A week of conversations

This past week was the first week of classes for students at WVU. From the moment they said goodbye to their parents and set foot onto to their new home on campus these students are deciding what habits they will follow, who they will hang out with, and what their weekends will look like. For this reason we (IV) use as much effort and energy we can into talking with the students and sharing the life they could have through Jesus.

Tuesday and Wednesday we set up a proxe station in towers right outside the dining hall, where many students who live in the dorms traffic through. We posed the question to passerbys "Where does evil invade your space?" Some gave quick whips of "homework", or just look at as confused and walk away. Others stopped confused, or intrigued, by the question wanting to know what we're doing. One such student was Jordan.

Jordan was confused and wanted to know what we meant by evil. So I had him go through the proxe station, placing red dots in boxes where he has been affected. Afterwords I asked him a series of questions about the origins of evil, can we be free, and how does God respond. Most of his answers were "I don't know". I could see that he didn't know not out of apathy, but of never thinking about it before. SO I pressed on and shared the gospel with him, and asked if this would be something he wanted. To my excitement he said yes! And right there, in the middle of Towers I prayed with Jordan to receive Jesus. That day we had 2 people come to Christ in a time of only 2 hours!

Wed. was a different story. We were in the same place, just later on in the day. I don't know if it was just the later time, or the looming ice cream social that was getting ready to start, but students did not want to talk to us. I had a tough conversation and was quite frankly exhausted from meeting so many new people the past 2 weeks. I was ready to be done. Just as I was thinking "I'm going to go sit down for a minute", a student and his friend came and became intrigued when I asked him the question "How does evil invade your space". He laughed, and looked at our info. I asked if he would like to answer some questions, to which he responded "I'm an atheist". When I said that's fine he said he had to go eat, but wanted to talk about this (with a pretty abrasive tone), and I simply said great, I want to talk about it too.

I was honestly nervous and not sure if I wanted him to come back. He seemed very gun hoe about voicing his opinions, and I was afraid it was going to be a monologue of him bashing and me taking it. I prayed for grace and mercy for the soon to be conversation.

To my surprise the student came back introducing himself as Reed. I told him my name and what we were doing, and the conversation took off. We talked about the board of evil we were using, he expressed how some of it is human nature, and I shared parts of the gospel of how it is human nature, and what to do about it. At one point he told his friend to go to the Rec center without him, and we went and sat down on some nearby couches. The conversation went on for about 45 min. I asked him his background, with which he told me that he grew up in the church and his whole family were Christians, but he quit believing when his best friend got cancer and God didn't heal him and he died. He shared of false doctrines that was taught, and his annoyance at fake Christians and their exploitations. Throughout the time he would ask me questions about myself, what I thought of homosexuality, and had long discussions on the teachings of Jesus and even prophecy of Revelations. Reed was very well read of the scriptures, and wanted to talk about it all.

Throughout our time together, I never got nervous, or felt defensive or bashed on. I could sense those with me praying for us, and God gave me a great peace about what we were talking about. At the end of the conversation he thanked me for listening to his side and not bashing him for his beliefs or thoughts. He said he never had a conversation with a Christian where he was able to voice his opinions like that. I thanked him for the same and his honesty.

He did not become a Christian, and I can't say that he is any closer to believing than when we first met, but I will say that God has given Reed an amazing love for people and justice, and is working through him even though Reed may not recognize it. I think this conversation was the 1st of many to come for him, and with time, patience, and a lot of listening and love, he will see the "Truth".

Please pray for the 2 students who came to Christ on Tuesday, that they will join IV for spiritual growth and community, and pray for Reed that these conversations will continue, and that we can build a bridge over the gap that he put between him and Christianity...that God would be revealed to him.