I met Mark three months ago when he visited our small group for the first time. He was a quiet freshman who didn’t seem to understand what we were reading as we made our way through Ephesians. After a couple weeks of sticking around, Mark began earnestly asking how to get redemption and how to pray. So many of the other students had great things about salvation to say but he was overwhelmed. He wanted to know how to pray and he needed a simple and practical next step in his own life.
After Bible study one night I caught him before he left to ask if he wanted to pray with me. He was ecstatic and we planned to meet the next afternoon. I brought a print out of the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostle’s Creed. We prayed through a service called Midday prayer together. After this I grabbed one of our team’s Knowing God Personally booklets and read it with him. Before we went through this he made it clear that everything I was talking about was old news. But after reading it together, he was overjoyed and said that this was all new to him. At the end of our meeting he prayed to receive Christ and then quickly ran to class.
Over the past three months we’ve been meeting to read through the Gospel of John and he is continually amazed by all the connections John makes to the OT prophecies and Jesus’s foretelling of his hour to come. He began bringing his friend Cam to our Bible Study and they both came with us to our annual Fall Getaway retreat. During the retreat I saw their friendship fashion into a bond they describe as tight as brothers. Afterwards, Mark met with me and let me know this was the best trip he’s ever been on–by narrating every individual trip he’s taken and why this one was better.
Since then I’ve seen Mark more excited to read the Bible and to do so with friends, especially Cam. I’ve been able to meet with Cam too and learn about how God met him this semester. Now the two are inseparable, encouraging each other as they live out their new faith. Both were baptized together at our church this Fall and I’m excited to continue walking beside them as they grow and live on mission together.
*Names changed for privacy purposes