CCO Campus Ministry

WVU students’ lives changed by a hotdog

It’s late Friday night and hundreds of students from West Virginia University are staggering back to their dorm rooms after hitting up some local bars and nightclubs. Rounding the corner, they find fellow classmates handing out free hotdogs, at 2:00 a.m., in a church parking lot adjacent to the school.

“It’s our Late Night Feed,” explains Nicki Carpenter, a CCO staff worker at WVU. Nicki partners with Trinity Episcopal Church as their youth director and campus minister. “Once a semester, we love on the students who are drunk and coming back from the bars by handing out free food to them.”

Nicki, along with the students she mentors, handed out almost 400 hotdogs from 11:00 p.m.-3:00 a.m on Friday, August 17th into Saturday morning.

“Many of these students are always questioning why this food is free. They can’t believe that anyone would ever want to do something like this. We tell them that Christ would feed you if you were hungry, so we will, too.”

This is one of the ways that Nicki is empowering students to spread the love of Christ at a large state school like WVU. With Nicki’s guidance, students learn how to vocalize their faith and put it into action.

Nicki organizes other events throughout the week that leverage similar results. On Wednesday evenings, a home-cooked meal is provided for students by church members. Afterwards, the group moves to a different room to have a Bible study.

“So many students have fears and misconceptions about the church. We are showing them that God loves them and so do we. We say to them, ‘Come, eat a free dinner with us—no strings attached,’” says Nicki.

A Muslim student started eating with them intermittently throughout the fall 2007 semester because there wasn’t anywhere else to get a free, home-cooked meal around campus. Now, he attends weekly and even brings his Jewish roommate. Through a warm meal, these men hear the gospel and have the opportunity to openly converse about their religions.

By far, the Muslim student is most influenced by the group’s attendance at his Indian dance team competitions. They show genuine concern for him as a person which creates a safe atmosphere for him to inquire about Christianity.

These small acts of kindness not only affect those being serviced, but also those who are serving. Emily, an engineering major at WVU, is beginning to see how she can use her major to help others around the world. Last spring, she went to Mexico to build wells in towns that needed access to water.

One education major is contemplating applying for Teach for America, which places teachers in rough, inner-city, urban schools. She is beginning to recognize that she wants to be a part of something bigger.

Nicki has discovered ways to help feed starving students, both physically and spiritually. Her energy and creative ideas for reaching students, who otherwise feel lost in the crowd on WVU’s huge campus, have drawn others to take part in her vision of restoration by reflecting the love of Christ to others.

—Alicia Vaughn, Marketing & Communications Writer

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