By Zane Ewton
Communications Staff
With more than 5,000 miles wiled away in a van, GCU junior Spencer Fehrenbacher and recent graduate Trevor Roberts have passed the halfway point of a summer tour taking them to nine major Christian music festivals across the country.
Fehrenbacher called in this week as the duo were driving a six-hour stretch into Rapid City, S.D., for the Hills Alive festival. Each festival on the trip, which has been dubbed “The GCU Experience,” has proved more successful and rewarding than the last, Fehrenbacher says.
“The weekend at Lifest in Oshkosh, Wis., was the best one yet,” he says. “People are starting to spend a lot of time with us, asking questions and talking about the University.”
Lifest, a four-day festival, featured the Newsboys, MercyMe, TobyMac, Skillet and Lincoln Brewster — all major acts in Christian music. The GCU tent received a number of return visitors daily.
“One girl was a senior in high school who became so interested in GCU that she brought her friends back the next day and the next,” Fehrenbacher says. “Another guy told us he felt God was speaking to him about the school, and he ended up being one of the scholarship recipients.”
At each stop, Fehrenbacher and Roberts are awarding four scholarships worth $2,500 apiece to fans filling out a GCU application.
The guys say the most encouraging aspect of the trip is the response to GCU’s Christian culture.
“It’s exciting to talk to students and parents about how a GCU student has freedom to grow in their faith,” Fehrenbacher says. “We’re able to explain to them how our University is unique.”
Four weeks into the eight-week tour, neither Roberts nor Fehrenbacher has felt the urge to slap the other person. They say they’ve figured out a good balance and are getting along well.
They need to get along for a little longer. The next four weeks include festivals in Washington (Creation Northwest, July 20-23), Colorado (Heaven Fest, July 30) and California (Spirit West Coast, Aug. 4-6).
You can follow them for the rest of the tour on Twitter at @GCUtour.
Contact Zane Ewton at 639.7086 or [email protected].
