Start of the New School Year!

The summer has come and gone, and we are now in the first phase of what I call "catching the oncoming freight train" that is the beginning of the new school year. It is by far the busiest time of the year, as we seek to reconnect with returning students, establish contact with new students, and get all our programs up and running. As a friend of mine (former director at Syracuse, Nick DeCola) once said, it's like we start up a new church from scratch every year.

We return with great hopes and dreams. As of the end of last year, we had 200+ students involved in four key ministries:

- UConn Students for Christ (our traditional Campus Crusade ministry)
- reGeneration (our multicultural ministry)
- Athletes in Action (dedicated to the unique needs of student-athletes)
- Student Venture (for kids at Mansfield Middle School)

We also are involved with helping other campuses in the state (Quinnipiac, notably), and we are the lead campus for the partnership in Milan, Italy. To these efforts, we are looking to reach out more in four ethnic communities: the African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Indian, and international populations. Moreover, one of my primary assignments will be to raise up a STINT (short term international) team for Milan for 2010-11. That will not be an easy task, to find four qualified and eager staff who will choose to live in Milan for a year, working on several university campuses.

So we have a lot going on. Please pray for us as the school year begins!