Text A Toastie!

Sandwiches With Purpose!

This year marks the third year in which Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)'s InterVarsity Arts Chapter, Koinonia, has hosted their on-campus outreach event Text a Toastie! Koinonia has become renowned for their Text a Toastie tradition region-wide. Returning students even remember them as the "sandwich people". This year, they have taken their creative campus engagement strategy to New Student Outreach, replacing their first large group meeting of the year.

About Text A Toastie

Text A Toastie invites the greater campus community to text in spiritual questions they have about God, Jesus, or Christianity along with a toastie preference (Cheese or Nutella). Not only do texters receive an answer to their questions, they receive the free sandwich of their choice! This year, during New Student Outreach, Koinonia invited anyone to stop by their meeting room to help make sandwiches or text in a question. They spent a week to spread news about the event through word of mouth, social media, personal invitation, and at a student activities fair and received overwhelmingly curious and excited responses.

Koinonia Staff Worker Frankie Cerquetti said: "I think Text a Toastie is powerful for a couple of reasons. For the campus, they see that we are a community that wants to engage in tough conversations and dig deeper into people's barriers that they may have with God. For student leaders or members who are already strong Christians, it helps them see the campus with compassion and to trust in God more by going out, taking a risk, and sharing with someone about their faith. Our goal isn't to answer each question perfectly, but to simply have spiritual conversations and invite people to check out Jesus for themselves."

Her supervisor, Galen Zook, also mentioned that: "Text a Toastie has been a fun, creative way for us to start spiritual conversations with students who wouldn't normally come out to a Bible study. It's quirky enough that it grabs students' attention and sparks their curiosity. Doing Text a Toastie shows the campus that we're open to dialogue and that we're willing to meet students wherever they are spiritually. "

Spiritual Impact

The experience serves as an impactful way for serious artists to share their faith and be in dialogue with their fellow artists. Below are 3 different students who want to share their Text a Toastie story with you! Click on the video links below to hear their Text A Toastie testimonies below:

Junior Graphic Design Major Mark Chan.

Senior Animation Major Emily Hawkins

Junior Painting Major Scotty St. George