UC Shack-A-Thon Success

On Thursday, the University Center built a shack in four hours to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness around the world.












Of course, we weren't the only ones building shacks. Other organizations participated in the event known as Shack-A-Thon, which was sponsored by Habitat for Humanity and Zeta Beta Tau. Groups were given four hours to build a shack, solicit donations of cash and cans (cash would be used for building homes with Habitat), and spend the night in the shack. It's designed to help students better understand homelessness and show others by their example. It's a genius idea.

Since its Saturday, hopefully you've realized that we survived the night. It certainly was a cold one! In fact, we were supposed to receive rain along with below freezing temperatures. We so blessed to only be freezing, not wet, too.

The UC Luv Shack received the "People's Choice" and "Most Cans Collected" Awards. The UC and our UC supporters helped us collect 310 used alluminum cans and raise more than $134. Thank you!

Our team did a fantastic job of demonstrating a Christian attitude toward each other and others throughout the event. I'm so proud of each of them.

They built a charming shack, stuck it out during the freezing night, and helped two other teams tear down and haul off their shacks. It was an incredible display of teamwork and compassion. Way to go!

I am glad it's over, though. At least 12+ hours with each other in a shack in freezing weather can get a little rough, no matter how nice you may be.

If you really want a detailed description of the event, visit here.

Spreading the Good News (in Japan!)

When I decided to come to OSU, I didn't know that I would have an opportunity to go on a Let's Start Talking mission trip. I'd known of LST through my time at Oklahoma Christian, but I had no idea that LST sends teams overseas from the University Center every summer.


Let's Start Talking is a ministry which gives students a opportunities to go overseas and teach conversational English using the Bible in a one-on-one environment. In the past, the UC has sent teams to places such as Hungary, Brazil, Kenya, and others. In recent years, several teams have made it to Oigawa, Japan. Nathan Turek refers to Oigawa as his "home town."


This summer, in just a few weeks, three of us (Kalin Jenkins, Erin Frederick, and myself) will be taking off and continuing the work that others have started in Oigawa. Over the past weeks, we have been raising funds, attending weekly training meetings, and getting everything we need in order to leave by May 18th.


We will be in Japan for three weeks, and we will return to the United States on June 9th. During our time there, we will stay at a host church through whom we will be providing English lessons. Our take-off is a mere 75 days away, and I could not be more excited.


Here is a picture of our team during Intensive Training weekend, which we intended in Norman back in January. Kalin is one the left, Erin in the middle, and I'm on the right.

Campus Encounter is Coming!

Campus Encounter will kick off in 4 days, on Friday, February 20, at 7 p.m.

For over twenty years, our campus ministry has hosted a seminar for other state school campus ministries throughout the Midwest. Students come from several states, small colleges, large universities, through campus ministries and in independent groups.

Campus Encounter features the following:

• Key speakers
• Small group discussions
• Classes
• Worship
• Fellowship

Much of what happens at Campus Encounter is very simple and can be seen at campus ministry seminars throughout the U.S. However, what makes Campus Encounter unique is the spirit and soul-searching that students bring to it.

It's incredible to hear how far many of these students come - just to worship God and celebrate His Son. Also, as state school students - it's awesome to see so many fellow believers from other secular schools be crazy about Jesus.

Students come to Campus Encounter to dig deep... to find out what Christianity is all about (or even approach the concept of Christianity)... to really learn what following Jesus is like.

If you're an OSU studnet, I strongly encourage you to attend Campus Enocounter. You can check out the University Center for more information. You'll be glad you did.

By the way, if you have attended Campus Encounter, leave a comment and tell us what it's meant to you. We'd love to see your feedback.

Second Families

Tonight the UC combined forces with the Stillwater Church of Christ (up-the-hill) and had a devotional about perseverance. While all of the adults and most of the students were in the auditorium, some UC students orchestrated a lesson, activity and worship for our 1st-5th graders. The teachers got an opportunity to worship with everyone else for the night and our students got a chance to serve.

We have a unique relationship with the Stillwater church. The members of the church adopt us through the University Student Adoption program, feed us practically every Sunday, help connect us with community resources, and encourage us regularly (even if they don’t know our names).

What do the college students give back to the church? Well, we join them for family dinners, eat their meals on Sundays, use their connections, and grin when they chat with us. We eat. A lot.

Actually, we’ve learned to give back to the church in whatever small ways we can. Students help teach classes, babysit kids, volunteer for service projects, coach LTC teams, and pitch in with other ways. Most of all, college students bring an indefinable energy to worship service.

Students come to OSU to figure out careers, relationships and life in general. During their time of self-discovery, the members of the church serve as second families to many of us. They teach us how to care for another church, other members, who aren’t part of our home churches or (for some) are first examples of church life. They teach us how to care for others unreservedly. They don’t know if we’ll remember the little things they’ve done for us, or the many times they’ve prayed for us, but they keep praying that God will guide us and use them somehow.

What are your experiences from attending church during your college years? Or what impact did not going to church have on you? If you’re a student now, what are you learning?

We’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

Teaching What Family Means

The UC teaches college students what being part of a church family really means.

In college you learn to define what “faith” means to you. Will you believe in something? If so, who? Why? Will you join fellow believers or not? Sometimes it seems that establishing their own sense of morality and faith is not a primary concern of students, but it really plays a huge role in what their college years will consist of.

I joined the University Center for a few reasons
A) My parents knew a lot of people at the church from the years they’d lived in Stillwater. If they found out I wasn’t going to church – I’d be in huge trouble. Plus, I even had relatives in town. I was doomed.
B) Habit. Attending church was just what I did. Not attending was incompatible with my lifestyle.
C) My roommate, Heather, was going to join the UC. I couldn’t imagine how guilty I’d feel if I didn’t go.

