"Foxes" pass out schedules, lead "get-acquainted" events, etc.
Tartu, Estonia-When first-year students (called "foxes" in Estonia) arrive at Tartu University, they are greeted by fellow students dressed in fox costumes. The "foxes" pass out schedules, lead "get-acquainted" events and invite new students to take a spiritual-interest questionnaire. It's all part of Fox Week - a freshman-orientation week organized by Agape Estonia and the Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
Fox Week began with the 1997 arrival of Mike Schatzman. He and a team of short-term missionaries wanted to begin student ministry at the University of Tartu, a prestigious school founded in 1632, but found people resistant to Christianity. It got so bad students would open their doors and say, "No mission today. Go away please!"
So Mike and his team began asking questions like, "How can we help you?"
He learned that first-year students arrive at school not knowing what classes they have, where those classes meet, or even what their major would be. Many take entrance exams in two or three different fields of study, and only upon arrival do they find out which ones they passed.
Mike and several students asked the university if the Christians could help by offering an orientation week. The school accepted the proposal, and even gave them a three-year contract.
"It's amazing they let us do this," says Herman Jürgens, 25, an Estonian who leads the Agape campus ministry. "This is God's work. Every student at Tartu University knows about us, or has had the chance to investigate religious things."
Last fall Agape received 250 spiritual-interest questionnaires, of which 180 said they were interested in either reading an article or talking with someone about the basic message of Christianity.
Fox Week gives Agape a lot of credibility with students, the school and the city. "Whenever we talk to someone," says Mike, "we can say 'we're the guys who do Fox Week,' and they accept us and will talk to us." 
