It was so amazing to see over 300 college students from all over the state of Florida come together in worship, to seek God’s next step for their lives and surrender their hearts to Him at our recent Winter Conference, held in Orlando, January the 17th through 20th.
Rochelle and I and many of the staff who serve parts of Cru’s campus and high school ministry in the Orlando office joined together to help make the conference happen. We helped setup and run registration, housing assignments, and setup and tear down meeting rooms. During registration, I (Steve), helped students find their roommates and room keys while Rochelle set up the staff lounge. Rochelle loved that job as she got to meet many of the field staff while serving them refreshments during their little bit of free time! Rochelle was also so happy to see staff that she helped onboard in the last couple of years serving and leading at this conference!
The staff who serve on campuses were very busy leading special gathering times for the students from their schools, teaching seminars, and making sure every student felt included and valued while at the conference.
One big job that I helped with was setting up our Festival of Opportunities. There students could interact with representatives from the Jesus Film, Unto, US summer missions, and international summer missions. The students were encouraged to consider how they could make a difference in lives around the world for Jesus by participating in a summer mission trip this year.
The biggest highlight was the afternoon of outreach, where staff and students partnered with many local Orlando churches to help connect people to church and share the gospel. Rochelle and I joined a group of 20 going to our local church. We went out to the apartment complex directly next to the church. Splitting into teams of 2 or 3, we got to visit with about 100 people. Rochelle and I went to one building together with a sophomore from UCF we had just met named Joshua.
We first met a family from Venezuela, so we immediately tried to speak in Spanish. Rochelle knows a little, so she started the conversation. Then I found the Spanish version of the Knowing God Personally Gospel presentation in the Godtools app on my phone and shared the gospel with them that way! We were happy that they were already connected to a nearby Spanish language church.
Next, we met a couple who had recently moved in after living in Croatia for several years. They were very excited to hear about this church just next door as they had been looking for a church home. We hope to see them at our church soon!
Later, we met a young man who is a student at Valencia College. As we asked a few questions about his community and his church experience, he opened up to share about his search for God. That was when Joshua, who had never done this before, stepped up to share the gospel booklet with Javier. It was wonderful to see Joshua share his faith story and to see Javier put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord! We were so excited for Joshua and Javier! They plan to get together again.
We praise God for His work in the lives of students who attended the Winter Conference in Orlando. We pray that they will continue to love Jesus, follow and trust Him, and share their faith with others as they return to their campuses.
Thank you so much for partnering with us to see lives changed for Jesus!