Free Event, Free Food, Live Music!

That's what we said as we were passing out flyers on campus for our Back Court Cafe. One student stopped me and said, "Do I have to pay admission to get the free food?" Students don't believe that anything is really free, but when Chi Alpha does something on campus, we do it for free. And our Back Court Cafe was free.

We took the Back Court in the GSU food court and covered the tables with white butcher paper, crayons, markers and play-doh. We had a sculpture contest and two great musicians who played guitar and vocals all night - with lyrics that were very obviously Christian. Gene & Thomas put together a couple of power point presentations with art and thoughtful quotes that played on two screens through out the night.

Last year we had 100 people come and about a third of them were Christians from other groups on campus. This year we had 100 again, but the majority of them were preChristians (the other Christian groups on campus had their fall retreat this weekend). Everyone who walked in the door stayed, ate food and contributed in some way to the art work around the room and on the tables.

One of the musicians, Rich, sat down at a table and shared the Gospel for about an hour with a Hindu and a Muslim. Albert, our other musician played while he was sharing. Rich told me that was one thing he had really wanted to do that night.

We had a many positive responses to our event. Some said the atmosphere was laid back and peaceful; others said the music was really good, and many thanked us for the event and signed up to hear about our other events coming up.

We were all very excited about how well the cafe went. We plan on doing one again next semester.

This Saturday we will be hosting an Apple Day at our home. We are inviting students to come and bake all their favorite apple deserts and have dinner with us. I'll see you then!

The Storm

     We have had a busy week. We had our first meeting last week, our Plaza Picnic last night, followed by our second meeting of the year, we've rescheduled a major event and we are redoing our fall retreat, I've met with all my leaders and a few freshman women, plus all the family activities in the last week. And the week is not over. Gene and I are very tired, but very excited.

     Our first meeting went very well, with new students attending. Last night we only had 8 students with one new student attending. But that's the nature of BU. We know that many students didn't come last night because of studies - the freshmen are already feeling the extreme pressure of BU's schedule and they are barely keeping up. It will be another 2-4 weeks before we start seeing our new freshmen students coming consistently.

     But our cores started up last week - and both the women's cores were full of new freshmen and the men's core had a strong beginning as well, which for the men is significant. 

     Our Plaza Picnic was great! We usually have it in the middle of Marsh Plaza right off the sidewalk. Last year we fed 600. We had to do this year's picnic on the BU Beach, which is back behind Marsh Plaza and not in plain sight. We were wondering whether anyone would come to eat, but we fed 300 students! And our students engaged preChristians in conversations. One of my preChristian friends from last year showed up. His name will be J. and we had a great conversation. Again we had many students thank us for our free dinner and many were so surprised that it was really free. My friend J. said "It's not often you see anything free without strings attached at BU. This is really nice." And that is the main reason we do it - to serve the campus.

     We have decided not to do the next picnic on the same night as our main meeting. The BU Beach is a great place to sit on the grass and hang out. We could have conversations long after we were done with the students who came. We had to pack up quickly and head in to our meeting right at 6:30.

     Wow, this is a long entry! I will sign off for now and write later on. See you then!

Sunset - Moonrise

     Last night we had our Sunset Harbor Cruise and we had an extra pleasure. We watched the sunset behind Boston and the full moon rise over the Atlantic. It was a perfect evening - no wind and clear blue sky. It was beautiful and our students had a great time.

     We had 17 students come with us - half of them were freshmen. This was significant. We have 5 of our students studying abroad this quarter - three of them are some of our strongest leaders. And even with them gone we had more students come to the cruise this year than we had the last two years when they were here!

     We had dinner at Quincy Market afterwards and we sat at the table talking until about 10 PM. We could have stayed longer. I made some strong connections with all the new women. I will be meeting with some of them this week.

     Gene and I feel very encouraged. Our returning students are doing a great job following up with all the new students and we have the possibility of having the largest group of students, on one campus, at our first meeting in all of Chi Alpha's history in the city.

     Our first large group meeting of the year is Tuesday. I am really looking forward to it. See you then!

Table in the GSU

     Today Thomas, Amanda, Elizabeth and I sat at our information table in the GSU (The George Sherman Union). It was a good day. We had ten people come by the table - 6 freshmen, 3 grad students and Andrew, a preChristian I met last year. He wants to get together with someone this year to talk about Christianity.
     The GSU is a great place to have a table. I started reserving a table last year during the Spring semester and I met so many new students and especially preChristians. We are planning to have a table once a week this semester too. About 3600 students pass by the table from 11-2. Half of them look at our table - which is great for visibility. We are trying to get 'brand recognition' for our logo on campus and this helps.
     This Saturday is our Sunset Harbor Cruise. We take a two hour cruise of Boston Harbor and watch the sun set behind the city. This is usually a highlight of the year. It looks like we are going to have a good turn out this year too.
    

Religious Life Fair

Okay, tonight I'm tired. 

     It was a beautiful day in Boston and a great day to be outside at our info table for the Religious Life Fair. All the religious groups on campus have a chance to put up a table on the first day of classes to inform students of their club. There were about 20 groups out today including The Muslim club, two Jewish clubs, Campus Crusade for Christ, Intervarsity, The Episcopalians (who have a new chaplain, Joshua - great guy) and the Catholic Center. We all got sunburned!

    Emily and Leo came up to our table this afternoon to say goodbye to Thomas and I. They are international students from Taiwan who had been involved with our group last year. Both of them were here with a visiting scholars program with the Law school. They finished their studies, took the bar test (they won't know how they did until November) and they are flying out tonight to go home. Thomas and I had been the two in Chi Alpha who really made them feel at home. We were sad to see them go, but Leo said, "I am going to go to church when I get home. Its time I do that." I told him I would hold him to that.

      Thomas and I were glad to have been a small part of their lives. I will post a picture of them when I get it. Pray that they both get jobs when they get back to Taiwan and find good churches to be part of.

      Tomorrow Thomas and I and a couple of other students will be sitting at an info table in the GSU link. I'll post a message from there. See you then!

Splash

Yesterday we spent 4 hours on Nickerson Field trying to meet 4000 freshmen. All the student clubs on campus put up a table and after matriculation the freshmen are herded on to the field to meet us. This year the Student Activities Organization (SAO) set up the tables very close to each other. The crowds were very difficult, consequently we only got about 25 names (last year we got 80). SAO realized their mistake and won't do that again.

But our Chi Alpha students were wonderful. They stood out in front of the table and greeted every student that passed, and we handed out 500 pens, 500 flyers and over 500 info cards. We have already begun to follow up on those students. Part of our goal is to be visible on campus. We want every freshmen to know that we exist on campus and Splash is one event that helps us do that.

Today is the Religious Life Fair on Marsh Plaza. I will report out on that tonight. See ya then!