Top Picture: One of the orientation worship sessions!
Bottom Pictures: Patience and Brian, two students on our leadership team, calling to follow up with some of the new believers!
During the month of June we had 4 orientation sessions spread out over two weeks where future freshmen come to HBU for 2 days to get registered for classes and make arrangements for the fall. Our BSM and the Spiritual Life Department were able to interact with these freshmen through organization fairs and worship services each night of the orientations. During the worship service of our first orientation, we decided to give a gospel presentation since we had such a large group of future freshmen attend (around 200 students or so). We were completely caught off guard when 9 students decided to make Christ the Lord of their life that night! We decided to continue this for the remaining three worship sessions and each time, more people made decisions! By the end of the two weeks, we saw over 70 students come to faith in Christ, over double that number rededicated their life to Christ, and many others indicated that they were still seeking and would like to be contacted with further information.
This past week, students on our BSM leadership team have been personally calling every one of these students to let them know that we care for them and their new faith. We are following up with each student to let them know about the next steps, which include starting one-on-one discipleship when they get to campus, finding a church home, and getting plugged in to our weekly Bible studies. The follow-up calls have been very encouraging and we are so excited to get to play a part in helping these new believers grow in their faith.
This whole experience has been very humbling. God moved in such a big way and it is a sobering reminder to us that there are so many students, even at a Christian university, that are longing for The Savior.
-Mark