Crossroads: Where Love and Faith Intersect

Another semester has come and gone.  With it goes a semester full of memories, good ones and bad ones.   It's now Winter Break here at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and I felt led to write a letter that I hope you will share with your friends and loved ones.  In the spirit of Christmas, this is necessary too for all to enjoy. Dear Friends of Crossroads, Thank you so much for contributing to this great ministry.  Your kindness, generosity and above all your contributions to this ministry have not gone unnoticed.  Your willingness to help out with Lunch for $1 on Tuesdays, your generous contributions to Campus Cupboard (thanks Second Harvest for making us a secondary food bank!), and above all just being there for us really does help.   Thank you for your contributions.  We really couldn't have gone far this semester without your help. Dear Students of Crossroads, Thank you so much for attending...

'Twas the week before finals week, and throughout 331 Dillon Not a student was stirring, not even chillin'. Upstairs, books were flung far and wide without care, In hopes that osmosis would transmit information through the air. And Connor in his pea coat, and Wes in his sweats, Were just settling down to watch the Pack beat the Jets, When what to their wondering eyes should appear But Katie, Alyssa, Leslie and Tier! "Hey, you guys," said Wes "I'm so glad you're here! Which one of you wants to do the next-to-last blog post of the year?" Well, as you've probably figured out, they were all too busy studying for finals, so I said I'd do it (: I hope and pray that you all feel God's grace and presence throughout the anxiety of Finals Week. Each one of you is an amazing gift from God to this world that desperately needs you. As the stress ratchets up, I offer you a simple prayer, with which I suspect most o...

Greetings, I'm Wes Huntington, and welcome to the Crossroads Blog.  I appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to read this blog, and I also appreciate the positive response we have been getting from readers.  Keep it up!  This will also probably be the last post of the month, as next Thursday is Thanksgiving. I hope you will take the time to enjoy a small respite from whatever you're doing, eating some well-deserved home cooking, and above all, enjoying the time you are having with your families. The blog post this week is about Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is that time of year where we sit around a dinner table, eating turkey (or at least some kind of main dish), eating some rolls and side dishes, and above all, having decent and loving conversations with our loved ones. We all must cherish the time we spend with our loved ones, because we never know how long they're going to be with us. That's all I have to say for this week, and until De...

Greetings.  Welcome to the Crossroads Blog.  I am Wes Huntington, Student Resident, Communications Specialist and Social Engineer.  You know what today is, it's Blog Day! As the above meme has stated, this blog will go serious today. This is in fact tying into last night's Worship service, as we honored All Saints Day.  Most of us lit candles and put them into a sand pot. I remember telling Pastor Tammy that I wanted to light at least a few more candles.  It was too late to realize that would have been okay with her. As we all honored our loved ones by lighting the candles and praying, I want to share three experiences of death that are still near and dear to my heart.  The first one is about my uncle Kent, who passed away shortly before Halloween in 1996 due to the AIDS virus.   I was really close to my uncle Kent, who had an original Game Boy that whenever he was living with my grandparents (my dad's parents), I would always ask to play it. ...

Greetings everyone, it's Thursday and you know what that means... it's Blog Day! I love creating these memes to generate a bit of a laugh for you.  Anyway, let me introduce myself once again.  I'm the Communications Specialist, and I'm Wes Huntington, also one of the residents at Crossroads and I keep the place welcoming for everyone. Anyway, what is the blog post for this week, you are probably wondering what it's about.  This week is about Campus Ministry Sunday, which happens a week from Sunday on the 8th of November.  All of our student leaders and board members will be going out to churches who support us in what we do in the ministry, mostly financially but also spiritually as well.  I cannot stress it enough, we personally need to thank all of these churches who support us in what we do.  The University can only give us so much if we wanted to request the money, but these churches give us so much and it is only fair that we give them somethin...

