PHILADELPHIA (BRN) – Something I’m sure many of us can agree on is that college students need a lot of things, for example, sheets, pillows, books and clothes.
Others are not so obvious to the outside observer and may include, but are certainly not limited to, a sense of belonging, a feeling of connectedness, a perception of inclusion and relationships with adults they can trust.
Considering these needs, one of the things we – my husband and I – often refer to when working with students is a premise established by Tim Elmore, which expresses that most young adults are asking questions in five major areas: purpose, lifestyle, home or belonging, beliefs and relationships. Belonging and relationships are the two I will focus on here.
Before we dive into that, let me give you a couple of things to set the framework of how this relates and why it is important to me.
First, I work part-time. Second, Brian, my husband, and I have a daughter, Julianna, and one of the things I considered my ministry was raising and being present for her as she was growing up.
So, my time, up to this point, was spent both working and raising her (which I would not trade for anything) and my ability to be on campus was limited.
Now that she’s 18, and a young adult herself, I have had the opportunity to spend Sunday evenings at Drexel University, where Brian serves as a campus minister, for our weekly student fellowship. This is a time when we gather with students for prayer, Bible study and a home-cooked meal.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE to cook and, more than that, I love to cook for other people. It is something that is deeply fulfilling for me. So, including a meal in our weekly fellowship was something I decided to do.
It’s a way the Lord is allowing me to be a blessing to students, that previously, I was not able to do. With the evangelism grant given to us generously by the Baptist Resource Network (BRN), my desire to minister to students through providing a weekly meal has been made possible. I am so very grateful for that.
Going back to what I said earlier about the ideas of belonging and relationships, this weekly fellowship and these weekly meals are deeply significant to our students. They are key to building community among students and connecting students to adults they can trust.
We are building community with fellowship and generating a sense of connectedness and belonging with their peers, who have now become friends. Not only that, but our discussion right now is centered on the idea of community and how we can build, achieve and continue to develop that as a group.
A natural and beautiful by-product is that we have created a welcoming space they can invite others to. They can become part of our community on their way to establishing a personal relationship with God.
We have local and international students in our group, and because I happen to love cooking new foods and recipes from other cultures and regions of the world, I started asking the students, “What meal would each of you like to see on the table?”
They’ve responded with enthusiasm, sending me texts and emails with YouTube links to recipes as well as bringing me printed recipes too. As a result, we’ve been traveling all over the world: Italy, India, Spain, China, most recently Nigeria and next is Korea.
The thought underlying all of this is, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m valuable enough that you want to know more about my culture and the foods that are home to me, and you want the rest of the group to know too.”
We are truly building community by intentionally investing in who our students are at their core and encouraging others in the group to see that about one another. It has truly been a privilege to be part of this. I can’t wait to find out where we go next!
