To Help Financially
http://msc.kintera.org (online giving) I am a graduate of North Greenville University and am currently serving as an MSC Missionary on the Campus of Widener University in Chester, PA. I felt my calling to serve college students while I was a college student myself. I was attending a Christian University and noticed that there were very few churches that offered ministry to col
lege students. I began to find a way to remedy this. I have been in some form of ministry since I was a youth. I have led drama teams, Bible studies, and was a member of several traveling ministry teams. After college, I spent 3 years as a youth minister at a small church in Simpsonville, SC. Each ministry with which I have been involved has taught me something about leadership, success, and failure, yet none of them were the ministry to which I felt called. I moved to Pennsylvania from South Carolina in 2007 to attend Palmer Theological Seminary, and connected with the Foundry Church in Wallingford, PA. It was through this connection that I became a chaplain intern at Widener University. I have been elevated to Associate Chaplain and now am serving on the campus as a Baptist Campus Minister through the North American Mission Board. Widener University, which once was Pennsylvania Military College, has an enrollment of 6,600 students, many of whom are Catholic or Jewish. Widener is most known for their strong ROTC Program. They still have a reputation for producing strong leaders in the community in many aspects. This school is also listed as one of the top 50 community service schools. Each organization is required to spend service hours in the surrounding community. Leadership and Service are primary principles on which Widener focuses. It sits on the edge of Chester, PA which has one of the worst school systems, highest crime rates, and highest unemployment rates in the nation. In 2010, there were zero Christian student organizations on the campus of Widener. I began my ministry at Widener in 2010by leading a worship service which we called the Forge on the. The service began with one student in the room. We were granted this opportunity when Pastor Chuck of the Foundry Church asked the Provost of the college if our church could shuttle students from the school to the church. The Provost said that was not possible, but offered us the opportunity to move our service onto campus. Thus the Forge was born. A year later we launched a Bible Study called LOGOS where students gather to study the Word of God and how it applies to the lives of students. In 2012, LOGOS became an official student organization, thus increasing the number of Christian student orgs to one. The Forge has become a stable service on the campus. We have a high attendance of 40 people from the community and the university. We have grown from the one student in 2010 to fifteen students in one of our most recent worship gathering. Our Logos meetings regularly reach numbers of 11-15 students, and have required us to spin off several subsequent “Brown Bag” Bible studies which meet at lunch time during the week. These brown bag bible studies attract 4-5 students each week. We are also providing several evangelistic concerts that occur in the buildings on campus, including Christmas Rocks in December and Redemption in the spring.Through the support of other local churches we provide a bread ministry to students by offering them free bagels and muffins outside of our service on Sunday nights. There is also a strong contingent of international students at Widener. We partner with other groups and offer several events within the school year specifically targeted at reaching international students including a Thanksgiving dinner and a back to school cookout. Also there is a strong LGBT community on the campus, which I have had the opportunity to befriend and minister to several of their leaders. All this is done in effort to extend the Love of Christ to all people in need. Statistics show that 7 out of 10 students leave the church when they go to college. Only 30% of those ever come back. It is also said that seven of the most important decisions in life are made in college or at a college age, including careers, marriage, location for living, and faith. My vision for this ministry is simple; to make the Bible and Faith real and important to students. I want to show them that the Bible is more than just a book that was written years ago. That it is relevant, true, and is the Word of God and the Revelation of God. I want to challenge the answers that they have been given throughout their lives whether from the church, their parents, their teachers, or the media and other worldly influences so they can find the true answers that will hold up to all their questions. I want to show them that there is a difference in the religion that they practice on certain days and a Faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that allows them to live daily This requires learning and teaching the Word of God, serving others and meeting needs of people, and building a community of faith with other believers around them, and most of all sharing with them the Gospel and the love of Jesus Christ. This is my calling. However I cannot do it alone. Would you consider joining me prayerfully and financially in my endeavors to reach this generation for Christ? I am looking for partners to come alongside at $25, $50, $75 or $100 a month. Please pray and consider your participation. Thank you for your time and consideration
Michael Hair Kelley
