Ohio Adventist Christian Fellowship: The Lord's Passover Supper (Maundy Thursday)

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, April 26, 2011

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!

1 comment:

Darrin @ OUApril 26, 2011 at 9:08 AM
That's really awesome Gina and David. I wish I could have been there.
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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.