What is Soularium?
Soularium is a tool we use on campus to help us begin spiritual conversations with students. Soularium is a collection of 50 artistic photographs that we spread out on tables, benches, the grass, or anywhere students are! We then ask students questions like, “What do you think God is like?” or “Describe your spiritual experience up to this point in your life,” but we ask them to choose photographs that represent the answers to these questions. Here’s a story of how Soularium works!
Last week, JB was sharing his faith at SWIC using Soularium. JB asked Jason, a SWIC student, some of the questions above, and asked him to choose three images to describe where he was spiritually. Jason chose a photo of a path, a photo of a barbed-wire fence, and a photo of a sunset to describe his spiritual state. He said, “I feel like I’m searching for God, like I’m on a path and I want to find Him. I know He’s got a plan for me. But…” Holding up the photo of the barbed-wire, he said, “I feel like something is standing in the way of me knowing God—something is holding me back, and blocking me.” Finally, holding up the picture of the sunset, he said, “Once I’m able to get through this barrier, the place I’ll be is a place of peace.”
Wow. How easy it was to share the Gospel with Jason after that! JB was able to explain to Jason that God loved him, and did have a wonderful plan for his life, but that he was right—there was something blocking him from knowing God. JB was able to explain that sin separates us from God, but that Jesus has removed the barrier! We can now have a relationship with God through faith in Christ. There at a picnic table outside SWIC’s main building, Jason placed his faith in Jesus.
As Jason was getting ready to go, he said, “I know so many people that need to hear this message. I’ve got so many people that I need to tell about this.”
Pray that Jason would grow in his faith as JB continues to meet with him. Pray that Jason would become a man who speaks to others about Jesus!
Our First Day at SIUE!
This past Monday, school started at SIUE and at many other schools here in the Metro East! In order to gauge students’ spiritual interest and find students searching for truth, we and our student leaders set up a table for two days at a hot spot on campus. There, we met students, and invited them to take a short spiritual interest survey. In these two days, we and our students made contact with over 840 students! In the coming weeks and months, we will be calling and meeting with students who indicated an interest in spiritual things in order to share with them the message of Jesus!
Ryan, Abbie, Casey, Devin, Brandon, JB and Adam.
Our students engaging with others and doing surveys!
Adam inviting students to check out things we have going on on campus!
Gathering students at our table, giving away free stuff, doing surveys…
Devin talking to some Nepalese students about Jesus.
Casey and Adam.
A Unique Opportunity for Our Nalchik Students!
Summer Project is a summer missions strategy used by Campus Crusade in Russia that is vital to the growth of campus movements! During these three weeks, students from all over Russia are trained in evangelism and discipleship, and are given ministry skills that will make them ministry leaders on their campuses. We are so excited that four key students from Nalchik have been accepted to go on this project: Nastya, Katya, Alyana and Aivar!
The students going on summer project from Nalchik represent amazing fruit in the ministry there. This past winter, after we left Nalchik, Alyana led her brother, Aivar to Jesus! Now, these two siblings are going together to learn how to become more effective witnesses for Christ on their campuses! Praise God! When we ask God for movements, this is what we are asking for! Local students are leading their peers to Christ, and those students are becoming witnesses for Christ.
Please keep these students in your most fervent prayers this summer. The project dates are July 1-21. Pray that these three weeks would bear fruit a hundredfold in these students’ lives, and that they would grow in their passion for Jesus, and for sharing Him with the lost!
If you’d like to be involved financially in directly supporting these students in their summer plans, click here and follow the simple checkout process.
Please click the “Add Comments for JB and Abbie Windle” and specify that your gift is for the Nalchik students’ summer project.
St. Louis Day Two!
We met with our director today and got some more information about the campuses that we’ll be working on starting next fall! This map shows all of the campuses that fall into our scope of ministry. Our primary focus will be on the Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville campus (shown in red).
Today was an exciting day for us--this trip is allowing us to move from a theoretical to a real knowledge of what we’ll be doing, where we’ll be doing it, and who we’ll be doing it with! Please take a moment right now to pray for the students on these campuses, and the freshmen that will start school at these colleges in the fall!
St. Louis Day One!
The first day of our long weekend in St. Louis was great! In the morning, we had a chance to meet the team we’ll be working with! There are about 20 people on our team, and our scope is the over 50 campuses in the St. Louis area. Our team will be working on bigger university campuses in St. Louis, but we’ll also be working on the dozens of smaller community college campuses in the metro area. As a team, we spent time in the word and in prayer together, planned for the fall, and got to know one another better! It has definitely gotten us excited to report to St. Louis as soon as possible!
However, even more exciting for us was yesterday evening. Last night, we gathered with 13 students from three of the campuses that JB and I will be working on!
These are some of the student leaders currently involved in Campus Crusade movements on their campuses. These students are sharing their faith, leading Bible studies on campus, and making an impact for Jesus. We were so encouraged by the faithfulness of these students--that they would give up their Friday evening to gather and pray for the lost students on their campuses! These students are passionate about making Christ known among their friends, in their classrooms, and on their dorm floors. Together, we prayed and worshiped God for three hours, looking at the Word together, asking God to open doors for ministry, and asking God to break our hearts for lost students.
Pray for these students--we will be working closely with them in the fall, and entrusting them with responsibility and leadership to reach their campuses for Christ!