What Campus Ministry Did for Me

By Stefanie Rowe

Being a college freshman sounds easy enough. Sit in a hard classroom chair for 12 to 15 hours a week (half the commitment required in high school), study a little, work a part-time job if you wish, hang out, and have fun.

I”ve heard family and friends joke with college students about their “easy” schedule and lifestyle. “Stay out late, sleep in, and you can still make your first class at 11:00,” they say. “Your day is over at 2:30″”must be rough. How hard can History of Rock “n” Roll be anyway?”

NOT EASY

But for me, being a college freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wasn”t easy at all. People had been telling me all summer that the “best days” of my life lay ahead. But on my first day of classes, I felt the anxiety of riding a roller coaster, meeting my in-laws, and getting married all rolled into one. I remember praying through tears, “Lord, these just can”t be the best days of my life . . . can they?”

I had managed to get the “easy” schedule everyone dreams about, but that didn”t help me find a place to park or my classroom building (it was a good six blocks from the oversold parking lot). Nor did it explain the shuttle bus to the other campus. When I finally found the class, I didn”t know where to sit, who to sit by (everyone seemed already to have friends), or even if I was in the right room.

My first lecture hall seated more than 200″”more than my graduating class at McCook High School. My professor was a tiny dot in the front of the room. That shocked this small-town girl! I didn”t know how much to study or how to take this new breed of exams. An “A” student in high school, I was shattered when a huge, red “C” was at the top of my first exam. And this was just the academic spoke in the rolling wheel of my new life.

I was a good five hours from Dad and Mom, home-cooked meals, and the comfortable surroundings of my old room. Couple my homesickness with culture shock””a fairly liberal campus very open to underage drinking, homosexuality, coed living and sometimes coed sleeping””and I think you begin to get the picture.

That “easy” life everyone talks about””let me tell you from firsthand experience, it”s not. I was exhausted and emotionally drained most every day, even if I did get out of class at 2:30.

BIG DIFFERENCE

But I survived my freshman year. In fact, I thrived. I learned more about myself and my beliefs than in any other period of life so far. I dug deeper into my personal relationship with Jesus. I began making friends with people of all different backgrounds from all over the world. Undergraduate research projects fascinated me, and I became a leader in my degree program. What made the difference? I got plugged into a great campus ministry.

My campus ministers, Dan and Jenny, understood that before I could explore the claims of Christ or the teachings of Paul, I needed to figure out where the laundry room was and where to go for lunch on campus. I needed to talk about what I missed from home the most. I was lonely and scared and simply needed the hands of Jesus to reach out to me in a real way. Thanks be to God, that”s just what they did.

Through the campus ministry (Christian Student Fellowship) I grew much closer to Jesus, made friends for a lifetime, and had a lot of fun doing it. I will never forget how much fun it was to dress up for formals, plan and participate in spring break mission trips to Mexico, learn through weekly meetings, have late-night coffee, go on retreats. One time we even showed a movie on the side of the house I was renting! We hung an old sheet out the second-story window and invited friends and neighbors to watch a movie””drive-in theater style!

I remember when my roommate, Beth, and I hosted a college girls” small group Bible study. We learned so much about our purpose in life that year. But the best part was hanging out afterwards, talking about the week, offering encouragement, laughing, and occasionally crying.

My friends at CSF were the people I studied with and lived with; they were the ones who held me up during hard times, complained with me during finals, and celebrated with me on break. They helped hold me accountable to the faith and lifestyle I value most. When I graduated, they were so excited for me.

I love the people of CSF so much I even married one of them last summer!

Maybe you know someone who is college bound””a friend in the church, niece, nephew, son, or daughter. I can”t impress upon you enough the need for them to get involved in a strong campus ministry the first week of college. Encourage them to make that connection. It could make all the difference in the world for them. It did for me.

I”m a graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha now. That means I”ve been to college twice””and I wouldn”t change it for the world.

Scary? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. The “best days of my life”? Absolutely. I owe much of my “best days” to one fabulous campus ministry.

And for the record, I took History of Rock “n” Roll, and it wasn”t that easy at all.

 

 

Stefanie Rowe writes from Omaha, Nebraska.