“Before college, nobody ever told me you could have a relationship with the Lord,” said Susan, a 2011 graduate from the Midwest. Four years ago, she knew she wasn’t living as a Christian. “I said the prayers when I was 8, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was at that point where I needed to make a choice.”
Choosing God
During her first weeks as a freshman on campus, Susan kept bumping into InterVarsity staff members and students who invited her to hang out with them. One student asked her to join a small group Bible study, which Susan began attending regularly.
“InterVarsity definitely challenged me in the way I lived my life,” said Susan. She didn’t think of herself as a particularly bad person, but what she was reading in the Bible pointed to a deeper knowledge of God’s grace and love for her.
“I remember studying Mark a few years ago at chapter focus week. That really showed me who Jesus was and what it means to follow Jesus,” said Susan. That week of Bible study and training with other students and staff members, Derek and Alicia, prepared her for leadership in the chapter. “I remember having a couple conversations with Derek about what I am doing with my life and ways I could start following the Lord.” Derek encouraged her to start with personal quiet times in prayer and Scripture reading, a habit she continued throughout college and which nurtured her relationship with God.
An Unexpected Trip
“Usually I work at a camp during the summers,” said Susan. “At Chapter Focus Week 2009, I really felt like God wanted me to leave the summer of 2010 open.” When her staff members encouraged her to join them on a summer global project in the Far East, Susan cautiously said she’d pray about it. “Honestly, going there wasn’t what I imagined myself doing.” But as she prayed, God began to change her heart and provide the resources for her to go.
During the global project, Susan was paired with university students in a cultural language program. Every day, they practiced conversational English and shared about American holidays, history, music, and cultural differences. In the evenings, the Chinese and American students had time to get to know each other.
The very first night, Susan’s language partner asked her, “Are you a Christian?” When Susan answered, ‘yes,’ her partner responded, “Good. We can talk about that and then I can finally close the door.” Slightly taken aback, Susan offered to study the gospel of Mark with her over the summer. Her partner asked questions about why Susan was a Christian and how God was present in her life. “She probably knows more about me than any other person,” said Susan.
Towards the end of the program, her new friend had a dream in which God was very big and she was quite small. In her dream, she was serving the Lord. When she shared with Susan the next day, Susan pointed to a passage in 2 Thessalonians about the dangers of knowing the Truth and denying it. “She said, ‘I think I want to pray,’ and she became a Christian,” said Susan, grateful that she could be there as her friend made this commitment.
One Summer Turns into a Year
Before returning to the U.S., Susan gathered with other InterVarsity students to discuss their experiences. She realized she was frustrated that after building community with these students, they had to leave. “People are becoming Christians, but there’s not a lot of resources for personal growth,” she said. “I again felt the Lord wanting me to leave the year after I graduate open to what he wanted me to do.”
After praying for some time about her discontentment, Susan decided to spend that year in the Far East. She plans to move this fall and serve with an organization where she’ll teach English as a foreign language at a university. “If it wasn’t for Derek and Alicia coming alongside me and the community InterVarsity offers, I don’t know where I’d be,” said Susan. “I can guarantee I wouldn’t be doing this. InterVarsity helped me understand what it means to surrender my life to the Lord.”
