ACF at The OSU Involvement Fair 2011

Welcome to Involvement Fair 2011 where all student groups go to solicit new recruits at the beginning of each quarter. This year we were rained out. Usually this massive entanglement of chaos takes place where the air is fresh(er) and the sun is shining.

Finding the specific group you are looking for can be a rather challenging task. Fortunately, we are grouped according to types.

There we are!

Hello,

Do you know what a Seventh-day Adventist is? We are... Christians, Trinitarians, Premillenialists, Sabbatarians, Monists, Annihilationists. Ya, those are a lot of big words. Do you have a moment and we can break it down?

Do you enjoy great music? We are having a concert this Friday, September 23 in Hitchcock 131 from 7-9 pm. All are welcome! (That includes those reading this blog!) There will be great Gospel and Accapella music.

Students, leaders, and those who didn't even have to be there enjoyed rubbing shoulders with

many faith groups and telling all What (or Who) are Seventh-day Adventists.

Some faces were friends we had made in classes and being around campus, some were Adventists hoping to find the name among the student groups, and plenty were just curious.

"Do the U"

Do the U is a time for organizations to set up booths and share what their org is about to all the Freshmen students during Freshmen orientation week! We had lots of fun and met some great people! With the hustle and bustle of over 3000 students running around. We had a fun time!!

Ohio University Involvement Fair

This year, Ohio University ACF kicked off the school year in a good way! On September 5, ACF participated in OU's annual involvement fair. We prayed that God would lead students to our table who we could minister to and, as always, God came through! To our surprise, many students stopped by at our table, curious as to what our group was about, some even mentioning that they were looking for a Christian group to be part of. We even ran out of flyers! Praise God for His faithfulness!!! Thanks to all the students who helped make the fair a success. We look forward to our next event, the Back-2-School BBQ Bash on Sept. 11, and we continue to solicit your prayers about this ministry!

Ladies Night!

A bunch of the Wright State ladies came over for a nice dinner at Cheesecake Factory, a fun time of Dance CONNECT, games, junk food, and movie night. We ended the night with a sleep over in my living room and woke up in the morning to some amazing waffles! It was a wonderful time to fellowship with other Christian woman and have some bonding time. :)

Committed Concert!

Had a wonderful night with a bunch of WSU students at the Committed Concert(a group from the show the Sing-off) They were wonderful and a group of 10 of us had a great time being able to fellowship with one another. Afterwards we all went and grabbed a bite to eat at Waffle House and had a wonderful conversation on the importance of relationships with other fellow Christians in order to Grow in Christ.

ACF Potluck!

We had an awesome fun Potluck on Sabbath this last week. With about 10 students that came over after church, I opened my house to them to relax... have some great Haystacks that each student participated in bringing something and enjoying eachother's company on a Sabbath afternoon. My roomy even broke out the guitar for a couple songs. It was a wonderful afternoon!

Friday Night Vespers

This Friday night we invited the students over to my house. We started off the evening with some Ultimate Frisbee before sundown and then socialized and had dinner together outside in the grass. We had a lovely song service with a guitar around a fire pit, continued with a devotional and discussed "second-hand spirituality" and how we could strengthen our lives with God. We had a great turn out of students and we enjoyed making S'mores and watching "The Ultimate Gift" to end a great night. It was a wonderful way to relax, praise God and bring in the Sabbath.

Bible Study

This week was very exciting for Wright State ACF, we had 4 new visitors to our Thursday night Bible Study. We are continuing to study Luke and this last week was a very "real" and open Bible study with many people sharing their own personal testimonies and how it applies to what God is doing for them even through the struggles in their lives. Thursday nights are growing and we ended with a prayer time for each individual. Wright State is continually being blessed.

Wright State ACF Update!! :)

Bible Studies

Although I was out of town for almost two weeks, ACF members did a wonderful job at holding down Bible Studies. This last Bible Study we had 2 new great girls come and afterwards we all went to Bridge Cafe and played games and relaxed hanging out with everyone! It was a great way to share God and kickback with other fellow Christians. Our Wednesday Bible Studies haven't quite picked up, but have turned into a great prayer time with the students that do come.

Miamisburg Church

I made a visit to Miamisburg and showed them the video ACF had made and talked about the new developments going on at Wright State. This church has been such a great support and they were wonderful and excited to learn about all the new developments at Wright State. I look forward to visiting them again.

Praise Band

The Wright State Praise Band is still practicing Sabbath afternoons. They are having fun praising God and just coming together to get the music going. We're practicing to be ready for our first Large Worship Vespers night this next school year.