Happy Thursday. You know what today is: it's Blog Day!  "Hey Mike, mike, mike, mike, what day is it?  Blog day!"  I hope you are having a great week, and welcome to the Crossroads Blog.  I'm Wes Huntington, Communications Specialist for Crossroads. This week's blog post has to do with the Poster Boards that some needed updated for Campus Ministry Sunday. This post's idea comes from Pastor Tammy herself, so thank her for this wonderful idea. As stated just above, several of us were working on the poster boards for Campus Ministry Sunday, which will happen two weeks from Sunday (November 8).  We snagged a few people to stick around after Worship on Wednesday to help us update some of the information and photos, and include information about this blog, which your reading helps me (and Crossroads in general) reach a large audience.  We have 233 page views of this writing.  Keep it up!  If you guys have any other way to help me get a wider au...

Greetings! It's Thursday, and you know what that means... Welcome to the Crossroads blog, and I am Wes Huntington. You know me as the Crossroads Resident, Social Engineer and Communications Specialist. Keep up sharing this blog, keep reading the blog, and above all, come to me with ideas. We have reached over 200 page views! This week's blog post is about my personal experience with giving a sermon.  This idea came from Katie Gieseke, our Worship band leader. She's a freshman majoring in biotechnology. So, if you want to credit someone for this post, thank her.  As most of you know, last night (Oct. 14) I gave a sermon for the first time ever.  This is in preparation for Campus Ministry Sunday, which will happen on Sunday, November 8, 2015. However, I will not be giving this sermon until January, but I'm glad that last night I got a chance to share my faith story.  Of course, this is by far from a completed project, but I was glad I was able to do it. I was n...

Greetings! Welcome to the Crossroads Blog, and I am Wes Huntington, the Communications Specialist for Crossroads during this academic year.  I am pleased that you are reading this blog and I'm glad to have written it for you to read.  Please, don't hesitate to comment, and please, please come to me with suggestions.  I only have ideas that go so far, and if you have an idea for a blog post, please don't hesitate and contact me. I want this to be the best blog around, and you reading this gets traffic reported back to Blogger.  As of this writing there are approximately 160 page views.  It's a start.  Keep it coming and keep sharing it with your friends, co-workers, family. The more views we can get, the more people we can reach, and in turn, more support for Crossroads!  Keep it up.  I'm aiming for every Thursday there will be a new post for you to read. Anyway, let's get into the meat and potatoes of this week's post. This is Homecoming Wee...

Hello everyone once again! I am Wes Huntington, the Communications Specialist at Crossroads Campus Ministry, ELCA at Minnesota State University, Mankato for the 2015-16 academic year.  I also live here, so I have to maintain the place with Connor to make Crossroads inviting and welcoming for everyone to relax, hang out with one or the both of us, talk to Pastor Tammy, and above all having a place where we can worship God in all of His goodness. This week, the blog will be about what goes on as the Crossroads Resident.  I felt it was necessary to write this one based solely on the fact that may be not a lot of people know what goes on as a Crossroads resident, and while most probably know what goes on, the others probably don't.   There may be some things I may leave out, but that is due to confidentiality. For me, as one of the two Crossroads Residents, we have to maintain the place to have everything not be a pigsty and be a clean and welcoming place for everyone o...

Welcome! I am Wes Huntington, the communications specialist at Crossroads Lutheran Campus Ministry, ELCA at Minnesota State University, Mankato for the 2015-16 academic year. I also live here, so I have to maintain and keep Crossroads welcoming for everyone! Whenever I am doing the Communications stuff, I will try and maintain this blog.  It may migrate from Blogger to WordPress in the near future, but for now, let's just try and focus on getting the blog established first.  Don't worry, fellow readers, you will be informed of when we will migrate this blog to WordPress. Anyway, let's make this as simple, and to the point as possible. I am here to inform you of what was going on during the week at Crossroads - to within reason, of course. On Monday, Sept. 21, we had ManDate again, and this time we did not have a movie going, unlike the week before. Connor, myself, Paige, Jack, Katie, Jonathan, and Nathan all played Doctor Who Monopoly . Even after playing it, I still ...