It has been really fun to see our students growing lately.  It is encouraging to see them enjoying one another while they grow in their walk with God and are beginning to live with a common purpose in mind. We desire to be a safe, authentic, fun community where people can laugh together while learning about God and what it means to follow Christ. But we also want to be more than that – we want to be about what God is about. We are seeing our community move in this direction and we praise God!

We had 6 Juniors and Seniors come with us to the Crossroads conference for that age group. They heard talks on keeping an eternal perspective and remembering Jesus is king as they look to their future and make life choices. The main speaker talked specifically about things like Surrender and Decision making, and it was fun to see our students soak it in and struggle with what implications those thoughts have for their lives.

The week before that conference, we did an outreach on campus here at NAU. We called it “Think: What’s Your Perspective” and, as a community, we sought to respectfully ask students about their perspectives on spiritual things and, if they were willing to hear, share the Biblical perspective. The most exciting thing about it was seeing almost all of our students participate. Our student leaders did a great job training the other students in how to engage with their fellow students. We all wore T-shirts, responded to questions from friends and classmates about the shirts, and came out to the tables in the Union to invite students to stop and share their views with us there. I saw our students praying for each other and encouraging one another, as well as taking steps of faith to share their perspective after listening and dialoguing with students about those students’ views.

The week before that, my Small Group of girls went to a local Rescue Mission to help out during a meal. It was fun to see some of them step out of their comfort zone and serve. Many of us enjoyed talking to the guests there (people from the community facing hard times and from around the country passing through Flagstaff). I heard a few crazy stories and interesting spiritual perspectives. One man, from the East Coast, shared about some of his religious experiences as he has explored various religions, but said only recently he was open to hearing about Jesus again because he met a deep-thinking, authentic Christian who made him re-think some of the reasons he had rejected the Christian faith before. I will continue to pray for him.

Overall, we are encouraged. God is at work within Cru here at NAU. We look forward to what He will continue to do, and we are praying that our community continues to become more authentic and vulnerable while staying welcoming and outward focused. We know that keeping our eyes on Christ is what will help!