Ken Vander Wall, an InterVarsity Campus Staff Member in northern New Jersey, recently began his weekly small group Bible study on the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus by asking how everyone was doing. One student, Mensah Peterson, admitted that he was nervous and worried.
Mensah is a starting guard on the FDU basketball team, which was scheduled to play its first post-season game of the year that night. When he admitted that he was concerned about playing up to his potential, other students agreed that they also wrestled with worry.
Ken began a discussion focused on uncovering the reasons behind worry and asked everyone to turn to Philippians 4:6-7. In the Living Bible it reads: “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.” The students began to see that worry was a faith issue and they could leave their worries with God. “Mensah testified that God’s Word had now equipped him with the ‘peace that passes understanding,’” Ken said.
That night Ken spoke at The College of New Jersey, so he missed the FDU game. But he told the students about the FDU Bible study and asked them to pray for Mensah. The newspaper the next day had a picture of Mensah and reported he had scored 11 points, helping lead the FDU Knights to victory.
“On Wednesday I saw Mensah and he had a smile from ear to ear,” Ken reported. “He testified to the grace of God which had invaded his life at last week’s small group. He was no longer worrying apart from prayer, and he was experiencing God’s peace as never before!”
Fairleigh Dickinson University’s basketball team continued to win its post-season games and received an NCAA tournament invitation. Mensah and his teammates faced top-ranked Illinois in the opening round, a match-up that some compared to David vs. Goliath. They lost the game but made Illinois work hard for their victory.
Ken says that win or lose, Mensah has much to be thankful for. “His faith has grown. He now wants God’s way rather than his way! And the rest of the team is finding out from him that God’s peace passes all human understanding.”
Footnote:
FDU’s NCAA tournament opponent, The University of Illinois, is one of the few major college basketball programs with an ordained minister on the team. The March issue of Charisma magazine reported that senior forward Roger Powell received his minister’s license last October in his home church, Mount Zion Full Gospel Tabernacle in Joliet, Ill. More on Roger Powell in this story.
More on Ministry at the Final Four.
The college campus forges leaders like Mensah and Roger. InterVarsity believes that through the study of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all students can learn the true dimensions of leadership that will last for a lifetime.
