Students’ Lives Making an Eternal Impact

Joanna (center) is a junior at Cal State Northridge, and a Christian involved with InterVarsity. Last year, she decided to become an RA in the campus dorms so that she could have the chance to share the love of God with students who didn’t know him. This past fall, she and one of our staff interns, Terrell, started a “gig”—a God investigation group (translation: a Bible study for folks who aren’t Christians)—in Joanna’s dorm. It began in a dorm room. As it grew, it moved to the dorm lounge. And as time went on, more and more students began coming.

When Joanna and Terrell (left) invited them to consider coming to Catalina island to explore a relationship with God at our Can This Wait conference, eight of them said yes, joining 47 other non-Christians at our conference. They spent their weekend bonding and having fun at Catalina, as well as discussing spiritual questions and hearing messages such as, “Who is Jesus” and “What does it mean to follow him?”

Saturday night of the conference, UCLA staff Sam Rizk gave a message about the great banquet parable from Luke, challenging students that they shouldn’t wait to make a decision of faith. Each student was given an RSVP to God’s banquet table, and at the end of the message, students were offered the chance to RSVP to God’s banquet, and give their lives to following Jesus. At the end of the night, six of those eight students in Joanna and Terrell’s gig walked to the front of the 100-person room, and gave God their RSVP. Ten others joined them, for a total of 16 new decisions of faith.

This past Sunday night, the InterVarsity staff at Northridge had to gather the InterVarsity students for their first ever emergency follow-up meeting because there were so many students who made new faith decisions, and needed help growing into their new faith. Joanna and the other students left the meeting ready to help their new brothers and sisters begin the basics of Christian faith...and with a whole new perspective on what God will do through them when they give him the chance.