Campus ministry in full swing for fall

Chaplain Paul Patrick and interns Zack and Elly Keuthan are keeping students active and engaged this semester as they lead Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) Campus Ministry at Erskine.

In September, some 30 Erskine students attended the Southeastern Fall RUF Conference at Camp Greystone in Tuxedo, North Carolina, where they heard from Brent Harriman, former RUF campus minister at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, on “How the Gospel Changes Us.”

A weekly large-group cookout and Bible study at the Barn continues on Sunday evenings, when students gather at the Patricks’ property just outside Due West. This semester’s study is “Loving God: The 10 Commandments and Your Life.”

Coming up Friday, Oct. 19, the Men’s Fellowship will enjoy a barbecue cookout and fireside chat and the Women’s Fellowship, hosted by Elly Keuthan, will be treated to a fall dinner served outdoors.

Both groups will discuss friendship, Patrick said. They will examine C.S. Lewis’s assertion that “Christ, who said to the disciples, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,’ can truly say to every group of Christian friends, ‘Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.’”

Later in the fall, on Nov. 11, RUF Campus Ministry at Erskine will host the annual “BBQ and Hymn Sing at the Barn” with music led by Jeremy Casella, Jason Feller and Emily Deloach of Indelible Grace.

This year’s event “will also be a ‘for JOY!’ fund-raiser,” Patrick said, to help send adults with special needs to Camp Joy at Bonclarken, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian conference center in Flat Rock, N.C. Supper, catered by Skinner’s Chicken, starts at 5 p.m., and music begins at 6 p.m.