Campus Harvest started twenty-one years ago as a way for the local church to get involved with campus missions. Ron Lewis, founding pastor of King’s Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina, started the annual student conference with the mission: “Revolutionize Campus Ministry by Mobilizing the Local Church.”
This year Campus Harvest expanded to other regions for the first time in its history. Students on the West Coat and in the Southwest each got to experience their very own Campus Harvest. The theme for this year was “Arise” so we used the hashtags #AriseLA, #AriseAustin, and #AriseDurham on Twitter and managed to trend #AriseDurham on Saturday morning, March 24.
On the West Coast, close to 250 students made it to Morning Star Christian Church, Van Nuys, California, last February 17 – 18. Local Every Nation Campus Ministries (ENCM) teams went out on the campuses of California State University Northridge, UCLA, and Pepperdine University, among others to do “The God Test,” a booklet developed by Every Nation Ministries co-founder, Dr. Rice Broocks, to help Christians start conversations about God with other believers, atheists, agnostics, and those of any other religion. Many students ended up attending Arise: LA. More than forty answered the call to become missionaries.
A week later, Campus Harvest headed to Hope in the City, Austin, Texas, for Arise: Austin, February 24 – 25. ENCM teams in the city also invited students they reach out to on the campuses of Texas State University, San Marcos, and the University of Texas at Austin, among others. Out of the close to 700 who attended Arise: Austin, more than 100 answered the call to become missionaries.
Campus Harvest just concluded its three-city run at its home base in Durham last weekend. Students from across and near the East Coast — New York, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan — rode buses and vans — some even more than ten hours — to get to King’s Park. More than 200 came forward to commit a season of their lives to go back to their campuses to reach students with the Gospel.
Campus Harvest Durham was streamed live on Livestream. You can still catch clips and sessions. People from Germany, Kazakhstan, Singapore, India, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, Colombia, the Philippines and across the United States, joined us online. If you stop by YouTube, type “Campus Harvest 2012″ for crowd-sourced videos from attendees.
Here’s one from Saturday night in Durham when worship was unexpectedly extended:
But Campus Harvest doesn’t end after the conference. Students typically spend their time on their bus rides home talking about how they encountered God like never before. Those that grew up in Christian homes are refreshed to recommit their lives to God, others are simply refreshed. Those who never knew God are amazed to meet Him for the first time. Students sing, and share how they were freed from addictions to alcohol and pornography, and other destructive things, and are excited to return to their campuses with their stories of change.
In the aftermath of these conferences, students are encouraged to go on a Ten Days mission trip, enroll at a Harvest Institute for five days, and for those who feel they are called to vocational ministry, we highly recommend conversations with their parents before considering enrolling in one of our Schools of Ministry this summer.
It’s a lot for college students and young adults to process, but ultimately, we know that God will faithfully meet them where they are. Whether they are called to a lifetime career in missions, or simply to be equipped to share their faith more effectively, we know that what they experience at Campus Harvest is God planting seeds in their souls to fall in love with Him and His Son.
Our heroes are the people behind the scenes. As much as it takes a team of staff and volunteers to mount Campus Harvest, it’s campus missionaries on high school and college campuses who tirelessly work every day to reach out to students and tell them about God’s love, and who are tirelessly working now on their campuses in the aftermath of Campus Harvest, to make sure students keep wanting to know God. Without the selfless labor of campus missionaries together with their local church — and the donors who give generously to scholar students — Campus Harvest would not be what it is today.
