Back-to-School Challenge!
Support campus ministry as the new academic year begins.
Dear friend,
The summer has blown by way too quickly for my liking.
(That explains why, once again, it’s been months since my last post.)
Liturgically, September 1 marks the start of the New Church Year. And it’s a good starting point for ministries as people return from vacation and schools start their new semesters.
And, speaking of new semesters, Orthodox Christian college students are returning to campus to resume their studies. They’re not alone because, as always, Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) is there to offer college students rich community in Christ, inspiring a life-long love of God and neighbor.
During the 2023-24 school year, over 700 students attended a retreat, conference, or other OCF-hosted in-person event, including:
7 regional weekend retreats;
That doesn’t include the hundreds of chapters across the country which use OCF’s resources when leading meeting and ministering to college students.
As much as I love all of those initiatives (especially College Conference), I’m most excited about our Campus Missionary Initiative. One year ago, OCF launched this project by placing a full-time staff member on campus at Texas A&M University.
This was a huge investment in transformative ministry. And the results have exceeded our expectations. We’ve seen:
100+ student participants;
110+ hours of one-on-one student discipleship;
7 different breakout groups meeting regularly; and
1/3 of participants are new to Orthodoxy.
In short, we’ve seen the faith of students flourish—both those who grew up in the Church and those who are finding the Church for the first time.
The Campus Missionary Initiative has been so successful that we launched two new locations this year: at Arizona State University and in Atlanta (serving Georgia Tech, Emory, and local students).
As the new school year begins, generous donors have offered us $60,000 in matching grants to help us kickstart campus ministry.
That makes this the perfect time to support campus ministry because, when you contribute to OCF’s Back-to-School campaign, your gift will be doubled!
I’m already a monthly donor to OCF, but I just offered my gift for this Back-to-School campaign.
Will you?
Best,
Steve
(And stay tuned for a new post in the next week or two, God willing.)
