Set a fire down in my soul

As I continue my growth in my faith this summer, my focus has been narrowed to one thing in past couple of weeks: to gain the skills necessary to become an effective leader of college guys (mainly freshman) in our campus church, especially during the next school year.

Before this summer, I had never had a mature, Christian guy my age that really focused on being a positive mentor and role model for me. That has changed in my first 8 weeks at LT with a great life group leader, staff guide and other people who have shown specific care for me.

I have had a ton of positive experiences with one-on-one mentorship at LT and I now feel like I will be more comfortable giving advice to younger college students because of the experiences I have had here. Because of this, I am super excited to be a spiritual mentor to people in our canvas group next year.

This kind of personal attention and caring is one of the better things that I have discovered about my faith in the past year. Honestly, what’s a more appealing faith than one that has people who truly care about you? People taking time out to meet with me just to listen to what is going on in my life has been one of the best things about LT so far.

I want to show this kind of Godly love to as many people as possible, no matter if they have been a Christian their entire lives, are just starting to think about becoming a Christian, or even if they are a non-Christian. I believe God has given me ears to listen, experiences to help people in tough times and a loving heart, so my passion and skills line up!

I don’t know if this means I want to stay at the college level after I graduate (sounds great to me) and help out a campus church somewhere, but I am certain I want to sell completely out for our canvas group next year.

Next year will be the first full year that I will be involved in a canvas group, so I am pumped to be there to reel all of the freshman in and start building into them. Seeing people you really care about grow in their faith is so exciting!

I’ve learned so much about myself and my faith this summer, all while gaining confidence in my ability to be a loving friend to other Christians.

When we started “Chazown” at the beginning of the summer, I didn’t believe I would truly find a solid purpose for myself before the end of the summer. I thought some of my better skills would be revealed and I would start to see my purpose coming to the surface, but I didn’t expect to have so many specific ideas in mind about where my life could be headed.

God provides and it is awesome.