God has really blessed Wright State and we Thank You all for your support :) I can be contacted at wrightACF@gmail.com

ACF First Annual Spring Concert at OSU

After months of planning and hundreds of hours of work the Adventist Christian Fellowship at The Ohio State University hosted a Vespers Concert on Friday April 29. Performers came from as far away at Mt. Vernon and two of the vocal groups included ACF students proving that the Adventist Church indeed has a very gifted future. Pastor Kwesi from the Columbus African Fellowship acted as Master of Ceremonies. There were approximately 70 people in attendance. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much that it was unanimously agreed that we should hold a concert more often than the intended once a year. A very pleasant surprise to the evening was when Dr. Gordon Gee, president of OSU arrived and stayed for several songs despite his busy schedule that evening. Robert Okyere our student president had invited him by email. He enjoyed himself very much and requested an invitation to our next event. We closed the evening with a drawing for free Frichick and an invitation for everyone to enjoy some refreshments.

The Lord's Passover Supper (Maundy Thursday)

The Ohio State University ACF group decided to forgo their weekly Bible Study this last Thursday to do something extra special for Holy Week.

It was a Thursday evening in 33 AD that Jesus sat down to a meal with his disciples and prefaced it with these words "I have eagerly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." That was the evening that all Israel performed a special service in commemoration of God's redeeming act in Israel's past when He called them His own people, delivered them from slavery, bought them with a sacrifice, and led them into their promised inheritance. Type was about to meet antitype.

April 21 2011, 11 of us sat around a table filled with traditional passover foods and contemplated the meaning of the passover rituals while acting out Jesus' command to serve one another and "Do this as often as you eat it in remembrance of me." We learned what was significant about the bread (matzo) that Jesus broke, what the cup Jesus gave his disciples has to do with marriage, and why Jesus never concluded the Passover meal but walked out after the third cup. Then we sang hymns together before concluding the evening. James Randolph described it as a "real" worship experience. We're already looking forward to next year.

Our Holy Week activities continued on Sabbath with dinner at Dr. Pascall's house, a faculty member at OSU and ACF sponsor. Lunch lingered into evening as we shared and sang more together.

I hope you each had a blessed Easter Weekend. HE IS RISEN!

Cherry Blossoms

Last Sabbath a few of our ACF students and church members enjoyed the an afternoon walk around campus. We spent most of our time observing the beautiful cherry blossoms along the Hocking River. We concluded with a short worship and prayer.

Spring Break Zoo Trip!

ACF enjoyed a wonderful Spring Break at the Cincinatti Zoo and enjoying nature and the beautiful animals that our God created. :) It was a bit chilly but we still had a fun time!

Winter Quarter Re-Cap

Winter quarter turned out to be a hectic quarter for many students. While to do lists seemed never-ending, time was hard to come by! By the time finals hit, students were ready for a break, eager to be done with exams and looking forward to Spring Break.

As a source of encouragement for students, ACF and Athens SDA church got together and made 25 care-packages for students who were either actively involved in our student group or who we had come across one way or the other. In the packages, we put in little treats, school supplies, and hand written anonymous notes of encouragements for the students.

After the long week of exams, ACF hosted a game night during Spring Break. We had a good turn out and both students and community members alike enjoyed food, games, and socializing together.

Like always, time has flown by and we are already done with the first week of Spring Quarter. Students have hit the ground running and we are excited for what this quarter holds. We're looking forward to more great Friday night discussions, fun-filled social activities, and more community service. We hope you keep checking in to see what we have up our sleeve :)

ACF 1 on 1's

Last week was the week before finals.... and the stress was definitely building on our campus and with our ACF students. This last week I met 1 on 1 with all our core members in order to discuss their life, leadership with ACF, spiritual gifts, and where they are spiritually right now in their lives. It was such a blessing to be able to really talk for about 2 hours with each student and it has really brought me and the students together. The leadership is beginning to pick up this quarter and it is exciting to see them coming to each other, as well as me more for prayer or simply someone to vent to. I'm excited to have:

Michael Davis take over as President

Stephanie McCain take over as Vice-President

Abigail Klipfel as our Secretary

Courtney Simon to continue as our Treasurer

Rachel McMahan as our Social Coordinator

Jessica Blaza as our Outreach Coordinator

Josh Cabay as our Boys Mentor/Network

Part of the meeting was the find each individuals strength and find a way in which they felt they could lead the organization and group in order to be successful.

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Our college students have so much going on in their lives right now and for many of them, faith is such a huge question because they learn so many new "ideas" about Jesus Christ in a Public University. Just like I did, they question if what we learned our whole lives is just another myth. I know that only the Holy Spirit can really do the work in each individuals lives, but I challenge all our church members to take the time to hear our students out and allow them to speak their mind and sometimes just vent the difficulties of trying to be a Disciple for God and still questioning their own beliefs on a Public Campus.

ACF Ohio is refreshed at Connect: 2011

This last weekend found Darrin and Beamy Thurber, David and Gina Helbley, and Sabrina Araiza connecting with students and campus ministry leaders at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The Georgia Cumberland conference generously allowed us to join them for their annual retreat for students on secular campuses, Connect 2011. We had a wonderful time worshiping together, painted a large rock, and had an opportunity to talk with Michaela Lawrence, the director of Advent House, about what she has learned leading the Adventist student group at UTK. It was an encouraging and educational weekend.