During the Spring semester, I was encouraged to go to a Greek Conference in Charlotte. This weekend was so powerful for me personally. Things in life were starting to make sense and I was starting to understand that we are not in control, but that by putting trust and faith in God’s grace we will feel His love. It was such an amazing event to get together with other Greeks and worship the Lord. I saw that If we keep our hearts open, God will do wonderful work inside us.  I pray that students that are open and seeking the love of Jesus can have similar opportunities to mine in my years at Clemson.

This past summer my brother, who had just finished his freshman year at Clemson and in my fraternity, suffered a fatal wakeboarding accident. This has easily been the toughest thing I have ever had to face and I pray that others do not have to, but I have found a great deal of peace in knowing that God has a plan for us all. My brother’s gifts are still evident on earth. I thank God for blessing us with 19 wonderful years with such a wonderful person. We will never know the whole plan that is ahead of us, but I am so thankful for the opportunities that God has placed in front of me. Without the understanding and life altering events that Dusty and Greek IV helped provide, I could very easily be super frustrated and rebellious against God. Instead, I know God has his hand on me and I trust that he will raise us up in the end.

Greek at New Hampshire – Johnny and Ross from InterVarsity-twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

During my first semester of college, I came to believe in that message, and it changed my life. The next semester, I decided to pledge Sigma Chi. Throughout the next year, I got to know my fraternity brothers and much of the rest of the Greek system. They were great people, having a general knowledge about God, but many did not know they were missing out on a real relationship with God. In so many ways, they were exactly like I used to be. In light of this, God broke my heart for my brothers.

My sophomore year, my InterVarsity staff told me about Greek InterVarsity and Greek Conference. For months I tried to get my brothers and other Greeks on campus to come with me to check out Greek Conference. When February rolled around, I was still the only one registered from Louisville, so I packed my bags and headed to Indianapolis alone. While there, I had a phenomenal weekend of meeting other Greek Christians and hearing tons of encouraging stories.

I headed back to Louisville excited about improving Greek ministry. However, it was hard to get moving on all these great ideas when I seemed to be the only one who cared about them. I prayed for God to raise up Christian leaders to help out with the ministry. The next year, Fall 2010, God answered my prayers. A girl in Kappa Delta, Robin, approached me about the Greek Bible study she heard I was involved in. Fresh off a year of spiritual growth capped off by a trip mission trip to Africa, Robin was eager to share her newfound faith with her sisters and the rest of the Greek system.

Although we had no Greek IV chapter at U of L, Robin was excited about the possibilities of ministry in her sorority and the rest of the Greek community. We talked about how we could reach all Greeks with the gospel message, while still being faithful within our own houses. We knew getting students to Greek Conference would be key in launching Greek-wide ministry on campus. Later that year, when Greek Conference rolled around, I didn’t go alone this time. Eight other Greeks from Louisville attended, largely because of Robin’s recruiting efforts. In addition, my sister, who attends Western Kentucky University, recruited ten students to attend from her school, where no students had ever attended GC! God had taken two campuses with virtually no ministry and sparked movements on both of them!

Today, God continues to move in amazing ways in Louisville’s Greek community. Last year’s semi-fruitful all Greek Bible study has turned into two amazing house Bible studies in KD and Sigma Chi, where students can open up and discuss big questions with their fraternity brothers and sorority sisters. Non-Christians have been hungry to pursue a true relationship with God, while leaders in other organizations have stepped up and are eager to start Bible studies in their houses! We continue to pray for our Greek system and can’t wait to see God move even more at U of L!

I came to my first Greek InterVarsity gathering, having no clue what to expect. I only came because my Big Sister in my sorority encouraged me to go with her right after I became a new member. I’d never been to any kind of “faith club” before but I was used to having religion everyday at a private school. However, all it took was that one meeting, and God opened up my eyes to a whole new approach to faith. Here were all these people, college people, social Greek people, from all different stages of faith coming together to talk about struggles and triumphs, some like me who grew up in the Church and others who had never been a part of a faith before. This one meeting changed everything for me.

Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by role models of faith; people like Taylor, Christa, and Caitlin. People who demonstrated their relationships with God; a relationship that I could also have. Next thing you know, I was applying to be on the planning team for our meetings, offering to start a worship band and lead worship, joined a discipleship group, and was even asked to emcee our Monday night gatherings. It was a whirlwind of growth opportunities that God had placed before me, but He wasn’t done yet. Then I came to Greek Conference, thinking to myself, “these people are a little crazy because they’re so loud about their faith.” Maybe that’s just because I’d always been to afraid to be loud about my faith or lack of it.

Growing up in the church meant growing up with religion, and going to private school meant religion classes and mandatory worship meetings, but no one ever taught me how to have a faith. It was the time in my life I felt most separate from God even though He was all around me. But then last year I learned about faith, MY faith. God reached out to me at Greek Conference, specifically through every verse of every worship song last year. I could hear in those words “take me as you find me…”, “consume me from the inside out…” – they were about me! That is to say, the lyrics were exactly what I was asking God for and He was responding with everlasting unconditional love that I’d always known was there but had a hard time believing in since my parents divorce. But now I knew God as a father that would never leave me and never stop loving me. All of these realizations hit me sitting there at the conference.

