Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship: ice skating and Christmas tree raising

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, December 23, 2010

ice skating and Christmas tree raising

A college community is a very transient community. It can be lonely certain times of year if you are the only one who doesn't have somewhere else to be. The Christmas holiday left our teaming campus almost deserted with the exception of international students and a few others who stuck around for various reasons. Having no where to go ourselves, we found ourselves poking around to see who was left. We thought it would be fun to have a little party and make an event out of putting up our little tree since that is often a family event in many homes.

David said he wanted to go ice skating. I wasn't sure I wanted to be slipping around on ice while balancing on thin metal blades at eight months pregnant so we sent out an email to see how many daredevils would be willing to accompany him and got a few responses. The date was set for the morning of December 16 and we scheduled our Christmas party for that afternoon and evening. On the day of the event two friends showed up and one brought another friend along with him. The four ventured onto the ice while I held the camera and documented their various slips and spills.

After laughing at one another for awhile, we repaired our friendship over lunch and then went back to our apartment to mix up the ghiradelli's brownies and put the chestnuts in the oven. When a few more friends arrived David sat up the tree and we sat around peeling chestnuts and talking. The evening ended with some Christmas carols around the keyboard.
We love our Columbus family. They made our Christmas very special.

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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.