Douglasville, GA

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This report comes to us from team leader Jeremy with our team in Douglasville, GA:

We did our first outreach at West Georgia Technical College last week, hoping to reach students and families who were coming for a social event for new students. WGTC, one of seven campuses in a regional network, is the only college in Douglasville, and is located less than a mile from our church. Students earn technical certificates or associate degrees in fields such as dental hygiene, cosmetology, welding, and auto mechanics.

I have a special heart for college students from my five years of working full-time for Campus Crusade for Christ (now called Cru) as campus minister/missionary. Reaching students at WGTC is challenging because they do not spend much time on campus: they arrive minutes before class and then leave when class is over. Fortunately, the campus police officer, a Catholic herself, helps out by informing us about the class schedule and times when the most students are on campus.

We tried a different approach to engagement on this outreach, using these “Perspectives” banners to spark spiritual conversations. While the offer of a Rosary is an effective ‘hook,’ it seems to not attract people who are not already open to religion or who are but are anti-Catholic have an aversion to the rosary (we also had rosaries at the table to offer, but these were used at the end of the encounter). So I borrowed banners from a close friend who still works for Cru. They invite passers-by to share their perspective by identifying the pictures and descriptions that best represent their beliefs about 5 BIG questions: the nature of God, the nature of man, the identity of Jesus, the meaning/purpose of life, and the sources of spiritual truth.

Not only is this an effective way to quickly reveal a person’s religious orientation; it also lends itself to a smooth transition to sharing the Gospel, since all you have to do is ask if you can share your answers when they are done. Most people who walked by stopped to participate. I felt a special burden for the first student we met, Jamaya. Her answers revealed a generic, uninformed spirituality typical of our times. While she was spiritually open and interested, she had never been baptized and didn’t attend church growing up. Thus, she knew little about Jesus. What a joy it was to share the Gospel with her! We also met a couple of Catholic students who attend neighboring parishes. This got me praying for God to lead us to students there who we could equip to help reach their classmates.

Praised be Jesus Christ!