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Heather Vozel

vozel_heather.jpgHeather Vozel’s experience with the CCO at Penn State University, she says, was “all about the relationships.”  Heather describes herself as having been totally away from God during her freshman year. A bunch of students who lived on her floor during her sophomore year were active in Christians in Action (CNA), part of the CCO’s ministry at Penn State. She was invited to and started attending Bible study with a friend and rededicated her life to Christ in October of that year.

Heather soon became active in leadership and participated in a leadership retreat the summer prior to her junior year. Staff members Becky Wainwright and Becki Laird joined the CCO, and Heather says they became really close and super important to her in her growth. She says that they did everything together—they ate breakfast together after church, and enjoyed really good community in that way. Heather lived with seven girls during her junior year, six of whom were active in CNA. She continues to be connected with friends from CNA and with Becky and Becki.

Participating in the Jubilee conference during her junior year gave Heather a glimpse of how she could use what she was learning to serve God and others. She started asking, “How does what I’m doing here at Penn State connect with other people?” Jubilee is the reason she started working with campus minister Greg Anderson and other students in planning a spring break mission trip to Belize. In their planning, the mission team became intentional about using what they were learning in college to serve others on their project. An elementary education major, Heather was able to work with other teachers in Belize. Nursing majors worked in a clinic. Some of the computer guys set up a computer lab at the school where they were working. Jubilee, she says, got them really going in a good way, using their gifts for other people.

After graduating from Penn State in 2004, Heather moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, and taught second grade for four years. Heather credits Becky Wainwright’s example in teaching her how to live her life and share her walk with others. Because of that example, Heather was able to answer a co-worker’s question about faith and God, especially after the shootings at Virginia Tech. Heather carries a note in her Bible from this friend, describing the impact she’d had in sharing her faith through her walk.

Heather is active in the running community in Lynchburg, having run 5k and half-marathon races. She serves as membership director for the Lynchburg Road Runners organization. At present, she is working part-time at a running store while also teaching part-time in a program called Art-on-the-Spot Education at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Heather participates at Blue Ridge Community Church in Forest, Virginia and also attends Holy Cross Catholic Church in Lynchburg with her fiancé. Through the ministry of the CCO, Heather says she has learned about and become more accepting of other kinds of church services and faith backgrounds.

Heather remains in touch with staff and friends she made through the CCO, describing them as “people who cared about you and what decisions you made.” Recently engaged, Heather says that the CCO’s ministry prepared her to make better decisions in her personal, family, and life decisions, including the decision about the right guy to marry. Through the CCO, says Heather, “I became way more aware of what faith was and what it meant to me.”