Upon meeting Josh Green for an interview at the Raynor Bridge, he flashed a friendly smile, giving the impression that he’d be willing to talk about anything.
While there to talk about a recent event put on by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, he also went on tangents about scripture and the meaning of God in everyone’s lives.
It’s no wonder the event, Text a Toastie, appealed to him.
Green, a three-year alumnus from Marquette, is a staff member with InterVarsity, a group focused on worship and faith-based dialogue. He brought up Text a Toastie after hearing about it from chapters on the East Coast.
The setup was like this: volunteers made grilled cheese and grilled Nutella sandwiches for an hour in one of the volunteer’s apartments in Campus Town West, then prepared to answer questions from students about faith. The questions came in via text, along with the student’s location and their sandwich order. The InterVarsity volunteers would then deliver an answer to the student’s question in person, along with a sandwich.
“What is the meaning of life?,” “Why do bad things happen to good people?,” “What do Christians believe about marriage?,” “Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?” All kinds of questions from students popped up on the Google Voice account that received the texts.
(Questions like “Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?” and “Can you help me with my homework?” were ignored.)
Nora Campos, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, volunteered for the event. She described the night as fast-paced once the texts started coming in — it was impossible to answer all of them, especially later in the night as people left and sandwiches started running out.
Despite most people sending in a question for the sake of a sandwich, Campos felt the night was a success whenever questioners took a moment to discuss the answers further.
“We want to reach a wider net of people who don’t necessarily know a lot about the Christian faith,” Green said. “I find you have better conversations with people who don’t know everything. They tend to be more curious and they help expose us to new perspectives.”
