During Welcome Week in August, I was able to hang out with students at our events like the Ice-Cream Social, Coolidge Cookout, and Taco and Tie-dye women's event. This is the time that we as staff, along with our student leaders, get to reach out to freshmen and make them feel at home and cared for as they settle in on campus. Chatt Cru already has six new freshmen Bible studies from the contacts and interactions we had during this week of events.

The weekly meetings are going well in their new location on campus! The Cru team is working hard to adjust to having the meetings in Grote Hall instead of Red Bank Baptist. Every week we seem to run into new challenges, but it has been really fun to be able to get back to a central location and have more students come and get to hear God's word! This semester we are going through Nehemiah and discussing what it looks like to build in various areas of our spiritual lives through the example of Nehemiah. These Thursday meetings have been encouraging to students and staff alike for community and fellowship as a whole movement!

Our Fall Retreat is coming up fast! Our hope is to use this time to create space where students can grow closer in community with each other as well as take time away from school to grow closer with the Lord in the mountains of the Cherokee National Forest.

Praises
-Six new Bible studies on campus
-The ability to have our weekly meetings on campus
-A new storage room for our general supplies and sports equipment (this doesn't
   sound that exciting, but the staff team is pretty hype about it)

Prayer Requests
-Community within and between Bible studies
-Excitement for our fall retreat and direction for planning
-That the Lord would raise up more student leaders
-My roommate and I are still looking for new housing 

Thank you for your prayers for this new school year and for taking time to hear how it has been going. I am so thankful to have you on my team to bring students closer to God!

Sydney Jones
CRU