At the beginning, I really didn’t want to join the UC, basically because my parents wanted me to and talked about it all the time. I think all teenagers want to spite their parents, if just for kicks.

Regardless of my desire to rebel, I became a faithful UC attendee, even when I really didn’t want to go to events. It seemed that no matter how much I didn’t want to do something yet did, I had an awesome time and learned more tidbits about God and our relationship with Him. Eventually I really wanted to hang out with these people who became my treasured friends. In fact, I began viewing them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The UC has a tradition of teaching students to love each other through activities, service and fellowship. Through subtle ways, the UC taught me to consider our body of members a family. People genuinely cared for each other, flaws, irritating habits and sins – everything. Sometimes we didn’t handle our frustration with each other exceptionally well, but… each of us were (and are) “works in progress.”

One awesome aspect of determining what kind of faith (if any) you’ll have is that you decide what it will be. Ultimately, it’s your decision if you’ll pledge your life to God or go down another path. Ultimately, that was (and still is) one of the biggest joys of being part of the UC family – each of us has chosen to pursue God and, for this part of our journey, to do it together. Our common goal to grow more like Jesus bonds us to one another throughout our college years and after them.

I invite anyone who isn’t sure of their faith and really doesn’t want to participate in a church, to come to the University Center regardless of their fear and dread. Yes, taking the step to join something you’re uncertain of can be absolutely terrifying, but it’s worth it. Take the plunge.

Honestly Judging

Mt. 7:1-2 Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Often after reading these two verses, I decide that I’m a wonderful example of being non-judgmental. After listing off the kind and considerate things I’ve said and done for others, I relax with self-satisfaction at my utter devotion to Christ. Heck – I would never judge others unfairly!

Soon (often hours or minutes later) I catch myself judging someone on the way they dress, treat others or make decisions.

“She really doesn’t realize how much prettier she’d look if only she’d…”

“Why can’t he just stop… ”

“They really shouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t have done that…”

The criticisms continue until finally I realize what a wonderful example of non-Christianity I’m displaying. Satan would be proud.

Unfortunately, we all walk into the trap of believing that we’re somehow better and more worthy of mercy than others. We begin judging them according to our own personal standards of protocol and ethics, which includes anything from how we respond to strangers to how we handle problems. While criticizing others we need to ask ourselves whose standards we’re judging them by – ours or God’s.

When we’re judging by our own standards, it’s usually a matter of personal preference and habit like putting (or not putting) the toilet seat down. It really doesn’t matter, but we often make a big deal out of something that’s really a small detail in life. Rarely have catastrophes occurred because of toilet seat confusion.

On the other hand, if it’s an issue that is either right or wrong, such as cheating in Biology, then we need to judge by God’s standards. If you want to shake up your report card and your college career, cheat at OSU and you’ll get a free F! Like OSU, God doesn’t support cheating either.

We aren’t intended to judge our neighbors; but we are designed to introduce others to Christ. Relationships are damaged when we harshly criticize others. How can we possibly draw others to Christ when we’re tearing them to pieces mentally, if not verbally? Who are we to judge someone against our own standards that the other person may not know or agree with?

While preparing for the spring semester, we need to be ready to catch those wayward critical thoughts that draw us and others away from Christ. People who don’t know Christ need us to show Him to them, not indicate how unworthy they are. None of us are worthy, yet He loves us anyway. We should strive to do the same.

Over the Summer

What it means to be a part of the University Center isn’t something I can adequately explain with words; it’s something you have to experience.

I’m going to try to integrate two stories into one in as brief a post as I can get, but I’m not sure how successful I’ll be. Here goes: toward the end of my sophomore year at Oklahoma Christian University (Spring ’07), I decided to transfer. I was trying to figure what I would do in the summer as well as the fall. I knew of a place called the Contact church of Christ in Tulsa, an inner city ministry that a couple friends of mine had been a part of years before. Shortly after I returned home for the summer, I began a summer internship at Contact with their children’s and neighborhood ministry.

At Contact, I worked both at the church—teaching Sunday morning class and Bible hour, as well starting a summer reading program with a few kids—and at a government housing apartment complex just down the block—taking kids from that neighborhood swimming and putting on a mini-VBS once a week. This was my first “official” ministry position, and to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing at first. Of course, I learned as the summer went on, but I was hardly an expert when August rolled around. The kids, in truth, taught me as much as I had taught them (at least, I hope I taught them that much).

I came to OSU shortly after I finished the internship. The UC became a family to me, and I would not have survived without it.

In the spring, I started to prepare myself to work at Contact again. Over spring break, I went with a UC group to the Houston Impact church of Christ for a mission trip. Impact is an inner city church like Contact, only Impact’s been around a lot longer and operates on a larger scale. In Houston we did a lot of things that we do at Contact: we had cookouts in government neighborhoods, helped with bible class, and basically helped wherever we were needed.

I started at Contact for my second summer about two months after getting back from Houston. That was a long two months, and not a day went by that I wasn’t looking forward to the work I would do back home.

The fact that I had someone to report to at Contact didn’t mean that the interns were asked to do whatever we were told and nothing more. Being an intern at Contact meant taking initiative for my own projects and tasks. The summer reading program took place on Fridays, and I had to make a plan and carry it out. I’m not saying that I received no outside help, but ultimately it was my responsibility and I couldn’t rely on anyone else to make sure it happened.

This was a change from last summer. After spending a year at OSU, I was equipped to do more, to take more initiative, to be a leader as well as a follower. I was never completely on my own my first summer, but this summer I had to be a few times and I was prepared.

The main thing I can say from all this, is that I was not the same person when I came to the UC last fall as I was when I left for the summer for Tulsa, and I know many others who will tell you the same thing about their own journeys.