What’s new in Duluth? Well, we are trying many new things this fall, but our mission remains the same – reach our communities and specifically, the college campuses for Jesus. This time of year always marks an increased effort and focus in this endeavor, and this year is no different. We are ready to see what God has in store for us this semester.
Campus Ministry
We started a couple of weeks ago with Believers Campus Church at UM-Duluth. Since we are not an official student organization on campus yet, our only way to let students know we exist has been to hand out flyers, which is a daunting task when the campus is so large and there are only a few of us. We would appreciate your prayers in this task – that we would meet the right students who God has been working in already and that want to know Him. In a few days, we will be able to set up informational tables on campus too, which we plan to do weekly. Our services have worship and verse-by-verse Bible teaching, which is currently in 1st John.
On the UW-Superior campus, we are offering a 15 minute micro Bible study on Mondays at 4pm. This campus is much smaller than UMD, and many students go home in the evenings so we are hoping with the time change we will be able to reach a group of students that we have not been able to yet. Our topic for this micro study is “Crazy Things that Jesus Said”. This past weekend we held a garage sale at the Street Level House and had our coffee trailer out too. We gave away drinks to students, sold some great junk, and got the word out about church and Street Level.
Church Outreach and Fellowship
Speaking of coffee, as a church, we are currently gearing up for one of the largest outreach events we do with our coffee trailer. One of the local parks next to UMD hosts a festival with food and craft vendors, music, and other activities. This event will be a group effort between the community group running the coffee trailer, and the college group serving up root beer floats right next to the trailer. We hope to not only serve a lot of coffee and root beer but more importantly, engage with the community by sharing who we are and ultimately who Jesus is. We would appreciate prayer for this event – for good weather and good conversations.
Looking back on the last month, we really soaked up all summer had to offer by getting outside every chance we had. Wednesday nights we could be found at various parks in the area as we discussed the previous Sunday sermon. We also had a men’s and women’s study and just finished up the books we have been going through – “Disciplines of a Godly Woman” and “Disciplines of a Godly Man” respectively. One of our favorite destinations as a church is Gordy’s Hi-Hat in Cloquet – a great diner with the best burgers and fish and chips in the area… not to mention ice cream! We made one last trip there for the season, but before we feasted, we played an intense game of kickball on a real baseball field. I won’t mention names, but certain people may have ended up in the dust after colliding on first base. No bones were broken, just bruised egos. In other sports news, we went tailgating at UMD’s first football game of the season, which was a good time of fellowship.
It was really good to be with our brothers and sisters in Menomonie at the church campout this past weekend. I personally was struck by the amount of grace God has given – to be a part of such a community and involved in all the things we get to be involved in. I thought of how close I was to missing out on all this – how many little things God wove together, while I was totally unaware, to get me to where He needed me to be. And He’s done that for each one of us! My point is that God is really great and really big and the fact that He wants to use us at all is astonishing and it is an opportunity I don’t want to miss out on.
