by Schae Geiter, TSC Coordinator
Summer Salt is in full swing in the Cedar Valley! We have students from a number of different universities gathering to in Cedar Falls to worship, jump into community, and have a lot of fun together. Our teaching series for the summer is called Overflow. Michael Lecy, Nick Anderson, and Josiah Sabino are taking turns sharing with our students out of the overflow of what God has been teaching them in the last few months. Some of the topics that they’ve tackled so far are what it looks like to be with Jesus and do what he did (Mark 3:13-19), being honest with God as we spend time pouring out our hearts to Him in prayer (Matthew 26:36-46), and taking off pride in your life with putting on humility instead (Daniel 4:28-37).
Community is also something that we place a lot of value in for students, even in the summer months. A handful of our leaders from last year are taking time out of their busy summers to invite
others into their homes and lives through connection groups. Almost everyone who has attended so far this summer has jumped in! Making time to just have fun together is part of what summer is all about, so aside from teaching, worship, and connection groups, we wanted to give students some fun things to do together on Thursday nights! This summer we’ve done a grill out, played plenty of spikeball, and eaten our weight in popsicles and ice cream. We have many more exciting events planned for July too, like bonfires, a movie night in the Candeo auditorium, and a potluck to wrap up our time together this summer.
During the summer, it’s such a blast to gather students, who might not have had the chance to meet otherwise, and get a chance to learn together, worship with them, and have a ton of fun!
This summer, the UNI Salt Company has five different connection groups meeting around the Cedar Valley. As one of the leaders, it’s been fun to get to know a variety of girls that are around town and get to know them through both small group and fun, summer activities. One of those ladies is Brylee. She is a newly graduated senior from Iowa State who received her
bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Brylee decided to join a summer connection group and get plugged in because she wanted to stay connected and in community with many of her peers during her last summer as a college student. Brylee has known about Christ since she was a teenager, but she didn’t make the decision to change her life to live according to the Gospel until about October of 2018. She then got baptized at Candeo in the same month and has be on fire for Christ ever since. In our summer connection group, I have seen God working in Brylee and growing her as she has stepped up to be more of a leader and role model in group discussions.
Kaitlyn, another member of our connection group, is going to be a junior studying Psychology and Biomedical with a minor in Chemistry. To her, there was no question about it, Kaitlyn knew that she was going to join a summer group so she could stay connected this summer with a Christian community. I’ve seen God grow Kaitlyn’s Christian community like crazy this summer, something she has prayed for a lot since many of her friends are not living in Cedar Falls this summer. The biggest thing that God has done in her life over the last month is to bring her so much peace! She explained how He has provided everything she needed this summer to have a time of rest and peace and joy.
