If your job was to market God to the world, how would you do it? As the Senior Marketing Director for Zondervan, Alicia Mey thinks of strategic and creative ways of getting resources to the world, so that people might be transformed by God.
“Not only do I consider it a privilege to figure out ways to get resources into people’s hands that could potentially change their lives, but it’s a blessing that my job includes reading books that impact my life and continue to challenge my walk with Christ,” says Alicia of her job.
This was not always the case though. Alicia recalls a time in her life when she seriously considered abandoning Christianity altogether.
“Before I went to the University of Michigan, I went to church because it was expected of me. Once I was away from home I no longer went to church, because there was no one who would know.” But God ended up using the InterVarsity chapter at the University of Michigan to change her mind.
“InterVarsity changed my life,” says Alicia. “I went to an InterVarsity winter retreat while in college, called Genesis. I listened to speakers who explained Bible passages, shared their own testimonies, and encouraged us in the basics of Christian faith. The last day of the retreat, I spent time praying, reading Scripture, and listening for God’s voice. I vividly remember sitting in the hotel pool area, and it was there I decided to commit my life to God.”
Since that day, Alicia’s attitude about Jesus has changed.
“I began to want to be in a relationship with Christ, rather than feeling this expectation of my family,” says Alicia. She also started going to church, attending a Bible study group, and began spending time alone with God every day.
Alicia graduated with a degree in elementary education. But she had been so transformed by God in college that she would dedicate the next 6 ½ years to campus ministry as a staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Then, after those 6½ years, Alicia began looking for a job beyond campus ministry and soon found out that all the connections she was depending on quickly failed.
“I prayed that God would help me find a job I could be passionate about, use my skills, and enjoy. I had several interviews for various jobs that seemed to be a perfect fit, but I was never offered the positions,” she says.
Soon, Alicia’s last day with InterVarsity came and went, and she still didn’t have a job. But, God provided different short-term jobs for Alicia in the meantime, so that she could pay her bills.
Then, something surprising happened.
“This church friend, who had no major connections or resources of her own, saw this job posting at Zondervan and mentioned that I should apply. I did and I got the job!” says Alicia. “God used the most unlikely person from my church to bring me to Zondervan.”
Alicia started at Zondervan as a secretary for the marketing department and quickly discovered that marketing was a perfect fit for her personality. For the past 15 years, Alicia has been consistently recognized and promoted. Now she serves as the Senior Marketing Director.
One might say that Alicia, a student about to abandon God and pursue a career in elementary education . . . would have been an unlikely candidate for Zondervan’s Senior Marketing Director position. But that’s exactly what God does in InterVarsity – he takes the most unlikely people, transforms them, and then entrusts them with strategic positions to spread the gospel, and thus change the world.
