Our semester has been a busy one, with new records set at Friday with Friends lunch, strong and growing ESL classes and International Coffeehouse, new faces at Midweek, Queer Space, and our Sunday night Bible study, and So. Much. More! Towards the last third of the semester we hosted more than 200 students and served 300+ hot dogs every Friday at our free lunch. It’s been wonderful to see new faces connecting with us over a meal, then spotting them studying in the coffeehouse or joining us for Midweek. We have welcomed more than a dozen new international students and visiting scholars to our ESL classes and International Coffeehouse. Last week, we hosted 42 grad students, international friends and family members, and a couple of church members for our Thanksgiving meal. Each person brought something that represented their country (lemon rice from India, a sweet egg and cashew dish from Pakistan, an eggplant casserole from Iraq, a spicy potato/chicken/avocado dish from Peru, and lots more), and it became a truly global feast!
Our craft nights have seen students learning how to knit, crochet, and next week, making cross-stitch ornaments. We’ve had a good response to these gatherings and look forward to offering more evenings of crafting next spring. (If you have a craft/art project you’d like to lead, please let me know!) The game nights have struggled to find their footing, but we are exploring the possibility of partnering with the Gender-Sexuality Resource Center to create a weekly rainbow game night next year and will see how that goes.
It's been a joy hearing student devotionals each week at Midweek, and several have stepped forward to take on this responsibility. We are thankful for all the weeks we were able to meet around the campfire outside this semester, but will appreciate an indoor fireplace that allows us to continue making “gourmet” s’mores and enjoying the warmth and glow of a beautiful fire in the cold and dreary months of January & February.