“Sarah was quiet and reserved when I first met her,” says Greg Sovereign, CCO staff member at Arcadia University. “She now emcees our Thursday night gatherings, and she recently started a new community dinner initiative at her home church. She came in with a lot of compassion and a lot of hope, but she didn’t know how to channel it. Through her time in the ministry, she has learned how to go into the world equipped with her faith and live out her call to compassion in the lives of the hurting and marginalized.”

Click here to read how God is transforming Sarah to transform the world.

“When I first started college, my relationship with God was based on my parents’ faith,” says Allan Irizarry-Graves. “Now, it is based on my own personal faith in him.”

Allan credits his involvement in the CCO’s ministry at Youngstown State University with helping him to grow deeper in understanding what it means to follow Jesus Christ. He met CCO staff member Garret White through a friend during the fall semester of his senior year, and since then, he has faithfully attended the weekly CCO meetings and spent one-on-one time with Garret, digging deeper into God’s Word.

“Allan lives out his faith in real ways,” says Garret. “Recently, he was hanging with friends at a restaurant in the city, and he was approached by a homeless person. Allan did not send him away with money, but bought him some food. Allan and his friends have spent time around the projects in Youngstown praying with folks and sharing their faith.”

Allan recently attended his first Jubilee conference, and he says the conference “has revived my relationship with Christ. What I took home from Jubilee is to allow God to affect every aspect of my life.” He has also applied and been accepted to participate in the CCO’s summer-long student leadership program, the Ocean City Beach Project, during the summer of 2012.

Allan is also grateful for his friendship with Garret. “I have been truly blessed by the wisdom and encouragement Garret provides on a constant basis. I have seen my relationship with Christ grow on so many different levels since becoming a part of the CCO.”

When he first met Allan, Garret observed that he had a heart for ministry, and he has encouraged Allan to apply to work for the CCO. “Allan has grown in his understanding of how God does not just want our spiritual times, but our everything. I have seen him begin to see that God wants all of his heart and to propel him further into a life of purpose in Christ.

“Allan exhibits a heart that is sold out to Christ. He sees the world as created by God, as a place for him to dive into, with scripture being his foundation for how he interacts with the world. There is a heart in Allan that is trying to align with God’s heart and righteousness.”

“If I had not connected with Garret and the CCO, I think I would have been a lukewarm Christian,” Allan says. “I don’t think I would be trying to live holistically, for Christ.”

Eric first attended the CCO-sponsored Late Night Christian Fellowship at Kent State University when he was invited by “the girl of his dreams” and current wife, Shanna, to participate in Late Night’s fall retreat. “At first I resisted, as I was a proclaimed atheist at the time,” Eric remembers. “However, I attended and witnessed for the first time a community of people that lived out their faith and cared about the outcast. I decided to stay, and God worked through those people to bring me back to Him.”

Between the Late Night community and the Jubilee conference, Eric found himself on a new path. “I attended Jubilee two years in a row, and both experiences changed my life. I found a large group of people that cared deeply about scripture. I began to explore ways in which I could be involved in God’s justice where I was at. I became convinced that I could make a major difference for the Kingdom through my music and through my career as a teacher. I did not have to be a missionary or a priest. God had a plan for me where I was at. I just had to be willing. This fundamental truth has shaped my decisions and the way that I have lived my life since.”

Today, Eric and Shanna are married and continue to live in Kent, where they are pursuing master’s degrees, working as teachers, and pursuing their music as members of the band Bethesda.

“Bethesda is a labor of love,” Eric says. “Shanna and I began writing music, and at the Vineyard Community Church, we met our other three members and began to write songs together. We discussed what we wanted to be about, and our understanding of God’s presence in art and his desire to be at the center of our entire lives was a great influence on these discussions. These are truths that were revealed to us within the community of Late Night.

“We named ourselves ‘Bethesda’ because we wanted to be a pool of healing and committed to being willing to go into the dark places where God has called us to be a part of bringing about that healing. We write about God’s work in our lives. We try to portray an honest picture of the hardships and the hope we have. We feel called to bring hope to the places where brokenness rules out. We feel blessed to be able to share this music and feel convicted to spread hope through song.

“Three and a half years later, we have written three albums born out of our collective experiences of God’s grace. We just finished a tour, released a new album, are releasing a new music video, completed a radio campaign and just signed contracts of licensing with 13 televisions shows. We are humbled by this recent success and know that God will continue to work through us in whatever capacity. We are just happy to be doing what we love!”

