After a very long and, in many ways, difficult break, we started work back on campus last Monday. It was our first day all together on Universidad Matias Delgado, and the start of a very busy week of ministry which centered around reaching the brand new freshman class. The last week of our break was a big planning week and we planned a bunch of events to get our name out there, meet new students and get the gospel to the students of Matias. We made calenders of our first month and a half to give out to students, which included a Valentine's Day event we call Amor Real -- an outreach -- an English event, which we hope to develop into an English club, a movie outing, a Super Bowl party at our house and a big pizza party and raffle the first Friday of school. All of this was aimed at bringing in students to hear about Vida Estudiantil, gathering Christian students into community, inviting non-believers into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus and being a service to students.

We had a table set up on campus with free stuff for students, our calenders, fliers for the pizza event and contact cards for students to fill out, if they were interesed in hearing more about Vida Estudiantil. We also had a big banner with our brand new Vida Estudiantil logo designed by our very own Lauren Sexton. It looks epic, which is especially important at Matias because it has a very big art department with the country's best art and design students. We spent the week meeting masses of new students, looking for freshmen especially, sharing the gospel, telling people about our vision and reason for being there, and inviting them to the huge Friday event, the climax of the week. It was so exciting to see students so excited about Vida Estudiantil and our mission on campus, and actually coming to us to hear more and asking how they can be involved.

<--Our table with students filling out cards + the old banner

The most exciting moment of the week for me was on Tuesday, the first day we had the table set up on campus, when a huge flock of freshmen communictions students came to our table en masse to fill out contact cards and meet us. One girl from the group came over and was so excited about it, then went back to her group of about 20 chicos and chicas. I went over to try to get some students to come over to the table and when I got to this group, that same girl invited me to tell all of them about Vida Estudiantil. I didn't have to say much before every last one of them came over to the table and were filling out contact cards, asking how they could help and asking about our various events. I was stoked out of my mind.

The Friday event was a huge success as well. Bean and I were in charge of food and bought 27 pizzas for the event, all of which got eaten. Passing out pizza to students who -- unlike in the states -- never get free food given to them at school, or even anywhere, was a great way to serve them and draw them to hear more about us. We raffled off a purse for the girls, a soccer ball with bag for the guys and a brand new Vida Estudiantil shirt with the new logo. The students were so excited about that part. We got to meet so many students who were excited about what we're doing, and even a handful of students who were involved with the small ministry that was here before we came. Our Panamanean staff member, Selegna, filmed the entire time with her professional camera, helping to draw even more attention, and Manuel, another staff member, MC'd with our sound system.


Bean and I passing out pizza and meeting students ------------->