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Letter from the Campus Minister
Greetings from Ambassadors for Christ! The 2014-2015 school year is complete, and what a year it has been for A4C. God's hand has truly been at work in this group and here on the U of A campus. This semester has been one where our group has placed emphasis on outreach and has really spread some seeds. If God blesses us, we will even get to see some of them grow and mature.
The event that was the brainchild of the Outreach team this semester was a "Murder Mystery Party," which was held at the beginning of March. If you have never been a part of one of these parties, I highly recommend you try one sometime. If you are familiar with the board game "Clue," the party is much like a live-action version of the game. Each member of A4C was given a formal invitation to the party, as well as one other invitation to give to a friend, and RSVPs were required. Upon receiving the RSVPs, we realized that we had a crowd comprised of people for whom half of which were attending their first A4C event! Characters were assigned and people were encouraged to come in costume. When the party began, nametags were distributed and we began with a round of games and appetizers. At various stages of the party, instructions were handed out to each player for how to play their part. At some point, a "murder was committed," and from that point forward it was the goal of the game to discover "who done it, how they did it, and where it occurred." An extreme amount of positive feedback was received and we intend to host another Murder Mystery Party next year.
Much work was put in by a team of students and ACMF board members, as well as other church members to make this run smoothly, including sending out formal invitations, cooking, cleaning, and hosting of the party itself. For those of you who helped, we are thankful for your contribution. Also, a big thank you to Ed and Paula Biggers, longtime A4C supporters, who graciously allowed us to use their house to host the party! If you are interested in helping out with the party next year, please let me (Jesse) know; we could certainly use more hands on deck!
Following the party, we have had several opportunities to follow up with those who attended: several have since been to another A4C event, church at Mountain Avenue, or played on one of our intramural sports teams. Speaking of intramurals, we again played basketball this past spring and won a championship! We also played both men's softball, and for the first time co-rec softball. We had a great time in all of the above.
A highlight of each semester is our retreat, and this spring was no exception. Rick Krug, a spiritual life coach and former church planter, was our speaker. With a retreat theme of "Speak, O Lord," Rick taught us about listening to God. A major takeaway that will be helping to form our campus ministry was me gaining a better understanding of what "vision" is: "a detailed picture of a preferable future." Part of listening to God is praying and then envisioning what things should look like. I will be doing more of this myself and with our student minister team. Our retreat was the largest that we have had since I have been here, with a total of 40 people attending, 26 of which were students (or AIM team members) from Tucson, Phoenix, and Sierra Vista. God truly blessed our time at retreat this year!
I am thankful for each of you and the contribution that you have made in A4C's past as students, parents, and supporters, and I pray that this letter finds you well and working hard for God's Kingdom. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we seek to do God's will on the U of A campus.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse
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