The Faith of Cain

Our best witness to "yet-to-believers" is the way we live in relationship with Jesus Christ. Walking up to someone on the street and asking them, "Are you washed in the Holy blood of the Lamb," is not an effective way to witness. If we are a follower of Christ then we are a witness of his grace. How well we testify of our witness to his grace is another question. We don't witness by acting like a Christian. We witness by BEING like Christ. Of course God will provide us with opportunities to share our testimony with others based on the witness of our lives. I have recently been talking with a resident in my dorm that has had a lot of questions about, "Why Jesus?" I have been sharing my personal relationship and even the struggles that I have because the relationship is not always a bed of roses. I have been trying to make myself more real to him. "Yet-to-believers" put Christians in a box that describes them as all thinking they are better than everyone else and I want this person to know that I or any other Christian are no better than anyone else. It's my prayer that God will give me more opportunities to share with him and that he will discipline me in witnessing His grace.

I came to accept Christ as my savior when I was 11 years old at a vacation bible school. I knew for a while who Jesus was and what he had done for me but didn't know what happened next. During vacation bible school I found my opportunity. I went to the front and ask Jesus to save me. Years later I would understand my faith much more. Yes, I had made Jesus savior of my life when I was 11 but it wasn't until I was 19 that I made him the Lord of my life. For eight years I tried to control my life and failed miserably. When I surrendered my life to Christ my life was changed. I had a passion and wanted Christ to be the biggest thing in my life. I wanted a relationship with my Lord and my Father. I needed the peace of his grace that I had missed for so many years. I was of course baptized after my first Christ experience but have now came to understand more of what it means. Jesus is amazing and what's more amazing is that he would use someone like me, a sinner, and let me help in his kingdom. Jesus is teaching me more and more about the most important thing, love, everyday. I ask Him to teach me to love and ask Him for new burdens and passions and to renew them daily.

I am a student at Berea College, a small liberal arts college in Kentucky. I am an Education major but I don’t plan on teaching in the classroom after I leave Berea but rather I believe I’m called to go to seminary. As I know I need more biblical and pastoral training. I expect that some day God will give me the opportunity to pastor a church somewhere as for fulfilling that call right now, I know that I should seek more training and discipleship. I come from a family of four. My parents have been married for almost 25 years and are still living in the area where I grew up as a child. I have a younger sister who is 18 and is now starting to drive and look for a college to attend. (It’s pretty scary!) My family has lived pretty close together all my life. I always had a cousin to play with growing up and my grandmother was close by and plenty of aunts and uncles to look after me. My parents have worked hard all their lives. My dad went to a vocational school after high school and went into auto mechanics and my mother for almost 20 years worked at a clothing factory in the nearest town. All this is to say that my family has been and is still today very poor. If it hadn’t been for Berea’s free tuition and lots of federal aid I would have never been able to go to school. Now my mom has gone back to school and is currently seeking a job. The factory closed a few years ago and it made available to her money to receive more training in any field she chose. She seems so happy now that’s she’s finished but disappointed she cannot find a job. Meanwhile my dad is working a job that is not stimulating at and he doesn’t like it. Still we are working off of his income and while we always have food and clothes neither are the nicest that money can buy. I have learned to be really thankful though. I’m very thrifty and try to take care of the things that I do have. Berea has helped me so much in many different ways but it’s always been a big deal for me to surrender myself to ministry because pay is not the highlight of this blessing. On my own I could never raise the finances but there always seems to be a way.

I have some leadership skills. I love teamwork and have depended a lot on the work of others to accomplish objectives. I believe that I’m skilled at managing people and their skills and talents. I have vision for projects and I’m very creative. I love problem solving, especially if I get to work with other people. I’ve had some conflict resolution training as well as many group experiences in which I played lots of different roles. I am a singer but not necessarily a performer. I sing Baritone and I really like tight harmony (I’m a big fan of barbershop music). I was on a team over the summer that did a lot of drama and mime and singing and we did a lot of interstate travel and had many wonderful experiences. I also have some experiences with puppets and children. Wow, puppets can be a real effective teaching tool when you’re with children. I never knew! When I was younger I was in the Boy Scouts of America. I learned a lot from my experience there. Aside from my top life experience (salvation) I would say that scouting has impacted me in ways that I don’t understand. I learned a lot of ethics and values from my days in scouting. My character grew and developed into that of a mature young man. It built in me tactics for handling many situations and taught me survival and first aid, many of which I find myself using from time to time.

I know my life will reflect the decisions that I make towards service. I believe that service is what I want to be about. First though I should have love and understanding for my fellow brothers and sisters. I want my leadership to be a drive for change and renewal rather than a hindrance. I want to grow and learn so much that service comes natural. I find that if I commit myself to this service it will be a lifetime decision. It will be so much a part of me and I a part of it that we will be inseparable. I want to give my life to Christ. I don’t want it to be my own. There are so many other things in life that I want to pursue but nothing takes the place of my number one commitment to Christ.