Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship: First ACF Meeting

About Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship

Here’s a surprising fact: Did you know that 65% of Seventh-day Adventist young people attend secular colleges or universities? Studying at a secular college or university presents challenges to a student’s faith. Being at college may be his or her first time making decisions of their own, without mom and dad there to guide them. University studies are stressful, and social pressures are strong. The Ohio Conference has long hoped to minister to students—Seventh-day Adventists and others—on secular campuses. In September, we started a pilot program to place chaplains at three of our state’s universities: Ohio University in Athens, The Ohio State University in Columbus, and Wright State University in Dayton. Here are some of their experiences.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

First ACF Meeting

Hey everyone! So Sunday night we had our first ACF meeting at Panera. I was sad that there wasn't a better turnout. There's 11 people I've been in contact with and out of those only 3 people made it. The President(Sara Schmidt) Treasurer (Courtney Simon) and one of our alumni Tim Leicy who is planning on going back for grad school. Although we were small we were able to get a lot accomplished. We have been debating back and forth about changing our name. I was wondering what the other groups were doing about the name and whether or not it has conflicted with people wanting to join. We did set our first social on campus for a "pool table night and pizza" and we made it a goal for everyone to bring at least one friend. Tonight I'm attending a group called Ignite (Methodist) which has a worship service in the Union. I'm meeting up with a couple InterVarsity people to go support them! Wish I would've taken a picture, but we ran out and I didn't think of it in time :(

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Our Campus Ministries team

Columbus, Ohio is the home of Ohio’s largest university, and one of the largest campuses in the United States. There are 55,000 students on the campus of The Ohio State University. Gina and David Helbley were serving as missionaries in Kazakhstan, when they felt a calling to do campus ministry. David is an engineer, and Gina is a graduate from the ministerial program at Walla Walla College. Now in Columbus, they’ve made their home a center for campus outreach.

Wright State University is located in Dayton, Ohio. Many Seventh-day Adventist students are in the 20,000 student body. We’ve invited Sabrina Araiza, a young adult psychology graduate from Arizona, to become our campus chaplain at Wright State. Sabrina will be working with a team from the Kettering church, under the mentorship of Kettering young adult pastor Elliot Smith.

The state’s oldest university is located in Athens, Ohio, in the foothills of Appalachia. Although Athens is a small city, 20,000 students attend Ohio University. The church in Athens has a vision to reach out to the university community. They’re being assisted by Darrin and Cristine Thurber. The Thurbers come to Ohio from California. Darrin is a ministerial student, and Cristine (known to her friends as Beamy) is a social worker. With the help of other Seventh-day Adventist students and faculty, they’ve started a strong outreach program to students.