By Jenny Calsyn, The Salt Company Coordinator, Cedar Rapids
With having students from 4 different colleges, one the most interesting things to work around is 4 different spring breaks. The four schools span over 3 weeks in March for spring break. It was awesome to see how our ministry wasn’t impacted too much by the breaks being spread out. When planning a spring break trip, we have to choose dates for one of the schools and hope for students from other schools that are still able to join.
We went through the Engage Global program in Minneapolis this month. Students from Kirkwood and Cornell were able to join as it aligned with their spring break. We had 7 students join us! We were excited about this for our first trip. Six of the students were guys and there was one girl. It has been fun to see guys step up this year in lots of areas on the ministry. We had the chance to get to know these students a lot better while also process what they were learning. The organization is awesome as they lead us through what God’s heart is for all people and then give us opportunities to learn about other cultures and even visit their communities and places of worship. It’s a very eye-opening experience.
This Spring, a Salt student brought a Muslim background exchange student with him on a Thursday night. He seemed to have a good time, but we weren’t sure what he’d think of Christ-centered worship and preaching. He came the next week and brought a friend with him.
A couple of weeks later he joined our Spring Break trip to Minneapolis where we learned about God’s heart for the world, especially unreached and unengaged people groups. We visited a Somali mall, a Hindu temple, and a Hmong market, all while talking through how the Gospel is good news to different religions and worldviews. On the way back from Minneapolis, I asked him what he learned on the trip, especially about Christians. He said he was so happy to have spent time with us, and he was amazed that we would spend time praying for people we have never met, especially praying that they hear the good news.
He is coming to connection group and showing up to Salt early every week. We’re praying God uses this year he spends in Cedar Rapids will change his eternity.
We are excited to see what God does in the lives of the students that went on this trip. They got to hear about how the bible is one story and about God’s plan to redeem the whole world.
Thanks so much for your support. Please be praying for us as we begin leadership interviews in April. We are praying for 22 leaders in the Fall!
