5 Weeks, 5 States and 13 Campuses Later!

Published: March 5th, 2009

There is something about sharing the gospel with others on a consistent basis that is waking me up!  After five weeks in five states spreading the 24-7 Campus America vision on 13 university campuses across the USA, I am convinced that we were born to bear the message of God’s reconciliation. 

“In Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sin against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation.  We are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal through us.”  (2 Cor. 5, ESV) 

I had the privilege to preach this message at a campus church service at Arizona State University a few weeks ago, and it continues to wreck me! I beg you, along with Paul the apostle, let’s not squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us! I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open spacious life. (2 Cor. 6, Msg)

University of California Irvine

A friend who is praying sends me a text saying, “Someone is waiting for you - go find them!”  I have no idea what that means, but ask the Holy Spirit to guide me.  A few minutes later I see a guy named Sean sitting at a table doing nothing and he looks like he’s waiting.  So I approach him and start talking to him about the love of God.  He freaks out, “You are the third person this week to come up to me and start talking about God!”  I have to smile at his reaction.  “Dude, He is after you!  He wants your heart!”  The rest of our conversation is brief and a bit awkward, if I am honest.  But I walk away praying that more followers of Jesus would approach Sean, that God would freak him out all the way to heaven!

University of California Los Angeles

We gather students to do a creative open-air skit presenting the gospel in the middle of campus.  A football player named David is looking on.  One of our guys approaches him with a simple message of God’s love, asking if David has any pain that he can pray for.  It turns out that his knee had gotten messed up in football practice, so the students pray for it.  The spirit of Jesus immediately heals his knee!  The night before David had just told a friend he wanted to get his life straight with God but didn’t know how.  Twenty minutes later over lunch in the cafeteria, he gives his life to the Jesus who healed him!

University of Nevada Las Vegas

We meet Glen, a sophomore at UNLV, while he works at Kinko’s.  We go in to make copies, and after a bit of goofing off, we come out with a new friend.  We decide to go bowling with him later that week.  So after a few rousing games and a lot of laughs, we ask Glen if we can pray for him.  He’s agnostic, but listens intently as we share our stories of how God has changed our lives.  So right there in the middle of the bowling alley in a casino in Vegas, Glen prays to give his life to Jesus!!  This was the highlight of our whole trip!

Righteousness

Del Playa is the party street of UCSB. It’s also home to a 24-hour prayer shed behind a house full of young Jesus-lovers who give out hundreds of “Jesus burgers” to partying college students every weekend.  While I’m staying with them, we end up rescuing a drunk girl who has passed out on the street.  Her friends are stunned at our kindness to a stranger and tell us, “It’s rare to see such righteousness!”

Waiting

I feel the Holy Spirit ask me to just be still and wait while worshipping on campus at UCLA.  I close my eyes for awhile and when I open them there is a freshman girl named Kim sitting two feet away listening to the music.  We chat a bit about Jesus. I get to share the whole gospel with her over breakfast later that week.  Afterward she texts me to say that she’s going to start reading the Bible!

Baptism

My first night in Las Vegas, I met a freshman from Chicago named Scott.  God had recently grabbed ahold of his heart, so I just began to pray and encourage him.  He spent quite a bit of time worshipping with us and he wanted to be baptized!  We baptized him along with 4 other students in the middle of UNLV campus with a bucket of water.  It was incredibly powerful!

Lindsay Ellyson got seriously messed up in a prayer room during her first year as a university student. She has since found friendship among students all over the USA and moved to Kansas City to join the Campus America 24-7 Prayer team promptly after graduating in May 2008.  Lindsay is currently co-leading the Wilder Project.

Post to: Facebook del.icio.us digg Newsvine