The beginning of the semester is always crunch time! And we really truly love the rush. Praise God! After kicking things off with Team Planning on August 16, for three weeks we were on campus almost every day distributing flyers and seeking new international students. As we shared, a fear of ours was that AI and the job market would have reduced the numbers, and unfortunately, our fears came true. We interacted with way fewer students on those flyering days. Typically, Stevens University enrolls about 1,000 new international students; this semester, the numbers look like they could be around about 200!

Rather than get overly discouraged, we put our trust in the Lord as we kept promoting daily for students to hear about our Club Fair on 9/3, our Kickoff Picnic on 9/5, and our first on-campus evangelistic dinner on 9/11.

The club fair was a success even though fewer students overall attended. Our student leaders and I (Joey) had a great time setting up and chatting with the students who approached our table. Thankfully, ours was the most decadent, with plenty to give away! I really love our current team of Christian student leaders: pictured are Bez from India, Tafadzwa from Zimbabwe, and “Nathan” from East Asia (pseudonym for security).

This was the same week we were preparing for our Kickoff Picnic on Saturday, 9/5. For two years, we got rained out and needed to shift to an indoor gym instead of a proper picnic. Praise God, this time that did not happen, and we had great weather! An eight-month reservation came to fruition! In total, 26 students showed up and about 15 volunteers from various churches. It was such a fun time of games, food, socializing, and more, right in the shadow of the NYC skyline, Lady Liberty, and next to Ellis Island in Liberty State Park.

One of our volunteers is a professional photographer and took a lot of great pics you can view HERE.

On top of this, NINE Italian international students showed up. As you know, we have a big heart for Italy, being that my (Joey’s) parents are from there. We made sure to befriend them and put them in a dedicated chat. That next Tuesday, I dropped off imported goods, and they were so thankful!

The Italians all even came to our first Friday on-campus dinner, which had a total of 69 students in attendance, plus about 20 volunteers. This number blew us away because of the lower enrollment overall. Praise God our promotion paid off. On top of this, many old international students showed up as well, and even alumni!

Please continue to pray with us through our 40 Day Prayer Calendar. We really believe the fruit we see is due to the sweet incense of the saints rising to our Father on our behalf. Please pray for upcoming Friday dinners, pray for our upcoming field trips, and our upcoming home groups. Please also pray for true revival! We want an awakening of these students’ hearts and minds to the reality and truth of Christ! Thank you, everyone, for your partnership in the gospel!

As always see all the pics in full and even more on our blog!