UH Hilo is part of the University of Hawaii system, which covers
thirteen campuses spread over four of the Hawaiian Islands. While Cru hopes to eventually have a presence
at all thirteen campuses, right now it’s on six. Our movements operate independently, but all
of us are part of a team, united in the vision of bringing the gospel to the college
campuses of Hawaii. This April we got to
come together and talk to some of our community supporters about the work we do
with students.
The Oahu Fellowship Dinner is an annual event where we invite
our supporters and other members of the community to come share a meal with us
and learn about our ministry. It’s also
a chance for us to present the financial needs of our ministry and ask our
guests to become a part of seeing it happen by becoming financial
partners. Our STINT team flew out to
Oahu to visit the UH Manoa campus, where the dinner was being held.
Because there is only one campus on the Big Island, most of
the focus of the evening was on the ministry in Oahu. We got to hear stories from students about
how Cru had changed their lives. One
student became a Christian after hearing the love of Jesus through the Cru
movement at her campus, another started going on missions and doing service
work after working with Cru, and another is joining Cru staff in Hawaii to
reach out to students the way the staff reached out to him. These stories were just a sampling of the
many students’ lives that have been touched by having a group like Cru on their
campus.
Over 125 people came to the dinner that night, and they made
a large contribution to the budget of Hawaii Cru next year. It was another great reminder to see how many
people are willing to invest in reaching students with the gospel.
The dinner was especially encouraging for me because it gave
me hope and vision for the future of Cru at UH Hilo. Cru at UH Manoa used to be a small
movement. Our staff director, Kent
Matsui, used to lead the movement at Manoa.
Years ago, it looked very much like the ministry at UH Hilo does
now. At UH Hilo, the way we run meetings
and Bible studies is a little experimental, because we don’t yet know what works
in reaching students here. The number of
committed, involved students is small, which means it is difficult to get a
movement with solid group identity and momentum.
UH Manoa used to look very much like us, but now Hawaii Cru
is beginning to flourish and see the fruit of the pioneering work that the
Matsuis did years ago. They have bible
studies, meetings, and mission trips run by students, and their movement is
large enough to begin expanding to other campuses in their area. Cru at UH Manoa had to work through the early
difficult phases of starting up a student group in order to see it become the
large, organized, influential movement it is today. It’s encouraging to see the potential future
of this ministry. Seeing the realized
vision of the UH Manoa Cru gives more meaning and purpose to the work I do now,
even if I don’t get to see the immediate fruit of it.
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| The Hawaii Cru staff and student leadership at the Fellowship Dinner |
The Fellowship Dinner was a great time in and of itself, but
it also left me refreshed and ready to keep on trekking with work we’re doing
at UH Hilo now.
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