Josh's Story
During March, ten students from Johnson County Community College (JCCC) in Overland Park, Kansas, gave up their spring break to do a week of evangelism on other nearby campuses. They visited the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Maple Woods Community College, and Penn Valley Community College. The JCCC chapter was planted three semesters ago, and the chapter is committed to InterVarsity’s vision of seeing students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed and world changers developed. One of the students they met was Josh.
Troubled Background
Josh grew up in a family broken by the abuse of drugs and alcohol. He became an addict himself as a young teenager. He tried to get away from his problems and his parents by going to school in California. His time away was short lived; he was soon back in Kansas City and enrolled at Maple Woods Community College.
He was acquainted with InterVarsity students and staff, but wanted nothing to do with God. Over the course of the second semester, Josh became more and more dissatisfied with his life. During spring break he opened up to his mother (who recently became a Christian) and she told him he needed to be right with God.
A Divine Appointment
When class resumed the following week, the JCCC students were out sharing their faith on the Maple Woods campus. A JCCC student named Colin and InterVarsity staff member Jamie spent time praying that morning, asking God to show them that He would do something amazing at Maple Woods. Their prayers focused on John 4 (the story of the Samaritan woman). Less than an hour after they prayed for a divine appointment, Josh was at their Proxe Station (an interactive display designed to attract interest and initiate conversations that can lead to a gospel presentation).
In response to one of the the Proxe Station questions, Josh indicated that serving God was important to him. Jamie (who had met Josh before) started asking questions. Josh told Jamie about his background, the drugs, the bad relationships, and that he wanted to be right with God.
As Jamie responded with more questions, Josh showed some understanding of the gospel. Jamie shared more of the gospel message with him and asked him to admit, believe, and commit. Josh said that he had done the first two steps but wanted to know more about the last one. Jamie told him about what the JCCC students were doing on campus, and said that committing your life to Jesus meant following Jesus and sharing your faith with others.
Ready to Tell Others
Josh wanted to know when he could start following Jesus. Jamie brought together the JCCC InterVarsity students and the Maple Woods InterVarsity students to pray with Josh and celebrate his new life in Christ. Then she sent them out in twos to start spiritual conversations using question-filled balloons and to invite people to Bible study.
Josh and Colin went off together and found a whole new crowd of people to talk to. When they got back, they began inviting everyone in the cafeteria to a Bible study. At the end of the day, Josh asked to have copies of the gospel diagram and some balloons so he could continue, even after the team left. The next day, Josh came to the Bible study and brought many of his friends with him. He wants to learn to lead a study for his non-Christian friends on campus.
To learn more about InterVarsity’s evangelism activities, check out our evangelism website.