That was over four years ago and looking back the risk I took by joining my Fraternity was the single best decision I have ever made in my life. Quickly after joining I was invited to numerous Greek Intervarsity events by amazing leaders in my Chapter; through large groups, bible studies, and social events I soon felt like I did fit in here and that I could maintain my values and beliefs while being Greek. My four years in Purdue’s GIV Chapter were incredible for both my spiritual and personal growth. I was transformed from a lukewarm churchgoer to a bible study and ministry leader to those around me.

As I graduated last spring I couldn’t help but reflect on what an immeasurable role my Fraternity played in shaping the person I had become. Graduating, however, opened up an entirely new set of challenges and opportunities. One of my biggest challenges was how I was going to continue to grow in my relationship with Christ now that I didn’t have my GIV community. After a ton of thoughts I made the decision to spend part of my summer in Kenya on a Global Project. Similarly to pledging, this was a huge risk but would hopefully pay off with huge rewards.

In late June I packed up and headed to Chicago to meet the rest of the team, a group organized by Northern Illinois’s IV Chapter. Over the next five weeks I would encounter too many life changing experiences to count. We spent our time in a variety of mission related activities. A majority of those activities revolved around a group called Homeless Children International (HCI). HCI is a ministry to serve children in need; whether orphaned/abandoned by their parents or taken off the streets, HCI was able to provide children in need with shelter, education, and a place to call home. I quickly grew attached to these amazing children. I loved every minute I spent with them: whether teaching them some new math, pushing them on the swings, or just being there to show these children the love they so desperately deserved. I felt like I was truly making a difference in these kids lives.

I was so blessed to be able to share my love and God’s love with these children. This trip once again stretched me out of my comfort zone and once again allowed me to grow even closer to God. My experience in Kenya was life-changing in so many ways. I thought that I would find myself broken by the extreme poverty of the country and to an extent I did, but more importantly was the joy I found in an amazing group of people. Despite the fact that they didn’t have an Xbox 360, nice clothing, or even a person to call mom or dad these children were far happier than anyone I have ever encountered. They took great joy in the simplest of things: a $.10 piece of fruit at the market, someone to push them on the swings, or most importantly the chance to praise and worship the Lord for their many gifts. Their faith and desire to live a Christ-worthy life was remarkable and in many ways it was the people of Kenya that were making an impact on my life and not vice versa.
No longer sheltered by my safe and comfortable American university life, I was able to find God in new and powerful ways.

Our God is an amazing being; He is big enough to influence the entire universe and people of all walks of life yet small enough to personally impact each and every one of us. I look back on my nervous and scared self four years ago and am amazed at how God has been able to not only work in my life, but to influence those around me. Through Fraternity life (Yes, Fraternity life) and with God at my back, I truly have been able to further my personal relationship with Christ, bring God into my Chapter house, help renew my campus, and bring about some positive change in the world!

She began her ministry spending an entire year trying to pioneer on a large scale among all the sororities and fraternities on campus. Despite Lindsey’s passion for caring for Greek men and women and her desire to see cultural and spiritual change among them, she found herself busy, frustrated, and not seeing much fruit. So we stepped back, spoke with people who have gone before us in Greek ministry, and decided to start small with house ministry among the Zetas. We also started talking about Greek ministry with other Greek students who had been involved in the regular undergrad chapter. Since we had seen some conflict in the chapter because of prejudice towards Greek culture, ministry within the Greek system was an attractive idea.

One year later, Lindsay is ready to graduate and, unfortunately has not seen a new leader come up behind her in her own house. However, her desire to see ministry begin in the Greek system has rubbed off on others and has resulted in two fraternities with budding leaders, one of them having just started a GIG in the last two weeks with nine men interested and attending, albeit inconsistently so far. I thank God for sending Lindsey to Clarion and for calling her into the Greek community. Because of her obedience, we are seeing leaders developed in a couple different houses and partnership develop between the Greeks and the undergrad chapter (as well as reconciliation between them). I also, and especially, thank God for helping us to recognize where He’s already been at work and for inviting us to step out in faith and start serving and leading, growing in relationship with Him as we do so.

IU’s weekly gathering commonly had between 10 and 20 students from six different houses. At the first meeting of this semester we were expecting about this many students. In fact we only set up about 20 chairs so the room would feel filled no matter what happened. In all honesty the Leadership Team and myself had done minimal extra recruitment for this event because we wanted it to be a gathering of our core members. We intended to present to them a vision that would compel them to take action in their houses thus multiplying my and the Leadership Teams impact. As the clock struck 8:30 I looked around the room and was stunned to see flocks of Greeks. I say flocks because we all know that Greeks travel in packs. We actually had to set up 20 more chairs to get everyone a seat and even then we were busting at the seams. When it was all said and done we had 43 Greeks come to our small call out meeting!

There were 11 houses represented! At the start of this year I wasn’t very sure whether our chapter was poised to grow or poised to stagnate. Clearly that question has been answered. In my limited experience in ministry I have found that God has a surprising way of moving. Often He acts unexpectedly allowing us to know what was clearly God breathed. I know that this growth may be an anomaly, but for now I rejoice that God has acted. I rejoice that He is far better at this work than I am, and I rejoice because the word is out, God wants to know Greeks.

