Another day of outreach is on the books! A part of me wants to evangelize (literally, “share good news”) even when it comes to the practice of evangelism: focusing on the positive encounters, relating true stories of the way that it energizes both Christians and non-Christians in a space like Youngstown State University. But another part of me wants to recognize both the rewarding stuff and the challenging stuff. Because unfortunately, it’s not all “Happily Ever After” stories. So, Day Four of our Spring Break trip to Youngstown seems like as good an example as any of the complexity in outreach. It was a day of people discovering both circles and walls in Youngstown.
Three Circles
Just like our first day of outreach, we started the day with a team meeting in the Esterly Room of Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center. We spent some time studying the Bible and praying together. And then we focused on learning a new skill in outreach: sharing the Good News of Jesus through the Three Circles. One of the H2O YSU pastors explained the tool to everyone, and then we did several rounds of practice. It was a really constructive process, and everyone was eager to get out on campus and make new connections.
I was partnered with Emily for the day. We went back to the bridge between Cushwa and Moser, and we were able to have a number of successful interactions. Still, the space seemed noticeably quieter just twenty-four hours after having been an incredibly fruitful space for interaction. Fewer students generally, and even those who were there seemed to be less open to conversation. We did, however, have one particularly positive conversation with a young woman named Kami. She was really glad to talk with us. When we got to the survey question that asked, “Have you read the Bible at all?” she told us that she had actually just started trying to read the Bible about a month ago. However, when we asked the next survey question, “What do you think the Bible is all about?” she seemed frustrated that she couldn’t come up with much of an answer.
So, when we finished the survey, I encouraged Emily to share the Three Circles with Kami. And Kami loved it! Emily actually ended up showing her where she could download a “Life on Mission” app for her phone, where she could access (and share) the Good News for herself. So it ended up being a “win” not only for Kami, but also for Emily since she had never previously been able to share the Good News with someone else. After our conversation with Kami, we tried to survey a few more people but didn’t have much success.
Hitting the Wall
We eventually decided to leave the Cushwa Bridge and explore a few other areas of campus. We had a couple of meaningful conversations in the buildings housing the YSU Art and Music programs. But I just started to feel run down towards the end of the morning. I was physically exhausted and emotionally exhausted. It made sense, considering the number of conversations we’d been having… Still, it was discouraging in the moment.
Thanks to Emily’s perseverance, we pushed through that wall. We got a few more YSU students to fill out surveys. But we also faced more rejection in that last hour before lunch. Maybe we were putting out “exhausted evangelist” energy… Maybe class schedules just work differently on Tuesdays than they do on Mondays… It’s hard to say! But our second-to-last interaction of the morning may have been the most discouraging one of all. We were walking outside, headed towards our team’s rallying point in the Kilcawley Center. A red-headed guy was walking towards us, and he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry. So, I had a solid twenty paces to approach him with a smile on my face and the friendliest greeting I could summon. “Good morning! Would you have a couple of minutes for a survey?”
I was mentally prepared for him to say “No thanks” or “Nah, I already filled out one.” But I wasn’t prepared for being completely and totally ignored. The read-headed guy just kept his icy blue eyes locked straight ahead, without even a flick of the eyes in my direction. He didn’t hurry or slow his pace one bit. He just kept on going without the slightest acknowledgement of my existence as a human being.
Scout Ants
It was helpful to have some time to process with the team over lunch. Especially after that frosty encounter with that one red-headed YSU “Penguin,” it was good to get a Penguin Frosty (chocolate-and-vanilla swirl) from the on-campus Wendy’s. The calories were replenishing. The empathy from others was reassuring. It seems like maybe two-thirds of the team was feeling pretty similar to me. But we were all able to encourage each other and reset for a shorter afternoon of outreach.
Lunchtime conversation with a couple of the H2O YSU staff made Emily and I decided to spend our afternoon looking out for student-athletes. They make up a solid five percent of the overall student body. And they seem to be especially influential in Youngstown (YSU students and alumni seem to be far more enthusiastic about Penguin Athletics than Kent State students and alumni are about Flash Athletics). We didn’t run into as many student-athletes as we hoped, but we did have a random encounter with Pete the Penguin in one of the hallways at the Beeghly Center.
Through all our wandering and trial-and-error search for student-athletes, Emily and I talked about our function as “Scout Ants.” Our role in Youngstown was kind of like the vanguards of an ant colony, wandering the park for the places where picnic food had fallen to the ground. We could explore every nook and cranny of the University in a way that H2O YSU staff and students might not be able to. And in the process, we could send signals to the rest of the colony for wherever there might be good leads. In our afternoon exploration, we found the best success in the field house where the Track Team was warming up. So hopefully, successive scouts can pick up where we left off. And maybe, over time, some collective insight will emerge.
Game Night in the Cove
Even before any of us hit any proverbial walls, we had decided that we were only going to spend an hour and a half fanning out over the campus after lunch. Because we wanted everyone to get some down time to re-energize for a game night in the Student Center that evening.
After dinner, we all went back on campus to a part of the Student Center called The Cove. It’s equipped with pool tables, ping pong tables, air hockey tables, and lots of space for other games or whatever. So, it was the perfect spot to meet up with some of the other YSU students who have gotten involved with H2O. And to meet up with some of the other new friends we’d made throughout the week. And fortunately, most of the H2O Kent team members’ energy levels picked back up for this part of the day.
In addition to the large group in The Cove, a few H2O YSU team members went over to the main dining hall on campus to make connections there. And three of us went to the Rec Center to meet some people while playing basketball. It was a fun evening. Exhausting, too. But hopefully helpful in cultivating these new connections and building a culture for what God could continue to do at Youngstown State University.