Update: SDSU Burgers & Sunsets Event

I know I sent out a newsletter the other day, but I just had to send out this update about our most recent event. First of all, thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry. Your financial investment allows us to do this work and your prayers, especially for this event, are a powerful and necessary part of what we’re doing. You, my partner, are just as much a part of this work as I am, so rejoice with me in how God is using us on campus in San Diego!

The two universities we are focusing on reaching here in San Diego are San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). UCSD’s program start dates are later next month, but SDSU has already started. The whole Cru team was on campus at SDSU last week and this week to meet new students. Here are some photos of Lauren and me hard at work.

We were holding up this map of the world with signs that read “Are you an international student?” and “Where are you from?” This is a strategy of finding international students that we call “Mobile Mapping.” We have students place a sticker on their home city/country to showcase which cultures are represented on campus.

This is a great way for us to start a conversation with international students about the Bridges group and getting connected with other international students. For each student who stopped, we gave them a small beach bag with candy, Bridges sunglasses, and a flyer (shown at the top of this page).

We were also inviting them to a special international student event that evening called “Burgers & Sunsets,” which is an event we hope to hold annually where we carpool from SDSU to In-N-Out Burger and then head to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sunset together while eating a classic So-Cal burger!

If you’re skimming this, here’s the exciting part!

While praying and planning for this event, we were asking God to give us at least a dozen or so students, but look at how many students joined us for this event!

We counted 30 international students who joined us for this event plus all of our leaders and volunteers who showed up to drive and help out, with a total of 41 people in this photo all representing 13 different countries!

First, we grab In-N-Out, then it’s time to head to the Cliffs!

(A massive thank you to St. Peter’s by the Sea Church for allowing us to park in their lot by Sunset Cliffs.)

Hangout time at the Cliffs!

What a great group!

One of the most beautiful things about this event was how grateful our students were. Many of them personally thanked us for putting it together and were already excitedly asking when the next event will be.

From our online surveys and from speaking with them, we’re also very excited to say that many of them are interested in learning more about Jesus and studying the Bible together. Please pray for us as we dive deeper into our relationships with these and other international students throughout this school year.

This week, through all of this excitement, I was reminded of Jesus’ words from the sermon on the mount:

Burgers are delicious and sunsets are beautiful, but they are nothing compared to the matchless beauty of God.

We pray that God may make this light shine bright; that our group and events will be attractive to these students so that they might be drawn to us, hear God’s Word, be drawn to Him, and glorify our Father who is in heaven.