October Summary

Sorry for the lack of posts. Here's a brief update. I'll try to be better about it in the future...

This has been a month of changes and growth, no doubt about that. The last few days of September we took our students on the Upstate NY Fall Retreat along with students from Buffalo, Syracuse, Cornell, and Albany. In total there were around 250 people there, including almost 90 from Rochester! We had 8 students come from MCC, which is 6 more than ever before, and 10 deaf students from RIT. It was a great weekend as we learned and talked about trusting God with our pasts, presents, and futures. During worship Sunday morning one of the deaf students, Philip, fainted, falling on his face on the concrete floor and was quickly surrounded by blood. Instead of panicking, students all over the room broke into prayer until the students moved to the dining hall to allow the paramedics more room and privacy. Once relocated, the students continued to pray and began to worship God through song in some of the most honest worship I have seen. 

The concept of trusting that God is in control at all times was put to the test that day; it challenged all of us as we understood from experience rather than from hearing someone speak about it. Philip ended up being fine, with only a couple chipped teeth, and when he learned about how the students had prayed for him, he began to cry, astounded at the idea that hearing people could care for him, a deaf person, so much. 

Ministry on campus since the retreat has been challenging, but rewarding. MCC’s small groups continue to grow and the students are really grasping the importance of the Gospel and sharing it with their friends and families. St John Fisher has been more of a challenge; while many students signed up to be involved, only about 10 have stuck with it. I am working individually with one of the girls, however, and we are going to be beginning an outreach in her dorm this year and starting to share the Gospel with them. We are still in the startup phase at Fisher and are hoping to see some real growth as the year progresses.