Christian groups minister at Winter Carnival

What happened this Winter Carnival? Well, there is the usual: fried Twinkies, sculptures, lots of people and several days off of school. There was also something else going on — the Lord provided fantastic opportunities to outreach all over campus. From being able to do the welcome statue to handing out fudge in the dorms to gospel messages on campus, the Lord moved. The fantastic thing about all of these things is that they were not supposed to happen. Usually the Inter-Christian Council gets a month-long statue that the Christian groups on campus work together on. This year, a simple missed meeting left us out of the month-long statue competition, but the Lord provided. The university allowed ICC to do the welcome statue. It was a fantastic opportunity to basically do whatever we wanted to and, traditionally, this statue was not done very well because it is not judged. This year our brothers and sisters poured out time and effort to produce a wonderful, judge-worthy statue.

Several of our brothers and sisters worked together to make loads of fudge, cinnamon rolls and pies. The cinnamon rolls and pies were handed out hot to the food vendors, statue workers and anyone else who could be found. The response was phenomenal. In one case, upon discovering that the pie was being handed out free, the head of the Bastille statue yelled to his workers, “WE GOT PIE! GET OVER HERE IF YOU WANT PIE!”

Soon after pie was finished being handed out, groups were sent out in twos into the dorms with fudge. The next 2.5 hours was spent handing out fudge to anyone who wanted it throughout Wads, DHH and McNair. However, the offer of fudge was made better by the offer to additionally take out the fudge recipients trash. This is what InterVarsity calls “Goodies for Garbage.” It opened the opportunity to explain that we, as Christians, love campus and want to show the love of Jesus with fudge and taking out the trash. In one case a student asked, “Is there something wrong with this fudge?” To which his roommate responded, “IT’S A TRAP!” The experience was not only very rewarding, but after 2.5 hours of handing out fudge, one group reported that they discovered muscles in their jaws hurting and realized then that they had been smiling the whole time. Giving truly is a blessing.

In addition to all of the food being handed out, there was also a game room with chips, soda/pop, guitar hero and other games run from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in Fisher 133. Next door in Fisher 132 was a prayer room. Both ministries saw a lot of traffic and the Lord worked. Based in the game room was another ministry: coffee. The idea was simple — late into the evening start handing out good coffee to those working on statue. The idea was well received.

Other ministries were also seen on campus including several Gospel messages, testimonies and a confession booth. The confession booth’s purpose was for people to come in, expecting to need to ask forgiveness for their sins, and instead are confronted with a Christian asking for forgiveness for the sins and atrocity that Christiandom has committed.
The response was fantastic.

So what happened during Winter Carnival? As Christians we came together to show the love of our Lord and Savior through a variety of ministries: coffee, fudge, games, pie, prayer, gospel messages, etc.

The Lord provided workers and showed His Glory. So what happened during winter carnival? God happened.