Aaron and Elisabeth both serve on staff with Cru, ministering to students and faculty at Ohio State. Aaron is the program director for The Thompson Institute and serves in a ministry consultant role with the Christian Medical and Dental Associations at OSU.
Every year, The Ohio State University has one of the top two or three highest student populations in the United States with nearly 60,000 students at the Columbus main campus. Meanwhile, “U.S. News and World Report” regularly places OSU as one of the top 25 public universities in America, and best in the state of Ohio.
One can argue that no other institution in our region of the country will shape the lives of our next generation of leaders more than Ohio State.
Ohio State is a campus where students face many challenges. Binge drinking is a social norm, let alone exposure to other hard core drugs one might find in the party scene. Professors are often adamant about attacking and undermining students’ sense of the validity of Christianity and the existence of God in general.
Much of the campus environment encourages students to live as though God does not exist.
Our Cru movement at Ohio State exists to “win” students to Christ who do not have a relationship with Him, to “build” Christian students up in their faith and train them to influence their peers for a lifetime, and “send” them to the world, whether it be in full-time ministry, or as a lay-leader in their local church. We average around 500 students attending our weekly meeting on campus; more than 700 students attend one of over 60 weekly small group Bible studies across campus. We are proactive in meeting new students and seeking spiritual conversations with them, and mentoring Christian students to maturity.
It has been a privilege for us to see students make decisions to put their faith in Christ, as well as to see Christian students become mature and equipped leaders.
Our ministry with students at OSU is not limited to the Columbus campus. We are a movement that is planting new Cru movements at different universities around the world, in places like Florianopolis, Brazil. UFSC is an elite Federal University in Brazil with approximately 30,000 students.
Many of the future leaders of the south of Brazil will be attending this university, and we count it such a privilege to help plant a new movement of Cru on campus there.
We’ve sent summer mission trips with Cru staff and students and hope to send more in the coming years. If you would be willing, pray that our ministry at OSU would be a pipeline of Christ-centered laborers for places like Florianopolis, Brazil.
