One of the most important roles we have in ministering to students is to help them with their needs. Through these genuine acts of kindness, they are able to see Christ. We find that to do this the most effectively to impact the most students, we mobilize other Christ followers to do the same. Such is the story of the CareAVan.

The CareAVan started around 9 years ago when former UTA Professor Mark Peterson with fellow Grace Community Church Member, Mark Norton approached the international office to find out what the greatest need of the students are when they first arrive. Arlington doesn’t have a public transportation system and the nearest market is more than a mile away and so one clear need was for transportation to and from a place to buy stuff. Thus began the CareAVan. Every Fall, for six evenings, volunteers from many churches come and provide rides for new students to Walmart to allow them to shop for the basic things they will need in their new apartments and dorms. It has become one of the Big Howdy events ISI has helped to stage at UTA.

The CareAVan in 2008 has already run 3 nights with over 100 people served. Today(Tuesday), I had the privilege of helping out. When I arrived with my car, I as amazed at the number of people assembled in front of the University Center. We later found out there were over 100 students on this day alone. All of them were ready to shop. Kyle, the the leader of the Salvation Army church’s ministry partners, seemed to know several of the students by name as several of them were “repeat customers.” Obviously they were touched by what was going on. Raquel, the team leader for the CareAVAn took down names (to make sure we don’t forget any students on the return) and by the grace of God we were able to transport the students with a rag-tag fleet of church vans, a Salvation Army mini-bus, Suburbans, pickups, mini-vans and regular cars from UTA to the “Super” Walmart. Good conversation and friendship were made along the way. Interestingly, the Walmart is across the street from the new Cowboy Stadium under construction in Arlington. (The oohs and aahs..)

Once at Walmart, many of us were able to help students navigate throughout the store. It was fun helping students translate (from American English to English) what different products were. One student came up to me to ask me where they could find a “pepper.” Apparently, the peppers at Walmart were too big and were not “real” peppers. It was fun. One real image that stood out in my mind was Kyle and his sister in law Maggie walking around, helping student find things, trying to learn the students’ native language and learning the very difficult-to-remember names of the many Indian students that were there. They are real naturals and you could really see Christ working through the Spirit in them. It was a real reminder to me what this is all about and how much fun it can be.

When dropping off the students at each of their apartments afterwords, we shared about the Big Howdy Party on Saturday. It is there that we have the opportunity to share who we are and connect more closely.

For the prayer team… Thanks and keep on praying!