Welcome to Freedom

As I joined the conversation, one of the new freshmen was telling two others about a party she had attended with her teammates the week before. She could only stand watching the others' appalling behavior for so long before she retreated to a corner, feeling alone and very uncomfortable, wrapped herself in a blanket and pretended to sleep until her ride was able to take her home. She's playing sports here at UNF, and there's a lot of pressure for her to join in the party-lifestyle of the other athletes. Later, I talked to her one-on-one. I asked her how her day had been. It had been awful--one little thing after another seemingly aimed at contributing to her low spirits. However, she had heard that FOCUS had an event to welcome new students that night and wanted to go (plus, it was a good excuse not to join her teammates at a club that night). She admitted, "Today stunk until I came here. I really want to join this group and get more involved. I don't want to do the stuff those other girls want to do." As we talked more, she got increasingly animated and excited about the events FOCUS had planned for the year.

My friends, this is why I love what I'm doing. There are so many young men and women who go to college and just want friends and something to do on a Friday night. They get sucked into doing things they're uncomfortable with because they lack the company of good, Christian friends. It's been beautiful to see the sad, searching eyes of freshmen light up as they are approached at a FOCUS table on campus or on the fringes of a FOCUS event and invited into a conversation with someone who is really interested in their well-being. That's one of the beautiful gifts of our Faith--Christian charity and love reaches out to anyone, accepts them as they are, and gives them a hand up so that they can become an even better and more authentic son or daughter of Christ. Please pray for these students as they make friends, while they make choices about their activities and classes, and as they are approached by Christ through His servants and invited to join a community that will help them and befriend them.

The pictures are from a casual pizza and game night we had. It was a great opportunity to talk to some of the new students and to get to know them better. We had a lot of fun!