Wow! That is the first word that comes to mind as I think about this past month. When school started back we were curious as to how things would go since we had recently redone our leadership training and structure. We were also curious as to how students would respond to the new format in our weekly meetings and our new vision statement that focuses on Encounter and Give (Encountering Jesus and Giving our lives to Him and others).
Our Leaders
Brooks and I feel so blessed by the young men and women that God has raised up here at UT. They have such a vision and a heart to reach out to their fellow students! Our Freshman Bible Studies are averaging about 15-20, which is amazing and things are still growing. Even among the upperclassmen, where you usually see a fade out, we have seen more students getting involved with the need to start new studies to accommodate the people interested. Please continue to be in prayer for our leaders, especially in recruiting for Fall Retreat which is coming up September 23-25th. This is a critical weekend for the ministry and we would love your prayers for this weekend!
Launching New Campuses
We have been overwhelmed by how God is working as we start to launch new campuses. Things are going very well to start Cru at Pellissippi State. Pellissippi has 10,000 students and is the second largest University in East Tennessee. It is projected to grow even bigger and change to a 4 year school soon. There is currently NO established campus ministry there. We have had several things on campus and have about 50 students interested in helping launch Cru. Please keep praying for church partnerships to strengthen and that God would raise up laborers.
We are also looking to launch at Maryville College, Johnson University, Knoxville College and Roane State. Please pray that God would go before us and raise up connections, students and volunteers to help reach these campuses. Please also pray for favor in the eyes of the administration. A lot of them are not used to groups coming in like this. We need faculty sponsors and a lot of times have to be "voted in." Please pray that God would provide for these needs.
Ways to help and ways to pray
-If you know of students or teachers at any of the Universities/Colleges listed above that would be interested in helping out please let us know!!
-If you would like to help be a Volunteer Staff Person that would help out at one of these campuses please let us know!
-Please be praying for our Fall Retreat and our speaker Richard Smith (from Spartanburg, SC). The retreat is September 23-25.
-We have had several students ask for scholarships to Fall Retreat. If you would like to give towards helping a student attend Fall Retreat the cost is $59 for Freshmen and $75 for Upperclassmen. We don't really make money on Fall Retreat this is just to cover our cost. You can do partial or full scholarships. The link to give is posted below, but please message me at Britton.Sharp@uscm.org if you give so that I know to look for it in the campus account.
https://give.ccci.org/give/View/2284485?pp=Search+Results
-Please thank God for how He is working on the campuses in Knoxville!!
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