God has done some pretty cool things at St. Cloud State so far the past few weeks! I’m definitely missing Florida a lot, but it’s been cool to be back on campus and being able to live out my faith in community again. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to serve on the Sherburne missional team. We had so many students fill out surveys during the first week of school. Our first week of school we had a welcome back BBQ and a lot of students came to that, including some guys on my floor. Wednesday and Thursday was spent following up with students who filled out surveys. 4 guys prayed to receive Christ with us, Praise God! We also had our first cru meeting on Thursday, and over 150 students came to that! On Saturday we had a root beer kegger at the Cru girls’ house and so many students, including a lot of new students came. It was a lot of fun playing games and just having fun fellowship with each other.
I’m also blessed with the opportunity to serve in the youth ministry at Calvary Community Church, and I was finally able to be back for youth group on Sunday. It was the last one for the summer, and it was bittersweet because it was the last night for a lot of the seniors. It was fun catching up with students and hearing about some of their summers. I love helping out the youth group because I wasted my time as in high school. I have a huge heart to point these students to Christ and help them with the struggles they are dealing with, because I have gone through much of the same things.
The second week of school my missional team had our first life group, where we just played games and got to know each other. We had about 8 students come, and it was a lot of fun. Our second Cru meeting went well and we had our first night of Calvary afterwards where we play dodgeball, floor hockey, eat pizza and just have some good fellowship. That weekend I was able to go to life light festival in South Dakota with some great friends from St. Cloud. We were able to hear bands like Relient k, Sanctus Real, and Tenth Avenue North. Francis Chan spoke and his message was super convicting. He talked about the fact that if we aren’t pouring ourselves for the sick and afflicted God isn’t going to hear our prayers. As American Christians we are so blessed, but we rarely think of all the affliction happening around the world.
The third week of school we had our first actual bible study, and around 12 students came! It went super well and nearly every student contributed to the conversation. I’m really excited to see what God does in the life group and I’m praying we become close friends this year and that we can just live life together! At our 3rd Cru of the year, our new staff director spoke about being real in community. It was really good.
Things have been crazy but God has been doing some sweet things. This weekend I’m getting together with some students to work on our fall getaway promo video. Fall getaway is our annual retreat and this year it’s September 30th to October 2nd. I’m praying that a lot of students sign up and come, and that at Fall getaway people would be welcomed in and hear the gospel clearly proclaimed!
-Berto
