Winter happenings.....

The spring semester has had some activity and unfortunately our internet at the BSU has been a little undependable, so the update is being written from my house! The semester is moving well:

• Last weekend at our Winter Retreat we had a little over 100 come! This was our largest Winter Retreat ever. We were very encouraged to have that many students be involved. Chris James (campus minister at UMASS Lowell) travelled down to share three times with our students on the topic of building a foundation to walk with God. Chris did an excellent job sharing with students as he knew his audience and hit on some "close to home" topics with them. The weekend was very productive and a hit. On Friday night, we all played Family Feud and then did a little karaoke into the wee hours of the night. It made the waking up on Saturday morning a little harder, but college IS for making memories. We stayed at the Pearl River Baptist Association's Retreat Center. A very nice and affordable place to be. 

• So, small groups were formed out of the Winter Retreat. 12 of them to be exact. Each group will go through a book on the spiritual disciplines. We hope this will be a time for students to go deeper in their walk with Christ. 

• We have two groups going on mission for Spring Break. One group will head down to Panama City Beach, FL to participate in Beach Reach while the other group will head up to Baltimore to work with a church trying to reach out to a struggling community. The Beach Reach group will be doing a lot of one on one evangelism with students from around the country who are in Panama City for their Spring Breaks. The Baltimore team will conduct sports camps and do servant evangelism in the community of Curtis Bay. The dates for the trips are March 13-20. Please pray for us!

• We continue to press on with our study of the Sermon on the Mount on Tuesday nights. So far, we've heard from Dr. Ivan Parke, Ashley Austin and Don Gann. The study has been incredible. We have been so fortunate to have such great speakers. It's been a real treat.

That's all for now. I invite you to pray with us over these things. We know that without God's help we are nothing. Please pray for the work God is doing through the USM BSU. Thank you! -Kris Walters