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Sarah Brieschke

brieschke_sarah.jpg“The CCO ministry gave me a base, a home community, somewhere I could be challenged and grow and be pushed, but also completely relax, let my guard down and be taken care of,” says Sarah Brieschke. “Having that foundation allowed me to take chances in my school work and in athletics and to talk to people about my faith I maybe wouldn’t have otherwise. If I wasn’t sure what to say next, I could ask someone in Bible study.”

Sarah first connected to the CCO’s ministry at Kenyon College during her freshman year, when she attended an introduction to campus ministry event. She came out of a strong high school youth group and hoped to find that kind of community at college. There were several Christian groups on campus, but she was drawn to the model of ministry that the CCO offered.

“I might have found a Bible study or attended a retreat with another ministry, but there was a completeness about the CCO’s ministry at Kenyon,” she says. Sarah attended fellowship group meetings and participated in, and eventually led, Bible studies and small groups. CCO staff members encouraged her to get involved in community service opportunities. She met one-on-one with Chris White for mentoring, enjoyed “girls’ nights” with Jessika White, and she attended the Jubilee conference all four years.

“Jubilee was phenomenal,” Sarah says. “It was such an encouragement to see so many college students who were that passionate about their faith and others who were wanting to learn more. It was a breath of fresh air to see so many people dedicated to figuring out the intersection of faith and their studies, what it means to be a Christian and a student, a Christian and an athlete. I learned that I need to put God first, that He will take care of all of my needs.”

After her 2007 graduation, Sarah moved to Boston, Massachusetts to work in Ford’s regional sales office, a job she loved. Another casualty of a struggling economy, Sarah’s job came to an end in February 2009, and she is currently searching for another one. She is grateful for the assurance she has that God will take of her in this situation as well.

“The CCO definitely helped me make a transition from living at home and having faith to living on my own at college and making that faith my own,” she says. “I pursued a business career right out of school, and I felt confident that I could serve God that way. It’s not campus ministry and it’s not missions, so how does it work to be a Christian and a business person? The ministry gave me courage and confidence to move to a new job in a new city and figure it out.”

“The CCO also helped me figure where to go to church. I remember Chris and Jessika talking to me about the difference between finding a church that serves you and a church where you can serve. Because of that, I ended up going to First Lutheran Church in Boston, a smaller church than the one everyone else I knew was going. I thought I might have something to offer.”

Sarah points back to one of the Jubilee conferences she attended as inspiration to live her life in service to God. “I remember [keynote speaker] Lakita Garth calling us to be at the gatekeepers of the cities and be in places where we could be influential and help make important decisions. It was a message about opportunity. I decided that if I wanted to pursue business, I should pursue it to the glory of God and do all I can to serve God in that setting.”

Sarah views her college years as the time she learned to live out her faith with others, a sort of dress rehearsal for the life she’s leading now. “The people that I’ve met who work with the CCO are so passionate about their work,” Sarah says. “Seeing that much passion made me want to know more and more about them to understand what they were about. They are people that you want to know—if you met them on the street, you’d want to get to know them. It was a blast to be able to learn from and serve with them.”