He Asked Me Question After Question

Mosaic 2013 » NYC

 This is a featured cross-post by Dan Choe, the Chi Alpha Director at George Mason University. He enjoys the outdoors, wearing camouflage and playing Settlers of Cataan.  You can connect with him via Facebook. 

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had the opportunity to serve at a conference for international students. It included a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and a trip with them to New York City on Friday. Friday, I was excited about our two hour bus ride back to the camp we were staying at, because I was going to get the chance to talk to the only other guy who was in my New York tour group. We had spent all day together and I was excited about the potential for having a deeper conversation on the way back, that would hopefully include a talk about the service the night before, where our speaker gave his testimony. Our conference director came on our bus and asked if someone from our bus could go to the other, because ours was over capacity. Sure enough, my new friend raised his hand and just like that the opportunity slipped out of my hands.

So, as I prepared to turn my discussion time into nap time, another guy asked me to sit next to him on the bus.  This guy, who is not a Christian, noticed I had bought something and asked me what it was. I told him that I bought a Bible, because I had lost my other one. He was actually pretty excited and asked to see it. Location and my purchase of the day launched us into a conversation that spanned the whole bus ride. He asked me question after question about Christianity and how Jesus could be the son of God. I tried my best to answer all his questions and to help him better understand the Christian perspective. However, closing a door (at least I thought I was), opened two more. About an hour and a half into our discussion I felt the Spirit telling me that my job was not to make him understand, but to open the door. So, I immediately stopped trying to close doors and opened a new one. I shared my testimony with him. It became clear to me that it was more important for me to share my own experiences with God rather than attempting to make him understand what he saw as a concept of God.

I am no theologian or expert of any sort, but I did feel I could answer a majority of his questions with a valid answer. However, no answer I could give, no amount of knowledge would’ve been able to change what he believed. And that is okay, because the goal should not be conversion, but exposure. No conversion can come from convincing someone of a way of thinking, but only from the acknowledgment of Christ living within them. And they can begin to recognize this when they are exposed to him by our experiences with Christ. So, no change for my friend; but I got an email address, physical address, a phone number, and a promise to read his new Arabic Bible that means more to me than a convinced mind on a bus ride back from New York.

Our 100 for $100 Project is simple. We are looking for 100 people to donate $100 each. It would make a huge impact! In fact, it'd fund every Chi Alpha Campus Ministry in the city for Fall Kickoff.  Are you interested in donating or reading more? Click here.

Note - This post originally appeared on athirstfor.wordpress.com.  

Finding Jesus Through Chi Alpha

 This is a guest post by Brittany Zielske, a former Chi Alpha student. She loves to cook, pray, and host amazing themed parties for her friends (not necessarily in that order). You can connect with her via Twitter!

I showed up as as freshman at American University convinced that Jesus was nothing but a distant, angry deity who was out to punish me. I felt lonely and unlovable, and it seemed like a given that, eventually, my life would end at my own hands. I had simply given up hope.

Then Chi Alpha found me. My second day on campus, a flyer for a Chi Alpha ice cream social showed up on my door. I like ice cream, so I went. I met a group of people who kept inviting me back - to other Fall Kickoff events, to mid-week services, and to small group- and for a reason I still cannot explain, I kept going.

I quickly figured out that these people weren’t like the Christians I was used to. They didn’t use faith as an excuse to judge each other or condemn me, but instead they truly loved each other and cared for me. It was clear that they really, truly knew Jesus, and that knowing Him somehow gave them abundant hope and peace.

They taught me what Jesus’ voice sounded like and how to listen for it. They taught me so well that when six months later, after a rough night, I decided it was time to start planning my own death, I could hear the voice of Jesus shouting through all the chaos in my heart. I could hear Him telling me to walk away from the hopelessness and the lies because He had a purpose for me. I could hear Him telling me that the joy and hope I so desperately envied in these Chi Alpha students could be mine as well.

So I walked away from the easy out and into the arms of a Savior who promised to hold me and love me through anything. And He has. Through the encouragement of Chi Alpha leaders and staff, He raised me up into a leader and radically changed my life. Now, over a year after graduating, I am mentoring and pouring into college students in my local church because I remain convinced that college is the best time to interrupt the course of someone’s life and set them on a new one.

This is why I am supporting Chi Alpha’s Welcome Week efforts. Five years ago, an ice cream social ended up saving my life. Who knows what else Jesus can use a Fall Kickoff event can do?

You can join me in giving to our 100 for $100 Project here!  

A Few Can Reach the Many

DC Chi Alpha » Beach Retreat

 This is a guest post by Jon Rice, the Georgetown University Campus Pastor, and also a runner and a fan of good TV. 

Four years ago Jenny and I arrived at Georgetown to pioneer a ministry that had dwindled in recent years. Especially since there were only a handful of students who still considered themselves a part of XA, we knew that the Fall Kickoff was incredibly important. If we didn't meet them as freshmen, we most likely wouldn't know them over the next four years. By simply handing out a few hundred snow cones, 4 new visitors came to our little group our first Wednesday night.

Four years later, all four students were still involved with XA and were responsible for the tremendous growth we had seen. During their senior years, one of those four students felt God guiding her that her time with XA at Georgetown wasn't over. That student become the first student ever to graduate from Georgetown and go into Chi Alpha full time. Bonnie Duncan will be an intern this fall at Georgetown, and thanks to your donations, we will have the funding for her to hand out a few more snow cones. 

Kings, presidents, congressmen, and CEOs. All four are graduates of one school - Georgetown University.  If you want to change the world, you start with a place like Georgetown.