Early next year, Chrissie Otero will go to Mexico City, working with Servant Partners to plant churches among people in the inner city. Six years ago as a freshman at the University of Nevada–Reno, Chrissie had other plans for her future. God used InterVarsity to transform her life.
Chrissie became a Christian while she was in high school. She participated in her church youth group and had Christian friends. But when she arrived at college, Chrissie found a different life and she wanted to experience that life. She wanted to party. Chrissie was rooming with Jill, a friend from her high school youth group who had found the InterVarsity fellowship on campus and become involved in a Bible study. Jill prayed for Chrissie and invited her to join in the Bible study, but Chrissie continued to party.
Jill and Amy, the InterVarsity staff member, often hung out in Jill’s dorm room and continued to encourage Chrissie to return to the Christian activities she had given up. Chrissie continued her party life until finally, toward the end of her freshman year, Chrissie was drawn in by their love and started to attend a Bible study. Attending that first InterVarsity Bible study was the beginning of her involvement with InterVarsity, an involvement that included discipleship training and summer projects.
During her sophomore year, Chrissie and Amy studied Gary Haugen’s Good News About Justice. As she and Amy explored examples of Christians’ responses to current injustices, studied what God’s word said about injustice, and learned some practical ways they could help, Chrissie was challenged to think about what she would do with her life. That summer she spent eight weeks in Tampa, Florida, at an InterVarsity Urban Project. After a summer of living alongside the inhabitants of the inner city, Chrissie knew that she had a choice. “I could forget [God’s concern for justice] and go back to life as usual, or I could learn to see injustice through God’s eyes,” she said.
Chrissie decided to be obedient to God. The next summer she continued her education concerning justice issues by participating in an InterVarsity Global Urban Trek in Argentina. During that time she learned that injustice happened all over the world and realized that her calling in life was to address that injustice with the Gospel of love.
When Chrissie graduated in 2005, she began training with Servant Partners in Los Angeles and the Philippines. She has seen people who did not know where their next meal was coming from praise God for the life he has given them. She has learned that, as the Apostle Paul says, one can be joyful in suffering. Chrissie will soon be in Mexico City working with a team to plant a church and bring hope to the people.
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