We are excited about what God is doing already this fall. It has been a bit of a whirlwind for the past three weeks, with all kinds of events and get-togethers with students, but we can tell God is moving here at NAU and we are praising Him!

We started off by getting together with our Core leadership team and sharing the vision for the year, praying and planning together. The 5 Core students and Jeremiah and I were all excited to step into our various roles and trust God together for what He might do through us and the group.

Then we dove into Welcome Week, with students moving in on campus. We had a little come-back get together for our returning students and then tabled for several days to get the word out about our group and get the info of people who were interested in our activities, our small groups, or how to have a relationship with God. We also had an ice-cream social, a hike and a scavenger hunt the first weekend.

The first week of classes we had a Freshmen meeting on Tuesday to introduce our small groups and let students know more about what we are all about. It was followed by Free pizza and our first weekly meeting on Wednesday. We had about 45 students attend and many responded positively to the time. We truly felt that God was glorified in the focus and content, and praise Him for being at work there.

In addition, we and the Core team have been pursuing meeting one on one with many of the interested students, to hear their stories, find out their spiritual backgrounds, and share the good news as the opportunity arose. Jeremiah had some exciting conversations (you can see your latest newsletter for one fun story of a student responding to the Gospel! – not quite posted here yet) and several of our Core women had great conversations too. One girl in particular is excited to have a follow up conversation with a girl who really wants to know how to have a relationship with God!

The second weekend, we had some “spikeball” on the lawn Friday afternoon, an evening hanging out downtown, and a hike to the Lava Tube on Saturday. It was lots of fun, with about 30 people on the hike with us, and some great bonding and hanging out. The kids did well in the Lava Tube too. Isaiah went all the way to the end, and Bethany made it most of the way and was a trooper walking with her headlamp next to Daddy the whole way.

This week has been reason to praise God too. We are seeing a number of the freshmen really get involved in our group. Several have volunteered to help with worship for the weekly meeting, I had a great turnout for the womens’ small group, and Jeremiah saw another student receive Christ and get more involved. Praise God! We have another hike this weekend, and will have mens/womens’ overnighters the following weekend, so that will be fun. Please do continue to pray for us and for God to move, drawing more NAU students to Himself day by day!