Finally, over the summer of 2009, God worked on me and my heart in so many different ways. After meeting with our Greek IV staff, Kristina, at the end of the Spring 2009 semester, I joined Greek IV leadership and began to embark on the journey that God had called me to two years earlier. I spent the summer praying for courage and boldness and seeking wise counsel from my family. When fall came around the butterflies in my stomach began to multiply, but so did God’s faithfulness. I have seen God work in so many tangible ways during my college experience, but this fall He has shown himself to me in powerful ways.

Every semester, I ask the Lord to show me a verse that I can call my “semester verse” that I will apply to that semester. As I started praying about that, the scripture that came to mind was Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I started to think that it was such a prevalent verse and didn’t have the depth that I wanted, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that that scripture was about as deep as it gets- I can do ALL things. After that, God confirmed this verse to me in two ways- through my boyfriend Josh who suggested that I meditate on that verse, and through Kristina who brought it up at our first Greek IV leader meeting… He is so good! He showed me the depth and meaning of this verse and its application to my life this semester.

Every time I let those thoughts of fear and disbelief about my starting my study in Pi Phi, I was reminded of that verse. I finally took the plunge at our first meeting of the semester. I asked just about everyone that I could for prayer that day- I needed it, I was so nervous! I stood up at our meeting, and announced to the sorority chapter that I would be starting a faith group- a safe, non-judgmental place to come, ask questions, create meaningful relationships and explore who God is in our everyday lives as Greeks.

My biggest fear was that after I passed around a sign up sheet that I would receive it back blank. Ten names were on it when I got it back!! All I could think was, “God, you are so faithful.” That next night, five young women came to my study and we had an amazing time of sharing together about their hopes for the study and how we could invite other chapter members to join. I know that God is going to use this in the Pi Phi house and the lives of its members, and I am continually praying for His guidance to be ever-present in my life as I lead these young women.

We have interviews in our fraternity where our new members have sit downs with the actives and have a nice little interview session with them. I was having a phenomenal interview with one of the new members named Robby. We ended up talking for a solid hour and a half - way longer than any of the other interviews. After exchanging personal question after personal question, I definitely noticed how selfless and big his heart was. Before the very end of our interview, I ended up asking him about his spiritual background.

Robby told me that he prays every now and then but doesn’t really know what higher being he believes in. I thought that was interesting he’s not really sure who he prays to, but he prays for guidance and even says he receives it every now and then. I then asked what his thoughts were on Christianity and Jesus Christ. He said he didn’t know a lot and wanted to know about him. I then asked him if he wanted hear me talk about it because it was going to be for a while (especially since we’ve already been talking for such a long time) and he said, “yes.”

First thing I did was rip out a page in his notebook and draw him the four circles diagram! After going through it, he said that it makes so much sense and then he started asking me some questions about common misconceptions. I explained how Christianity isn’t all about ‘religion’, ‘laws’ or ‘rules’ but about an intimate relationship with God. I explained how sin isn’t necessarily bad acts towards others but it is merely the absence of good; just how darkness is the absence of light.

He continued to reaffirm how much it makes sense and then I shared with him my very first testimony when I was unsure about accepting Christ and I told him how I experienced the Holy Spirit. After I said that and him saying how much it makes sense, I asked him, “Is this something that you want in your life?” Thinking that he’d say no since that’s how most of my conversations went and he said, “Yes, I want that.”

I FREAKED out.  I asked him twice just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and he still said, “yes.”
I started thinking, “Oh my gosh, training didn’t help me with this part!” After that, I explained to him how to accept Jesus in his life with prayer and told him what kind of prayer to pray and he was very nervous about it so I ended up having him repeat the same prayer that I had prayed at an event earlier.
After the prayer, Robby said, “Man, I feel really, really relieved.”

I bought him a bible and wrote, “October 26th is a day that the angels rejoiced for you in Heaven” and told him to start reading Matthew. He’s coming to the bible study tomorrow!!!!

“My freshman year of college was full of new friends, parties, and late night food. And don’t get me wrong, it was a blast. But I knew something was missing, and God knew it too. He began to pursue my heart and Greek IV fell right into my lap. Krystal reached out to me and gave me the encouragement I needed to get plugged in and to get involved. This organization, through God, has literally changed my life and heart around. I have never experienced the kind of community I have with those people.

Greek IV has given me opportunities to lead, to talk about Christ with my sorority sisters, and even to do mission work in Haiti. I have learned what it means to walk with Christ, even amongst the craziness of college life- and I cannot express how much joy it has given me.

And the only thing better than the incredible peace that has entered my own heart, is seeing it enter in others. My sorority sisters have been so eager each week to come to Bible Study-another outlet of Greek Impact. I could think of nothing better for my college experience than exploring God’s truth with my best friends. Greek IV, for me, has been the most tangible evidence of God’s incredible love.”

