The College Outreach Team at Multnomah Bible College has been sharing the gospel at Clackamas Community College with "boldness but gentleness," said Anne Stavrica, team leader. She said most of the CCC students the team has spoken with have been willing to talk honestly about their beliefs. Still, the team has received some opposition, she said.

On Nov. 3, the team posted signs advertising a speaker who would be coming to Portland, Stavrica said. CCC validated the signs. The posters showed a picture of the speaker, Steve Sawyer, and said "Steve Sawyer is 22 years old and dying of AIDS." The following week, they planned to post signs that gave Sawyer's testimony and information on when and where he would be speaking.

CCC staff removed the posters, Stavrica said. She said that some students thought the posters implied negativity toward homosexuality. "People were offended," she said. Stavrica added that the team did not intend to suggest anything about homosexuality and did not expect a negative reaction to the advertisement. The next week, the College Outreach Team returned to CCC to post signs with more specific information about the Steve Sawyer event. The director of the Associated Student Government, who had spoken with the president of the college, told the team they could not post the signs because the event was off-campus.

Stavrica said that the obstacles the College Outreach Team has faced should not be overspiritualized. She said this was an opportunity to show the Associated Student Government at CCC that MBC students on the College Outreach Team are mature Christians who do not feel like they are always being attacked. "I believe that God will work no matter what," Stavrica said. Tiffany Teall, a sophomore at Multnomah and a member of the College Outreach Team, said that "spiritual warfare seemed evident" at the time the Steve Sawyer posters were taken down.

Other Christian groups are also involved with CCC students. Scott Castle, a sophomore at CCC, leads a weekly meeting for Bible study and praise and prayer. Castle said he displayed posters for the Bible study. An angry CCC student told the Associated Student Government that the Bible study signs violated her freedom of speech, Stavrica said.

The College Outreach Team noticed that the Bible study signs were removed at the same time the Steve Sawyer signs were taken down, but they decline to say there is a connection. Perhaps the college displays signs for a certain amount of time, Stavrica said. Castle wondered if students took down the signs on their own initiative.

Castle described the spiritual atmosphere at CCC: "They are into moral relativism," he said. Castle said he sees the students as a mixed batch. "There are logical people who deny everything, and then there are others who don't care," he said. Christians at CCC want to grow, Stavrica said. They are interested in evangelism and ministry.

The College Outreach Team visits CCC every Tuesday. They attend Castle's meeting, develop friendships with Christian students who attend, go on prayer walks around the campus and survey non-Christian students. The survey is designed to lead into conversations about God.

Both Stavrica and Teall said that the outreach team does not force the gospel on anyone. "We try to be respectful about evangelism," Stavrica said. At CCC, she said, the team's goal is to "equip and train the students to confidently and comfortably share the gospel with others."