Arkansas college students asked to share ’encounters with Jesus’

Drew Burgoyne, an adult advisor from Fort Smith, hands out seashells at the Campus Ministry Convention March 3-4.
Drew Burgoyne, an adult advisor from Fort Smith, hands out seashells at the Campus Ministry Convention March 3-4.

More than 130 Catholic colleges students and campus ministers attended the Catholic Campus Ministry State Convention March 3-4 at the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock. The students were encouraged to evangelize about their faith through their own experiences.
The weekend included sessions with guest speaker Michael Havercamp, associate director of Evangelical Catholic in Wisconsin, Mass with diocesan administrator Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, a banquet and dance.
Deacon Richard Papini, diocesan campus ministry director, said the convention offers a lot of opportunities for college students from across the state.
“We hope they experience spiritual growth,” he said. “We hope it’s a learning experience about the ways of evangelization. It’s a fellowship experience.”
Havercamp, a former agnostic who began drinking and having sex at an early age, had a conversion experience while working in Morocco for the Peace Corps and later joined the Catholic Church. He began reading the Bible as an intellectual exercise and was moved to tears.
“In a moment of grace … I knew I had met God,” he said. “The real reason I cried was because I knew God was saying everything about me and God loved me absolutely … In my wicked ways, I was totally loved.”
He said being a Christian is an “encounter with Jesus.” In order to evangelize, one needs to be able to share their stories of encountering Christ.
“Whatever you’ve got is enough to evangelize,” he said. “All of us have something to share … All of us have some experience of the glorious, beautiful transforming power of God.”
Eleven colleges were represented this year at the convention. They are Arkansas State University, ASU-Beebe, Arkansas Tech, Harding University, Hendrix College, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Little Rock, University of the Ozarks, University of Central Arkansas and University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton.

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