The atmosphere was rough. I stood there in the middle of Jester lobby, home to about 4000 college students and one of the biggest dorms in the country and I couldn’t help but feel slightly defeated. My good friend Sabrina Robertson, campus minister from Every Nation Campus Ministries, and I had been standing there trying to share the gospel with students but to no avail. No one wanted to give us the time of day. No one wanted to listen.
Finally we decided maybe we should just move to a different part of campus and try again. So we gathered up our things and made ready to leave when we saw him. He looked just like any other college guy, casually walking towards us with his sling bag tossed over one shoulder. Nothing out of the ordinary, but still, something made me decide to try one last time.
“Hey, do you have some time to talk with us about spiritual things?”
“Spiritual things huh? Hmm… okay, sure, why not?”
And just like that, we had an opening. Sabrina and I launched straight into a conversation with him, asking questions, sharing stories and all the while silently praying for God to move on our behalf. He seemed skeptical at first, but then something seemed to click and before we knew it, he was bowing his head in prayer to receive Jesus in his life.
As Sabrina prayed with him, I looked up and realized a crowd had gathered to watch and listen to our conversation. People surrounded us, even above us, leaning over balconies to hear what we were saying. They were different people, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, but the look they had on their faces was one and the same, and could only be described as this – hunger. They were yearning for something more. And I knew in an instance what they wanted.
“Do you want Jesus too?”
There wasn’t even time for an audible answer. Students just swarmed towards us, almost like a flood rushing forth from a cracked open dam. Sabrina and I looked at each other, and I could see the gleam of excitement in her eyes. We dropped out bags and got ready. The time had come. Game on.
And then I woke up.
A Message to Be Shared
As you’ve probably realized by now, that story I just told was a dream that I had recently, last Monday to be exact. And yes, while I realize this didn’t actually happen, what if the story behind this is that it just hasn’t happened yet?
Would it be so hard to believe that you could walk onto one of the largest college campuses in the world and share the gospel with one person and suddenly see God sweep a whole bunch of students into His kingdom in an instant? I don’t just think it’s believable, I think it’s entirely possible, and I think that’s what God desires to happen on all our college campuses in this nation. The question is then, how do we begin to see this sort of thing realized? It’s simple really. It starts with us.
Beautiful Feet
This month at The University of Texas, campus ministries are uniting together in an unprecedented mass gospel sharing project. From Monday through Friday, 10am to 7pm during the whole month of February, we’re sending out teams of students on campus to share the gospel with as many people as possible.
Known as the “Beautiful Feet” project, we’re aiming to not just talk about the great commission, but live it out by actively taking the gospel to whoever will listen to us. Is it a little crazy? Maybe. I do realize this conjures up the image of masses of Christians swarming the campus like ants, but perhaps that’s just the kind of radical thing God wants us to do.
And 5 days into it, we’re seeing lots of really cool things happen. 3 people have come to Christ, several have rededicated their lives back to God, and several more have agreed to study the bible together with the people they spoke with! My point today? The gospel is something that every Christian should be actively trying to share with the people around them, whether it’s their friends, family, classmates, co-workers or that random person on the street.
Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2) The problem is not so much that people aren’t willing to listen, it’s that we need more people out there willing to talk to them! So my encouragement to you? Go out there and just go it! (Think Nike). And then watch God work in your midst.
And as for me? You can bet I’ll be out there at Jester with Sabrina some time this month. And maybe, just maybe, my dream will come through too.
“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Romans 10:14
Kimberly Chung is the National Media Director for Campus Renewal Ministries, a ministry focused on forging partnerships in prayer to build missional communities that transform college campuses with the gospel of Jesus. She is a campus minister to The University of Texas at Austin and can be reached at kim@campusrenewal.org