Hey Fam,

Be in prayer for our upcoming Veritas Forum next week (April 27-30th;
website: www.veritas.org/osu). Below is an encouraging email from our
brother and my good friend, Andrew (he visited a pagan meeting on campus
tonight to present Veritas). National Day of Prayer is also May 5th at
OSU and there will be public worship intercession throughout the day on
campus in the amphitheater (pray for good weather - no rain!). Also be
in prayer for group cooperation/partnership/love.

Also our Love OSU website is undergoing some new changes (still in the
process), but check it out - I am excited about its new look! The link
to our Love OSU plant on Marion’s campus will be added at the end of
this week (Love OSUM! Praise Him!) www.loveosu.com

Love you all, Allie

Hey,

Hope all went well at the meeting after I left. My time with the Pagan
Student Association was great!!! There were about 20 there. As soon as
I walked in, I was very much welcomed. The girl leading the meeting
actually walked up to me and took the Veritas cards out of my hands and
handed them out to each person in the meeting so that EVERYONE got one.
I got to announce the Veritas Forum to them and they actually seemed
interested!

There was a strong mixture of relativism, polytheism, spiritualism, new
ageism all mixed up in a big contradiction of beliefs (which they had no
problem with). There was much sharing of poetry and singing and story
sharing (which was fun). People actually believed in Greek and Norse
gods (like Loki, Thor, and Zeus). I mean, they REALLY believed that
they exist. (Others thought that they are just aspects of our
imagination; others thought that the only things that exist IS the
imagination; and they all thought that the other person was just as
right as they!)

On the one side, the apologetics side of me could have dove into full
debate. But the relational side of me wanted to get to know them and
build relationship and understand them. So? I did both!!! And it was
really cool… I shared arguments in a questioning way, trying to think
through stuff with them. (I prayed too…)

One story: They said they have no problem with Christianity being added
into their mix of religions; all is included; all is true; all is valid.
No problem. I said, “okay, well, I believe that Jesus died for me to
forgive me of the crap in my life… I mean, he really did this for me.
do you follow what I’m saying?” (nods from the group.) “But then it
seems like what you’re saying is that Jesus’ death wasn’t special; he
didn’t have to do this; and it wasn’t unique… cuz there are many other
gods and ways and truths. Can you really include Christianity into your
mix of religions? This really doesn’t make sense to me.” This led to
great discussion! One more elderly lady, though, got angry with me at
that point, and it would’ve been tempting to get defensive and lash back
in response. To make a long story short, she later apologized after the
meeting (when we got to talk one-on-one), she shared personally how she
had grown up as a Jew and how she had received verbal abuse from
Christians (they had called her “Christ-killer” because she was a Jew
and told her how she was damned and going to hell… this happened
repeatedly in her lifetime till she wouldn’t even talk to somebody if
she found out they were Christian). I could hear the pain in her voice.
Actually, one of the members in the group said that there are very few
people in Pagan groups that he meets that haven’t had hurtful or painful
encounters with Christians at some point in their lives. INTERESTING!!!
(and sad…)

There is FERTILE GROUND here. By the end of the meeting, people seemed
more interested in going to Veritas Forum; relationships matter,
friends!

I just wanted to share. If you got this far, thanks for reading a long
e-mail!

in Christ,
Andrew