Nearly 700 college students from across our region attended our annual Dallas Winter Conference held during the first week of January. This year, Dallas Winter Conference (or DWC) was a huge success, as God was working in the hearts and lives of students. We had students from all over the four states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma join together for a week of worship, challenging messages, seminars, fellowship, outreach, and fun.
The theme of the conference for the week was "Kingdom Come" and Gary Purdy, former Crusade staff member and current pastor of North Shore Fellowship church in Tennessee, served as our keynote speaker. Through Gary's talks, students learned what the Kingdom of God Biblically is, what it looks like in the lives of believers today, and how they can impact this kingdom by eternally investing in the lives of others. Throughout the conference, students also learned how they should view God, how they can love one another, and how they can grow in their own relationships with the Lord.
Most importantly, students were challenged throughout the week to apply what they learned to their own lives as well as bring those lessons back to their respective campuses. As regional staff, our prayer is that students' lives were changed, and that they will go back to school with a renewed passion for God and ministry.
In the afternoons, students had the privilege of attending 10 different workshops varying in topics from "The Holy Spirit" to "Living Out a Communal Faith" to even "Social Justice & The Bible". These workshops served two purposes: to teach students more about a personal relationship with God and to inform students about different ways they can become more involved in ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. Overall, students enjoyed these workshops and were once again challenged to take their relationships with God more seriously and their personal ministries a step further.
Days of Outreach
During the two days of outreach, individual campuses were paired with various churches in the Dallas area to help serve the community. This manifested in many ways – some students helped churches gather contacts, others were sent out to strategic communities to initiate spiritual conversations and share their faith, while others showed God's love through service anywhere from soup kitchens to yard work). Our goal was to impact Dallas for the Kingdom of God by feeding people physically and spiritually.
All in all, Dallas Winter Conference 2007: Kingdom Come impacted lives! We as a staff team have heard countless stories of students coming to know the Lord and growing in their faith. We thank you for enabling us to have a part in all of this, and we know that God is continually at work in the lives of college students.
May His Kingdom Come … May His Will Be Done!
*pictures by Julie Hurst. see more amazing pictures here.
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