CALIFORNIA, Pa. (BRN) – On Nov. 20, New Life Campus Ministry at PennWest California University in California, Pennsylvania, hosted Pancakesgiving Fest.

We’ve been hosting Pancakesgiving for several years, and we wanted to keep the event going in the same way as last year. Pancakesgiving is a Thanksgiving-themed pancake dinner, and this year we had six other clubs and organizations who joined us to host carnival-style booths. We were grateful to work with several different clubs:

  • ALD (an honor’s fraternity)
  • PennWest Pantry (our school’s free food pantry, who was also using our event as one of its advertised events during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week)
  • Cal Commuters
  • Pepsi Cal (our school’s Pepsi representative who provided a special apple cider float)
  • Cal Women’s Rugby
  • WCAL (our school’s radio station who provided music)

We gave away free pancakes in festive flavors and coffee. We also had a mini carnival where students could make keychains and bracelets, take photos at the photo booth, spin a wheel to win prizes, get a special drink, play pin-the-rugby-ball, do a craft, find little Jesus figurines around the room and participate in our Soularium evangelistic activity.

We used the passport idea that I saw at the BRN Accelerate annual meetings, which encouraged people to go to each of the booths, including ours.

We served about 100 people, and almost half of them turned in a passport card. When they submitted a card with five or more stickers, they were entered to win some prize baskets.

If someone found a Jesus figurine, they could get a free box of candy. At one point, one girl had been looking for a very long time and she was asking all the people in the room if they had seen Jesus. Our student Bryce said to her, “if you want to find Jesus so badly, you should come to New Life.”

That was my favorite quote from the evening!

New Life Vice-President Anna Stewart and New Life Outreach Coordinator Brittney Thomas hosted the Soularium booth.

New Life Vice President Anna Stewart engages in gospel conversations with peers through Soularium.

Here’s what Anna Stewart had to say about Soularium: 

  • The gospel was shared through Soularium. After asking the original question of “What three images describe your life right now?” we then went into “What image would you choose to describe God?” When they chose their image, we asked why they chose that one. A common image picked was the sunrise on the beach because it was beautiful, like God. A surprising image was a rope because God set them free. 
  • A conversation that stuck out to me was: When asked the Soularium questions, one person picked the image of a church pew with (what looks like) someone sadly sitting there. When I asked why, they said it was because they missed their home church. We then talked about what that looked like and how long it had been since he had been there. It was eye-opening to me because a picture that looked bad to me was what someone else felt like they were missing in their life.  

 Here are two highlights Brittney Thomas shared:

  • A guy unprompted said the photo of the rope reminded him of people seeing how far away they can get from God, but that they’re still connected to him no matter how far they try to pull away.
  • Two individuals said they had experienced trauma from the church, and it has led them to not practice in their faith anymore. I talked to them and found out that they still believe in a higher power, but don’t know much from that. I shared that people aren’t perfect, including the people within the church, and that I was sorry they experienced such things. But I also shared that hope isn’t found in people, it’s found solely in Jesus. I brought up the idea of reading the Bible and trying out building a personal relationship with Jesus instead of alongside other believers. Jesus didn’t treat people the way they were treated, and they shouldn’t let people deter them from God.

We had a wonderful event and got to interact with a variety of students from many walks of life. We were grateful to branch out to connect with other clubs and for the opportunity to engage in 22 student-led gospel conversations. Though we didn’t have anyone who prayed to receive Christ, it was wonderful to see students engaging their peers in meaningful dialogue about Jesus. It was just as powerful for the students who shared the gospel as with those who participated in the activities.

Kim Carson (back, middle-left), Campus Missionary at PennWest California, pictured with some of her New Life students and student leaders.

It was our best event to date! The incredible group of New Lifers, along with the other clubs and the catering, made this a wonderful event! I was so proud of the work everyone put in. Our leadership team, plus a couple others, showed up early, helped during the entire event, and stayed until the end of clean-up. I’m so proud of our group!

Thank you for the opportunity for us to reach more students with the light and love of Jesus through Pancakesgiving Fest!

*To see the video and advertisements for Pancakesgiving created by New Life president Sydney, please visit our Instagram (Instagram.com/newlifecalu) or facebook (facebook.com/newlifecalu).

Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!