Over the past two weeks, I (Kamaya) have been taking my sophomore disciples sharing with me and it has been SOOOOO much fun to see God use us! We have met women in a variety of places from the dorms, to the dining centers, to the Memorial Union and multiple times we have been blown away by what God has done.
Here are a few of my favorite stories of God at work:
Katelyn
Last week, Kristi and I decided to try to meet some women in Smith Hall (the dorm Kristi lives in and leads Bible study in.) We went down the hall from Kristi's room and started knocking on doors to see if anyone was home. Since it was the middle of the day, many of them were at class and not answering their doors. Then Kristi knocked on Katelyn's door, nobody answered and so we quickly moved on, however right before we left and gave one more quick knock before we moved on to knock on the next door. To our surprise, both Katelyn and her neighbor opened the door at the same time. We explained that we were getting people's thoughts about life and spirituality through a picture survey (Soularium.) Katelyn quickly agreed to do our survey and invited us in, while her neighbor was just getting ready to meet a friend.
We went in to Katelyn's room, sat on the floor, and spread the 52 pictures out for her to see. Then Kristi asked her to choose pictures to describe her answers for questions such as: What images describe your life right now? Which images represent what you wish were true of your life right now? Which image describes God? Which image represents what you've experienced spiritually? It was so interesting to hear Katelyn share with us about her background. She shared with us how she had grown up in church and that she enjoyed growing up that way, but that her faith was not something she had continued to pursue in college. Katelyn shared that she wanted to find a place to attend church and learn more about God, but that it was hard to make that a priority.
We shared with her that God desires to have a relationship with us and asked if she ever considered what having a relationship with God might look like? She wasn't sure, but wanted to know more about how she could have that type of relationship with God. Kristi then got to share the gospel with Katelyn explaining how God desires to have a relationship with us and give us eternal life, but that our sin prevents us from experiencing that relationship. We shared how Jesus paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross in our place and that we can have a relationship with Him and know 100% that we will go to heaven if we ask Jesus to come into our lives and to forgive us of our sin. Kristi walked through a sample prayer and asked Katelyn if this prayer expressed the desire of her heart. Katelyn immediately said "YES," then Kristi asked if she would like to pray this prayer right now so Christ would come into her life as He promised. Before Kristi could even finish Katelyn said "YES!" Right there on her dorm room floor Katelyn prayed to ask Christ into her life! She also agreed to let Kristi walk her through our five follow up Bible studies to help her begin to grow in her relationship with God!
Praise God for how He is at work!
Shannon
One day, Kimmie (our part-time staff) and I went into the Squires Dining Center to meet some women. We sat down to eat with a girl named Shannon. We found out that Shannon was a sophomore, who just transferred to UND this semester. After learning some more about Shannon, we began to ask her some spiritual questions. We learned that she grew up going to church and that it was a pretty important part of her life, but hadn't found a place to go to church and so forth in Grand Forks yet. As we asked more specific questions about a relationship with God and what happens after death, we found out that she did not believe in hell, but was interested in learning more about a relationship with God. Kimmie got to share the gospel with Shannon and explain how to have a relationship with God. Shannon shared that she feels at some point she has made a decision to trust Christ and so we shared with her about Cru and about the Bible study that meets in her dorm (Squires) Hall on Wednesday nights at 9 pm. Before she left, Shannon asked what to bring to Bible study. I told her a Bible is great, but if you don't have one that we would bring an extra one.
Later that night, I (Kamaya) headed to Squires for Bible study. Right before I left I grabbed an extra Bible just in case Shannon came! To my surprise she walked in to Bible study right on time and seemed to enjoy getting to know the other women and studying the Bible with us. She even asked more about our weekly Cru meetings afterwards.
Andrea
Erika (one of my sophomore disciples) and I had arranged to go sharing in the Memorial Union one afternoon. As we walked around looking for a girl to talk to we saw Andrea and asked if she would be willing to take our picture survey about life and spirituality. Andrea quickly agreed and we began asking her to choose pictures to describe where she was at in life, with God, and in her spiritual journey. We found out that faith in God is pretty important to Andrea and her family as church was a big part of their lives growing up. She and her siblings (she's a triplet and they all go to school at UND) have even been attending a church in town this year. While Erika and I thought Andrea may indeed have a relationship with God, we wanted to be sure and asked if we could share with her a four point booklet that talks about how you can be sure you have a relationship with God. We walked through the gospel with her and I shared about my story of when I asked Christ to come into my life. Then we asked Andrea if she has ever made a decision to put her trust in Christ and she said she has made that decision. Erika and I then invited her to our Cru weekly meetings and the Bible study that meets in Squires (Andrea's dorm) and wrote down the days and times for her. We also told her she is welcome to invite her sister to these events as well.
As Wednesday rolled around I had forgotten that we invited Andrea to join us at Bible study, but she did not. While we were getting the study room set up for Bible study Andrea and her sister Allee walked in to join us. It was so fun to have them as part of our group. They seemed to enjoy it and are excited about joining us next week for ice cream and baking!
The way God works continues to amaze me as He draws people to Himself and allows us to meet women all over campus who are interested in knowing Him personally and growing in their relationship with Him! PRAISE THE LORD!
