what we can to be as ready as we can: prepping coffee giveaways, online org presentations, flyers, etc. All these small preparatory projects have become the center of attention. We’re praying that God takes our small offerings and multiplies the effect to add to his kingdom.

Prayer Requests…

• Pray for our student org president and for our planning: that God would lead us to make great connections with students over the next few weeks.
• Helpful and creative advertising.
• That we can have make real relationships with people in the city that would attend the Bible studies.

For Further Information

• River Falls Ministry Website
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Website
• Believers Church River Falls Outreach Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Facebook

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Sunday Study

This month we are restarting the Sunday Bible study in River Falls! It will be a bit different than in the past, by social distancing and wearing masks, but we are excited to be able to meet again. We are meeting at 5 pm at The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse and will continue in the book of 1 Timothy. As we begin to meet, we will slowly navigate what doing meals and having the coffeehouse open may look like to have greater fellowship.

Not only are we planning for a Sunday study, but we also are meeting periodically for a Wednesday night discussion group at the coffeehouse at 7 pm.

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Coffeehouse

We have been working towards getting the River Falls community to be aware of our presence. The outside coffee kiosk has helped a lot. But also, during the past month or so, we have worked at promoting the coffeehouse on social media. Through this, we are hoping to build relationships, get to know the community more, and let people know about the Sunday Bible study.

We are also working on what future outreaches might look like. We are hoping to be able to do a coffeehouse anniversary giveaway, and brainstorming what other things we could do.

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Prayer

• Pray for our wisdom and discernment as we begin the Sunday Bible study again.
• Pray that God will create disciples in the River Falls community.

For Further Information

• River Falls Ministry Website
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Website
• Believers Church River Falls Outreach Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Facebook

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Summer Street Level

For the first time since we’ve started ministering in River Falls, we are continuing Street Level through the summer months. The main reason we had not done so previously was that people simply did not stay in town. But, like in many other areas of life, the coronavirus forced us to learn some new ways of doing things, and now everyone is very used to meeting each week online.

Our hope and intent is that our summer meetings provide ongoing fellowship and spiritual discussion, but also help us “lead into” the fall semester. We don’t really know what the fall will look like at UW-River Falls. The school has plans to bring everyone back physically at this point, but what will that look like? We can be sure that there will be new restrictions, guidelines, and challenges for us to face. Perhaps this will even mean that student org assembly sizes are restricted. Whatever the case may be, we can be sure that God has plans for us, and that we have the privilege of discovering and participating in them.

Coffeehouse Kiosk

There were many outreaches and activities we had hoped to be doing with the ministry this summer. Not surprisingly, almost all of them were completely cancelled or at the very least put on indefinite hold. But thankfully, we have been able to continue the coffeehouse ministry almost without interruption through the time of pandemic. It’s hard to imagine that even 1 year ago we did not yet have the coffeehouse in operation. But it has in recent months become the forefront of our connection to the community. It seems that God’s timing couldn’t have better to prepared us for these times.

Prayer

• Pray for the wisdom and discernment as things continue to “open up”. That we have wisdom and God’s protection as we seek potential outreaches and gatherings.
• Pray for Street Level, that students would have a hunger for God and that we can maintain good relationships over the summer.

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For Further Information

• River Falls Ministry Website
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Website
• Believers Church River Falls Outreach Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook
• The Blind Munchies River Falls Facebook

Get the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, W

Find the latest news from Believers Church plant and Street Level college ministry in River Falls, WI.

Blind Munchies River Falls

The weather continues to get a little bit warmer each week, and the coffeehouse staff has taken full advantage of this! The past few weeks we started putting out our coffee kiosk at the front door for taking orders. Not only is it nice to be outside, but it appears to have increased the traffic in the coffeehouse. More and more people in the community are beginning to see us and are stopping in. The coffeehouse is currently still open for to-go orders only, but we are brainstorming future ways to have the kiosk and dining room open.

Street Level Ministries

The campus has been quiet for almost two months now, but school just ended last week. We had our last virtual Street Level meeting of the semester last Tuesday, and right now are planning on continuing into the summer.

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Please Pray For…

1. Building relationships through the coffeehouse, and that we will display God to the community through it.
2. Students, with the school year ending, that they will continue to follow God through the summer.
3. Guidance and direction from God as we move into the summer months.

Here are a few “year in review” pictures from Street Level: