In one of my first updates I talked about a student who "This is a guy who feels very alone on a big campus" and who's girlfriend broke up with him the week before the summer started. He and I have been eating and playing frisbee together fairly regularly. The pain he's expirenced from losing that girlfriend has not subsided because he has a hard time as seeing himself as anything but a victim. He had a presentation for a class he's in that a bunch of the interns were able to go and support him during. He has been a reliable attender and a friend to me. He has been comming not only to our large group meeting on Friday, but also my Tuesday night study. He has recongized a desire to be more familiar with Scripture and a desire to grow in the Lord, but he really has yet to own what that will mean and look like for himself. He understands how God loves him and sent his Son to die for him. He knows forgiveness for his sins, but hasn't been so affected by it so as to be wondering how he can use his time here to be honoring and serving to God. Growing in living a life fueled by gratitude instead of unmet expectations will be a big step for him.
I am now meeting every Wednesday for breakfast with a PSU student my age who contacted the fellowship because he knew that he had to get closer to the Lord. He missed the first two Tuesday night studies and I asked if he'd like to go over what he's missed over our first breakfast. He arrived with several pages of hand-written notes! I've never seen anything quite like it. We had a great time getting to know each other and reading through the Word. I am looking for ways to challenge him and really be able to draw out his heart and understand why he does what he does. I am excited about using the rest of the summer to track with him.
At the very begining of the summer a student who has never heard the gospel wandered into our first large group meeting. Within the first week we knew him he went to a movie with the guys and got pizza with us. Through it all he showed himself to be a person that is difficult to love; filled with strange and abrasive speech. He demonstrated a lack of regard for others in conversation.
One night at dinner I saw him eating alone and really did not want to go and sit with him but I felt compelled to do so. When he explained that he really liked the people at the fellowship and that was why he was going I decided to challenge him so that he knows that we value something over friendship and was really able to share my own heart and many of the struggles I had been dealing with (even from that day) which was great evidence of growth in my Character Goal. He began to share and unload a lot of his pain of loneliness (he cited constantly being mocked for his awkardness and he has felt cast off and forsaken by classmates, family, and society). It was a great opening for the Gospel (explaining how I do not feel lonely because God forsook His Son on the cross so that He’d be able to tell me “I will never leave you"). It was the first time he had really heard the Bible articulated in such a blatant way. His response was, "that's really powerful." He and I hung out for a while after that and at one point he told his roommate that “all of my friends are in DCF.” It was a convicting lesson because while he saw me as one of his only friends he had I saw him as a burden (or, at best, a project). Fortunately, it demonstrated that we, as a fellowship, are communicating a great amount of care to him and that we are able to embody Christ in that way. Also, it was a great reminder to me that I was even more unlovable to God than he is to me and God initiated with me while I was still His enemy.
Loving people is a choice we make, not just an emotional connection.
Since then he and I have spent a nomimal amount of time together. He invited his roomate to a fellowship meeting. Over lunch this week I pressed further to see how he had been dealing with the bible studies and lessons that he was sitting through this summer. He cited from Hebrews how it says that Christ can sympathize with our weaknesses in everyway. Yet, through it all he admitted that he thought that the Gospel was indeed powerful, but he simply didn't believe any of it was true. It's a real opportunity for me to continue to persevere in choosing to love and care for him through the rest of the summer (and hopefully beyond!). Pray for him.
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