STIM Quotes from Students

Students shared some of what was significant for them from our recent STIM conference. Listen to some of what happened for them in terms of identity, being outward-focused, and becoming convinced that God's real and can work in them:



“All my life I've defined myself through the things that I do…(but) God has slowly been breaking down my access to those activities and renewing the way I define myself. I want to be able to serve God…in anyway that He calls me to…and I hope that God will continue to show me more through LAUP"


“(At STIM) I…felt like I was being taught how to be peaceful and joyful no matter what situation…LAUP (will be) a time to focus on the people I am serving and not myself no matter what I am going through.”


“(God) spoke to me by reminding me to remember to use my spiritual gifts and to be myself for this project, and not try and be someone else.”


“I ended up having to miss part of the STIM conference because of a school project…I was feeling let down by God because he didn’t let me go to the whole conference…I also had a lot of lingering doubts and fears about doing LAUP because the living conditions would be uncomfortable. I’ve also been going through this huge phase of worrying about the rest of my life, and what I would do if God called me to give up having a comfortable home, etc. I thought that this summer would be the most I would be willing to give up. After this, I thought, I would not be willing to give up another summer or anything bigger. Then (after hearing) all these really cool testimonies about how God spoke to (people) directly through dreams or through other people…I was thinking, “Well, God speaks to other people that way, but not me, because there must be something wrong with me. God just doesn’t like me enough to speak to me.” Then during the worship session I was thinking about all these things, and thinking maybe I should get prayer, when my leader (who was sitting next to me) turned to me and said “God wants to tell you that He really loves you and that this summer is going to be a really good and transformative experience for you and that it’s going to affect the rest of your life,” which was exactly what I needed to hear. I knew for sure that that was from God as soon as she said it, as it addressed every single one of my concerns and was really comforting about all of them. Not only that, but it showed that God did speak to me through other people, which I had been doubting.”