Eric points back to his involvement in CCO ministry as the foundation for how he lives his life today. “I strive to live an others-centered life,” he says. “I choose to write music because God has a story to tell, and I want to be willing to tell it in any way I knew how. I became a teacher because God is calling me to demonstrate his care to these kids that he has placed in my care. I remain in Kent because God has big plans for this town and we are a part of that. We take this very seriously and pray that God continues to reveal his will and help us bend to it.

“I am convinced that God has had me exactly where I need to be at exactly the right time. Late Night was a willing group of people that loved on me and shared the gospel with me. It’s as fundamental as that.”

Experience Peru is a 21-day service and adventure trip. Through serving in local villages, trekking through small farming and weaving communities and visiting historic landmarks like Machu Picchu, students will encounter the culture, history, politics, economy, and outdoor environments of Peru.

As they experience life in Peru, they will explore God’s design for relationships—relationships with God, with people of other cultures and races, with creation and with themselves. They will spend time learning about who God is, how He calls us to respond to issues of injustice, poverty, diversity and racial relations, and who we are as His beloved children, created in His image.

The students will return to the United States on June 1. Follow their journey as they take turns contributing to the Experience Peru 2012 blog.

And please pray for the Experience Peru 2012 participants:

• Tyler Charles, Bobbi Perkins, and Sam Van Eman,
  CCO staff instructors
• Joshua, Brookdale Community College
• Sarah, John Carroll University
• Hannah, Juniata College
• Makena and Mimi, Ohio Wesleyan University
• Christina, Dana, and Jenny, University of Pittsburgh
• Richie and Samantha, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
• Emilee and Jessica, Slippery Rock University
• Andrew, Waynesburg University

“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. 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.”

Click here to read Sarah’s story.

Tim Hessels was raised in the church, but once he turned 18, he stopped going, because “I didn’t have to anymore.” When he began his freshman year at Penn State, Tim says, “I was really into the party scene. In college it’s easy to stray away, with all that goes on.”

The transformation started over the summer and into his sophomore year. “The summer after my freshman year, I felt God pulling me back,” Tim says. “When I came back to campus, I got connected to CCO and got an idea for what it means to live out the Christian life. I learned to apply my faith to what I’m studying and caring about the people I’m around, day to day.”

Click here to find out how God is transforming Tim to transform the world.

“Sarah was quiet and reserved when I first met her,” says Greg Sovereign, CCO staff member at Arcadia University. “She now emcees our Thursday night gatherings, and she recently started a new community dinner initiative at her home church. She came in with a lot of compassion and a lot of hope, but she didn’t know how to channel it. Through her time in the ministry, she has learned how to go into the world equipped with her faith and live out her call to compassion in the lives of the hurting and marginalized.”

Sarah Kistenmacher first connected to the CCO’s ministry at Arcadia when she decided to participate in a small-group study during her first year. Because she is a commuter student, it wasn’t until her sophomore year, when she began to attend the large-group Thursday gatherings, that she and Greg got to know each other.

Since her sophomore year, Sarah has been very active in the ministry, and during her junior and senior years, she served a student leader, using her organizational skills to contribute to the events and fundraising team.

Besides her studies and involvement in the ministry on campus, Sarah volunteers with the Red Cross in her community, and she is very involved in her church. In February, she headed up the first-ever community dinner to be hosted by Lehman United Methodist Church. The idea was to provide a hot meal for hungry community members, and also to offer a fellowship opportunity. Fifty-five people showed up to the first dinner.

“I’m struck by Sarah’s grasp of how Christ is Lord of all things,” Greg says. “She takes seriously her commitment to her academics as a testimony to others. She has a solid biblical worldview and is burdened to join in the restorative work of Christ in her circles of influence—her campus, her church, her community.

“Sarah doesn’t view the community dinner she organized as simply something to put on her resume. She sees it as something that needed to be done, so she thoughtfully planned it out and then rolled up her sleeves and went to work!”

CCO staff members Kathy and Lamont both partner with Geneva College to reach out to students. Kathy serves as Director of Multicultural Student Services, and Lamont is Multicultural Student Services Coordinator, Director of The Academy.

When John started his freshman year at Westminster College, he was looking forward to the freedom that college life represented. “When I first got there, it was my first time on my own, away from the structured guidance of my family,” he remembers. Growing up in a small town, I could have run wild once I got to college. Who knows what would have happened had I not gotten to know upperclassmen who invited me to the fellowship group? I’m thankful that I got connected to Christians on campus as early as I did.”

Click here to read John’s story.