Christian Union Prayerfully Welcomes New Students
Through hard work, perseverance, prayer, and the grace of God, Christian Union’s faculty members and student leaders at Dartmouth rejoiced after a successful Freshman Welcoming Campaign.
Ministry Fellow Noah Crane was encouraged by the number of first-year students who wanted to be involved. “We’ve seen a strong response from the freshman class and have already seen many people connect with our ministry and with our returning students,” Crane said.
Throughout the summer, returning students reached out to incoming freshmen via e-mail, welcoming them and providing resources about student life and ministry opportunities with Christian Union. Student leaders and Christian Union faculty also prayed over the list of incoming students to whom they were reaching out. Once freshmen arrived on campus, they were greeted with ministry events that were designed with passion, purpose, and creativity. Some of the larger ones included: an ice cream social, pancake party, football tailgate, and a grill-out.
“One of our most successful events was our cookout,” said Robert Moore ’20, co-student president of Christian Union at Dartmouth. “We saw an unprecedented turnout . . . and even had a couple students [with] nearly no religious background decide to join a Bible course this term.”
While the delicious and plentiful food may have played a role in drawing freshmen to these events, so too did the efforts of the upperclassmen leaders. They worked to create quality events, personally reached out to freshmen, and advertised via aesthetically creative e-fliers posted on social media.
One of the highlights of the fall was a Bible course preview and taco party at the Christian Union offices in Hanover. Thanks to efforts like this, the four freshmen Bible courses are now full. Members of the class of 2023 will study the book of Colossians in the fall semester.
Bible courses will be directed by Ministry Director Chad Moore and Ministry Fellows Crane, Dory Willeman, and L’Tonya Johnson. Moore and Johnson were new additions to the Dartmouth team this summer.
Crane, a former collegiate baseball player and coach, is leading athlete-focused Bible courses, in addition to a course for sophomores. The Bible course for the football team has long been a staple of Christian Union’s work on the Dartmouth campus and Crane is excited to continue that tradition. Additionally, another Bible course is open to any other athletes on campus.
As the semester began to ramp up, student leaders and Christian Union faculty are thankful for the myriad of new students and look forward to their fellowship, friendship, and spiritual growth in the community. As the staff looked back on its Freshman Welcoming Campaign, they were quick to thank God for answered prayer—students and staff began praying last spring for a provision of new students to join the ministry.
“It’s something we have been praying about and we are seeing the fruit of those prayers,” Crane said. “Freshmen are excited about being part of our Christian community.”
