CCO staff Wendy McConnell and Tom (T.R.) Richards work with students at La Roche College. Each week of the school year, the CCO hosts a fellowship group designed to encourage Christian students on campus and to interest the pre-believer. Nine.Thirty.Seven Fellowship meets on Tuesday evenings. The hour-long meeting consists of group-building, worship and messages designed to encourage Christian students to maintain and grow in their personal faith during their four years on campus. We also hope to help students see how faith relates to every area of life. The CCO staff people at La Roche put a premium on building and maintaining strong relationships with those who attend Nine.Thirty,Seven and reaching out to make new friends through involvement in college activities and sharing meals on and off campus.
In order to “transform college students to transform the world,” much time and effort is given to training and giving ownership to student leaders who have been mentored by the CCO staff. Student leaders have a weekly training session and help with running the Nine.Thirty.Seven fellowship and planning future events and topics, including promoting the annual Jubilee Conference. There are two weekly campus Bible studies that try to meet the needs of mature and young Christians, along with international and American students. CCO staff also mentor and disciple individual students.
Through a partnership with North Park Church, a number of international students who are far from home have been linked with a local Pittsburgh family. The Family Friend partnership allows international students to be “adopted” by a Christian family who then try to provide friendship and concern for the student while they are going through the cultural and academic challenges that are prevalent when coming to college in our country.
