When the pandemic originally hit, we all thought things would be shut down for only a few weeks at best or a few months at worst. We were all wrong.

One of the toughest parts to this year was not having our usual in-person national winter conferences across the country for our students.

Thanks to an amazing national staff network, though, Cru decided to host one huge national student conference online. Over 6000 students tuned in on the weekend of 2/5-2/6 for an interactive online conference that included amazing Bible teaching, worship, missions presentations and topical seminars on 16 hot topics! It was truly awesome. Here is some feedback from a few of our students.

Brianna Otto from Ramapo College shared one of her biggest takeaways: “Conversations with non believers can be awkward and we may not always see tangible results but one awkward conversation can plant a seed that may help someone come to Christ years down the road. We may not always understand how much what we say or do has an impact on someone.”

Also from Ramapo College, Amanda Reece, shared: “What I liked most about Winter Conference was the ability to connect with people all over the United States, and the fact that the conference was so engaging which I did not expect for an online conference! During Winter Conference one speaker shared about how our faith should not be contingent on our situations, and it was as if he was speaking directly to me. I left that seminar encouraged and closer to Christ than when I came!”

Caleb Choy from Stevens Institute of Technology shared: “I liked hearing from different speakers! And it was cool to know that there were all of these other Christian college students out there, hungry for Jesus. It’s such a cool community and encouraging to know!”

Also from Stevens Institute of Technology, Kaitlyn Sharo shared: “It was a reminder that I’m part of a bigger community. It’s been really hard being at home; there’s not really anyone to evangelize to, there’s not really anyone other than my family to worship with. Having a reminder that I should still be trying to reach out to people in creative ways and evangelizing and staying together with like-minded Christians was good.”

Praise the Lord for such a fantastic conference! Pray the fruit would continue to surprise us during this time. Pray especially for our national evangelism challenge where we asked all 6000 students to share the gospel at least 3 times after the conference. Can you imagine 18,000 lost students hearing the gospel for the first time?? WOW! Pray God shows us the power of his Spirit through such an initiative. Thank you so much for your partnership in the gospel! If you would like to watch our favorite main session, we posted it on our ministry blog. Thank you!

Enjoy one of the many main sessions, one of my favorites!

WARMLY,

Joey & Jenn Sforza