After Greek Conference, I really connected to my discipleship group, I began reading the Bible more often, I applied to be on the leadership team for our Greek InterVarsity chapter, and now here I am – the girl who used to whisper about God when in public just last year, is now testifying like one of those crazy people – unafraid to say “yes I have a faith! And let me tell you about it!” This is not to say that it’s easy to have faith. Because it’s definitely not. I struggle and fall all the time but have amazing sisters who are always there and my JMU Greek InterVarsity community supports me as well. More importantly, I have God there to catch me every time I come back to Him. That’s what God has taught me. To trust in Him, in our relationship, in my faith that I now have. So even though it was a little crazy, a little scary, and a little overwhelming, I was open to what God put before me. I listened to it, took a risk in responding to it and it changed my life.

This story was originally shared live at Greek Conference Charlotte 2011.

After a jam-packed weekend of seminars, breakout sessions, speakers and a lot of fun, I could tell something was different about my sister. During the final night’s general session, the main speaker asked for students to place a marble into a jar if they had accepted Christ that weekend. I was sitting near my sister and when I saw her stand up to go place her own marble into the jar, my heart jumped for joy. I was so happy she had made the best and most important decision in the world! I could not have been happier to see my little sister surrender her life to Christ. That moment was one of the best in my life: knowing that I will see my little sister in heaven with me, and Jesus.

After attending Greek Conference in Indianapolis back in February, I made a vow to share the word of God with people in my house. That started with having individual conversations with people about God. It didn’t always feel natural, but I have had a handful of great conversations with people about their religious backgrounds and beliefs. Then, I decided to make an announcement during my chapter meeting about wanting to have a time where brothers in the house could come together and talk about religion or any other topic they had on their mind.

I picked Wednesday night during our dinner time to have the discussion. Amazingly, 16 guys showed up. We started by all sharing our religious backgrounds and upbringings. Then, we moved to current beliefs or questions that we have. The discussion flowed form there and we had an hour discussion about religion. A lot of people posed difficult questions, questions I didn’t have answers to. Even though I didn’t have the answers, we had a really great dialogue between all of us.

I know this discussion doesn’t resemble the typical house bible study, but I feel like I need to take baby steps and my house needs to take baby steps before I feel comfortable incorporating scripture. I will keep praying for God to work through me in my house and I appreciate any prayers from people reading this. If you are reading this and are in a similar situation as I was, I would love to talk to you. I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel great about where my house is right now and I think this Spring will be a great opportunity for me to continue sharing the word of God.

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.

As I set off for Greek Conference this year, I was full of anticipation. It has always been a powerful experience for me and I was ready to see what God had in store this year. Four students from the University of Texas would be joining me… the first EVER! Analeise, Hannah, Emily and Caitlyn entered the weekend anxious for what it might hold and left empowered to reach each of their sororities.  The students shared their first adventure as they trekked to Arby’s in the 13 inches of snow and uncleared sidewalks. They also enjoyed building a snowman during free time, while the other Midwest students stayed inside. As well as bonding the students were transformed this weekend in an irreversible way. In the training time, Caitlyn felt like she learned about “common scenarios that a Greek student would be presented with such as drinking, relationships, and sex. I learned what God would really want me to do in these situations, not what our world tells us is right.” Analeise and Emily studied about how to lead a bible study in their sororities. Emily stated after conference, “I used to think that being in a sorority was something to be ashamed of in front of my Christian friends, and being a Christian was something to be ashamed of in front of my Greek friends.  However, this conference has showed me that I am one of the lucky and privileged few who can be so ridiculously close with so many non-Christian girls and that I could be able to show them Christ’s love through even the smallest of actions or shortest of conversations.” After the conference the students are ready to be a community and reach the Greek system together.

Christine started a house ministry in Alpha Phi the next year, and shortly after became our largest sorority ministry. Her leadership led to the fast growth, and by the end of the year, Alpha Phi had become a strong sorority ministry.

The next summer, Christine and I would not be in much air conditioning as I would spend a summer with her in Cairo serving among the poor. A moment that is frozen in time in my head was when we served an elderly widow who had been rejected by her family, lost everything to robbers, and had no one but God to provide for her. As Christine and I were both moved by her faith in Jesus, as she would be so thankful to have her needs met every day, We walked out together and tears were in our eyes and we realized that we had deeply experienced the presence of God.

Christine would continue to see God’s power realized around her as she faithfully prayed and witnessed to one of her closest sisters in the sorority who was clearly far from God. At Greek Conference, she and I and two other student leaders prayed together for this woman who was clearly wrestling with God. As we prayed, the tears flowed from our eyes as the Holy Spirit was revealing to us the depth of her pain and we prayed that God would deliver her.

Christine’s sorority sister became a Christian that day, a true miracle as we saw God’s saving power on display for us to see firsthand.

It was natural that Christine would become president of Greek IV her senior year – the selection team was unanimous in that decision. As we worked together, the potential that so many had seen became realized in full. My favorite moments as a staff are when I see students leading and I can step into the background and celebrate them becoming the disciples and leaders Jesus calls them to be. Christine was leading and discipling women, as well as bringing a new emphasis on prayer to the Greek ministry at NU. Her presence will not be easily forgotten.

Christine and I were sitting reflecting on our friendship over the years, and she said to me, “Andy, you believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.” As tears welled in my eyes as I reflected on her words, I paused and how much greater God is to have believed in us when were weren’t worth believing in because of the sin that kept us from him and continues to destroy our world.

The privilege of ministry to students is walking alongside them as they become what they never dreamed they could be, believing in them as God believes that broken people can be healed to change the world. Would you pray for more students to believe and walk in obedience the path of following Jesus?