I just wanted to share my story of letting Jesus into my life. A couple months ago I got an email from the bible study leader in my house, about an opportunity to learn about God. It turns out that it was Greek IV. The leader sent me an email, and asked if we could meet up. I thought, “Hey, why not it’s not going to kill me. And it might be pretty cool.” I ended up talking with one of the leaders, Tyler Riffe and I found that I really liked talking about God. We started going more in depth in the following weeks, getting into studying the book of John, and I started to pour my whole heart into the sessions.

Basically, this semester has been the most stressful time of my life to date. Whether, it has been dealing with becoming suspended from the athletic program, dealing with family issues, and relationship stuff, it’s been pretty rough. But on November 10th, my whole life changed. After having one of the worst nights of my life, I met up with Tyler and we dove into chapter 3 of John. It was the first time that The Word, the bible, really spoke to me. I was able to internalize a lot of what was going on around me and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that God has a plan for all of us. If I didn’t have this Bible Study this day my life to this day would be completely different. Anyways, I’m getting on a tangent.

Tyler knew I was at a turning point and finally posed a question to me. He asked me where I was at with Jesus. I drew it out on a piece of paper to visualize it not only for Tyler, but for me as well. I started with the bridge diagram. With people on one side of the cliff, God on the other, and Jesus on the cross connecting us to God. Jesus died so that we could be close to God. So, I told him when I started with him going through these Bible studies I was living only for the moment. I was living for my own satisfaction, and stuff all around me was all crashing down. I didn’t know why. However, each day I met with Tyler I could feel myself that much closer to God.

So, Tyler posed another question to me. Are you going to let Jesus into your life? I sat there and knew that I was at the biggest turning point in my life. Before I even verbally responded, I just felt this rush of emotion and energy in my heart. I let Jesus into my heart, and everything else since that point has not mattered. It was and forever will be the best day of my life. I’m excited to see how much I can grow, and help other people grow through my experience. To anyone who reads this, please know that God has a plan no matter how dark it seems. There are always strong arms around us through Christ.

Since then we have been meeting weekly for a GIG (Greeks investigating God). Last week I invited her to become a Christian after she told me she was beginning to understand God, starting to pray, and even seeing God answer her prayers. Alex was not sure about completely submitting her life to God because, “most Christians I know do it half-way and I don’t want to do that. If I am going to become a Christian I want to do it 100% and I still don’t know how.” Alex is continuing her journey but I know that she is going to become a Christian, and I even invited her to do it again this week. God is working in her life–pray with me that he would continue to reveal himself to her in ways that she cannot deny!

To make a long story short (at least for now), Jimmy came to Greek IV that very night and joyfully shared his new commitment of faith in Christ with other Greeks… and we celebrated with him.

It is much more fun hearing him tell it :)… read his side of the story:  http://greekintervarsity.org/2009/11/invite-week-accepted/

And if you want to read about Jimmy and I got started on this journey read an earlier story:  http://greekintervarsity.org/2009/10/a-seeking-sigma-chi/

For National Invitation Week, we wanted to do something bold. Our students have been asked to lead GIGs; but throughout the semester, I’ve noticed that students have been reluctant to ask their friends if they want to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. When we began to talk about why, many of the students admitted that they didn’t want to ostracize their friends or alienate themselves from their house. The more we talked the more I started to understand a deeper issue that exists among the Christian community here at UGA.

In the south, specifically in a small Georgia town, everybody is Christian. When somebody asks you what religion you are, they are questioning which Christian Church you attend. It’s rare that you will find somebody that doesn’t know who Jesus is; following him is therefore socially acceptable. When people here say they lead a bible study, even their non-believing friends applaud their belief. It’s almost become cool. As we’ve tried to be in the world, to relate to our friends, we have blended in too well. It seems as Christians we have begun to live for our brothers and sister’s praise and adoration, instead of finding our worth in the Lord’s eyes. As National Invitation Week approached us, I tried to think of ways that we could be bold for Christ, but also do something that made us rely on the LORD and not on other’s opinions.

It’s pretty cool to lead bible study for non-believers; however, it’s really not cool to ask somebody how much they are willing to pay for sex, especially if you are the one person in your house currently not sleeping with anybody. We decided as a chapter, in order to step out in faith, we were going to host the Sex Bed proxe station, and use the questions about how much you are willing to pay for sex to lead into an opportunity to raise awareness about child sex slavery and ultimately share the gospel with strangers.

While this has been hard for many students, those who have chosen to join us in this endeavor have had the opportunity to see God reward their faithfulness. One of the students even said that he now saw every opportunity to share his faith with his friends. Another woman got the chance to share the gospel with one of her sisters that she has been looking for an opportunity to share Christ with.

All the students who have taken part so far have experienced both challenging conversations and also personal growth. It’s easy to do cool things for God, but when we are willing to get out of the boat and follow Jesus when it’s hard, we learn to trust in his faithfulness, and not our own strength. This week Greek InterVarsity at UGA has had the opportunity to experience Christ’s strength made perfect in our weakness.