College Evangelism with Soularium

Last week Brad, a girl from Philadelphia Biblical University named Krisann, and I went to Bucks County Community College for a couple of hours of evangelism.  Our goal was just to meet college students and tell them about Jesus, and our tool was a stack of picture cards called Soularium.  Soularium is a very common tool in Campus Crusade for Christ.  I used it a few times when I was in college.  We would get together outside the cafeteria at Concord University and lay the cards on a table with couches around and try to draw people in to check it out.  Basically it works like this:  It is like a spiritual survey, but the cards give it a less direct approach and really makes it conversational and fun as opposed to direct and offensive.  You just lay the cards on a table and ask questions that are fun and personal in the beginning and later move to more spiritual and serious questions once the ice is broken.  The goal is to listen and find an opportunity to use their answers to transition into sharing the Gospel.  The questions are:

1. What three images describe your life right now? Why?
2. What three images describe what you wish were part of your life right now? Why?
3. Which image would you use to describe God (or lack of God for atheist)? Why?
4. Think about your life so far, which image describes what you've experienced spiritually? Why?
5. When you think about your spiritual journey so far, which image would you use to describe what you wish were true? Why?

I was familiar with this much, so when Brad said lets go do evangelism with Soularium, I thought I knew what I was doing. Once we arrived at the campus, I start looking for a place to set up and wait for students to come to us, where they might see us and the cards catch their attention.  While I am observing my surroundings, I find myself following Brad to a table with two college guys at it just hanging out.  Brad takes the initiative and asks something along the lines of, "Hey! Would you mind taking a few minutes to do a short spiritual survey?  We work with a local ministry and are trying to find out more about spirituality here at the college."  As my mind comes back to reality, I realize I don't need to look for a table anymore... and by this time we are sitting down at the table with the guys and starting to lay out the cards and go through the questions.  The guys names are Conner and Luke.  It starts awkwardly, but as we get into the personal questions in the beginning, it really opens the door for conversation, and we all start to get comfortable with one another.  After the first two questions, another guy named Vinny comes by briefly, spends a long humorous time answering which card represents God, and then has to leave.  We then move towards more spiritual questions, and by this time the two guys are upfront, honest, and comfortable.  Luke seems to sort of be searching for God, and Conner doesn't really seem to care.  Brad asks them what they think a person has to do to get into heaven.  They both reply with similar answers, that being good and doing good things will get you there.  Brad then asks, "If your view were false, would you want someone to tell you?  Conner says no, and Luke says yes.  Then Brad asks if he can share his view. They both agree, and Brad goes through the Gospel using another Campus Crusade tool, a Knowing God Personally booklet, which is a small booklet with the four main points of the Gospel, and he gives them each a copy.  Conner's ride comes and he has to go before we get very far, but the Luke stays.  If he wanted to leave, that was his chance, but he decides to stay!  Brad then continues to share Christ with him and that Christ is God's only provision for our sins.  As we are about to finish up, Luke's ride gets there too, and he has to go.  He thanks us, and we part ways.  After that we meet some guys with another campus Christian organization called InterVarsity and a guy named George who is also there to share his faith.  While we talk with them, Krisann does Soularium with another group of students, and then we have to leave...

I thought this was a cool day, but I honestly never planned to blog about it until tonight.  Tonight we went to Panera Bread to treat our PBU volunteers to coffee and a study break from exam studying.  As we were in line to order, I tap Brad on the shoulder as I see Vinny, the guy who only stayed for one question.  We approach him, and he remembers us!  He then says Luke is there too!  Luke actually works there and we go talk to him.  We just get to talk to him for a few minutes, and ask how he's doing and part ways, but what are the chances?  Even in a small town it would be slim, but up here in the Philly area?  That's Crazy!!!  Even though we didn't get into any spiritual dialog, I know our running into him wasn't a coincidence.  Luke was definitely searching for God, and we told him how to find Him.  Who knows?  Maybe running into us again will get him thinking about our conversation at the college.  Maybe he will open the little Knowing God Personally booklet we gave him again... You never know how God is working in someones life, but I just thought that was a cool story and wanted to share it.  

Paintball with a side of Jesus

A few weeks ago, Brad had an idea to take the football players from Morrisville out paintballing.  His and some of the other local churches do a lot of paintball retreats, so we had equipment we could use for fairly cheap, plus a local Christian doctor from the area agreed to have the event at his house.  The doctor has a very nice home with fields, forest areas, basketball court, and all sorts of good paintball spots.  For the event, we had around 20 people show up, almost half were from the football team.  We also invited others from churches and our other groups.  It ended up being a great time!  I personally had never played paintball, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I really enjoyed it and so did all the guys.  After playing for a few hours, we cooked hot dogs for lunch on a fire, and the doctor came out and shared his testimony with the students.  His testimony was really awesome!  When he was growing up, he played football at one of the local high schools in an average income family.  Pursuing the American dream, he became a doctor because doctors make good money and get big toys.  He wasn't in it to help others as much as to help himself.  As he grew older, a friend of his told him about Jesus and he started going to church.  He said, now that he looks back at it, all the nice things he had, money, cars, women, etc... none of it ever really fulfilled him.  Only a relationship with Jesus can fulfill a person, and only a relationship with Him can bring a person true joy!  It was great because the doctor came from similar situations as some of the football guys we work with, yet was able to really speak wisdom into their lives about the inadequacy of earthly possessions, and the importance of a relationship with Jesus.  Afterwards, we played more paintball, and overall just had a great time!