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Michael Meulstee

meulstee-mike-longhairme.jpg“I first attended Jubilee in 2007, and that was the year that really changed my life,” says Michael Meulstee. “I had been a Christian for years, but I had not had an active relationship with Christ. Going to Jubilee was most definitely the single act that brought me back to Christ and will always remind me that, just when I think I’m too far away, he is there and will pull me back to him.”

During Mike’s sophomore year at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he was introduced to the CCO’s ministry on campus by friends who were attending the Jubilee conference. “I had not been actively searching for a fellowship whatsoever,” Mike says. “I view getting hooked up with the CCO as God calling me back to himself in a very direct manner.”

Once he was involved in the fellowship, Mike became very active in whatever ways he could. “At uArts, we have a very rigorous schedule of classes and outside class work, but I seemed to find time to attend Bible studies and faith and art discussions on a regular basis, and I attempted to mentor other students whenever I could. During my senior year, I shared the president position of our campus fellowship with another student; we planned events, meetings and all of the corresponding things that go along with the being the president of a university club.”

Today, Mike lives in his hometown of Brigantine, New Jersey, where he works as a freelance artist and illustrator and is searching for fulltime employment.

“A lot of my art deals with my struggles in faith and the comfort that my faith offers me,” Mike says. He continues to be grateful for the influence of the CCO on his life during college, especially as his faith has sustained him during this difficult season of job-hunting.

“When going to uArts, you’re really thrown into almost a too-much-to-handle situation, so having the ability to hang out with [CCO staff member] Yvonne Valenza, someone who was an artist and a Christian, was great,” says Mike. “One of the best things that happened was when Yvonne would hang in the studio and help us. That really made my experience as a student a great one—especially when she would show up with a baked good or something yummy as we were working!”

The Jubilee conference continued to be an important touchstone for the rest of Mike’s college career. He returned to Jubilee during his junior and senior years “with a whole different mind set. I came in looking to learn and really invest in what it meant to be a Christian and how it worked into my life.”

“Without the CCO’s ministry, I think my experience as a student would have been overwhelming and very much more stressful. The time I spent reconnecting to Christ and what it means to be a Christian is really helping me now, as a college graduate who cannot seem to find fulltime work. It’s still stressful and trying, but knowing that God does everything for a reason and has a plan for me and my life and honestly knowing what that means has given me a sense of comfort during this less-than-stellar time in my life.

“I just know, through the studies and the core of the CCO’s mission statement, that my faith is always with me, involved in everything I do. It really helps me make smart decisions in life. It has kept me from taking jobs or doing things that would normally seem like a good idea but are just not good in the long run.

“My time as a student involved in CCO ministry helped me in ways I couldn’t and didn’t know when I was still in college. I thank Yvonne and the rest of the CCO staff so much for being there, dealing with my sometimes difficult questions, and always being open and honest with their struggles.”