September 2011  

God Reigns Over The Orientation BBQ

August 21^st was a day I will never forget. The weather forecast was rim: 90% chance of thunderstorms with possible hail and damaging winds. Before we left for church, I called Rutgers Residence Life to see if there was any way we could move the BBQ we had plannedwith RCSSA (Rutgers Chinese Student/Scholar Association) to a building on campus. The simple answer was “No”. The BBQ was to follow the incoming student orientation. So, there was not going tobe another time this semester that we would have this many Chinese students gathered in one place. After church, we talked through every contingency we could think of. By the time the BBQ was ready tobegin, we were on plan X, Y or Z. Volunteers were calling me ortexting me to find out if the BBQ was still going to happen. I still can’t believe what happened in the hours that followed. God provided dedicated volunteers who brought everything from cooking grates(the grills we planned to cook on were in serious disrepair) tocharcoal to garbage bags. We used new students’ apartments toheat up pots full of baked beans. The leaders of RCSSA brought soda and water. Everything came together and we served about 200Chinese students…in the rain. God’s grace was clearly evident as everyone served under less than ideal conditions with nocomplaining. We had some great conversations with new students and invited them to come to our bi-monthly friendship dinners. Most importantly, God used us to show His love to students who havenever heard the Gospel message. Thank you to all those who prayed for this event because God showed up.