Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship: Good food, Good friends, Good questions

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.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Good food, Good friends, Good questions

Last night around ten hungry Adventist college students descended upon our house demanding food and a place to talk about race relations, Christian media choices, and the true meaning of gospel. Actually the conversation moved so quickly it's hard to say what we talked about but there was a whole lot of laughter. Somewhere in all of the confusion and noise two large veggie pizzas and a good deal of peanut M&M's disappeared. We all had a wonderful time together and were delighted to learn that our president, Robert Okyere, had arranged for our club to be featured in the UWeekly, an independent student paper. The U Weekly is no low budget, corner publication. It has a weekly circulation of 20,000 copies. His answers to their interview questions will be featured on the front page next week. In addition to questions about our club goals and activities, one of the compelling interview questions which he brought to us for group discussion was "Is it possible for a non-believer, or an athiest, to live an ethical and morally outstanding life?" Sometimes it is the really good questions we encounter in life that shape and grow us the most. How would you answer that one???

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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.