For a pledge who was able to start a Bible study in a fraternity of 100 guys, it was certainly no problem to ask his roommate and pledge brother, me, whether I’d like to bring the Bible gathering dust in my room and come hang out with some guys on a Tuesday evening. So that’s what Bob Ravensberg did with me in 2001, and despite my initial hesitation and reluctance, I now look back with wonder at the earliest experience of my journey into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Being confirmed in the Episcopal Church and having given a Youth Sermon as an 18 year old kid at my church seemed to qualify me to be the hot shot of the Bible study. Surely I would know the most and have the most profound things to say. It wasn’t until I actually went that I realized I had a personal dilemma.
With the gentle encouragement and honesty from my pledge brother Bob, I encountered the reality of the holiness of God, the sinfulness of myself, and the perfect grace of Jesus Christ. So I was mostly quiet as a sophomore attending Bible study. But God was working, and Bob knew that and was by my side the whole time.

Junior year I had the unique opportunity to run for president of my fraternity, and with the coaxing and convincing of my pledge brothers and others in the house, I decided to go for it. I put my whole heart into the election. I had built it up so much in my mind and heart that only God knows the brokenness I felt when I realized I had lost by a single vote. Perhaps knowing what God was doing, Bob offered words of encouragement and support as I dealt with the disappointment of failure. He didn’t wait very long to invite me to the 2002 Greek Conference in Indianapolis, which was a couple months later, and which I would have had no opportunity or interest in going to had I been president. It was at this conference that Christ completed the work in my heart that he had been preparing me for the last several months. I was invited into a relationship with God and into a community of believers that was as authentic and lasting as the first invitation I received from a bold pledge brother about hanging out and studying the Bible.

The Greek IV story was shared by Joey Elliott Author Website: http:// Author Email: Contact Author Author Bio: Joey was a Sigma Chi at the University of Indiana, where he graduated in 2003. More Stories by Joey Elliott

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