This fall, I’ll be starting my third year in College Station with OCCM and it certainly has been an interesting three years of college. Going into college, I was told something that really made me think about my spiritual life: “You either leave college more spiritual or less spiritual. You never stay the same as when you came in.” No matter how many times you try and reassure yourself that you’re okay and unquestionably strong in your faith, I was terrified. What if moving away from a church that almost always had something to do every day of the week meant I would completely lose interest? I tried my best to tell myself that everything would be fine, but a part of me just wasn’t satisfied.
Fast forward to actually starting my first year, and so far everything was running smoothly. I was keeping up with my classes, going to Bible studies, and surprisingly maintaining a good social life, as well. But as time went on, college got to me, as it does with every other student. I got stressed and worried and my priorities started getting out of order. Prayer and reading the Bible came second to everything else in my life as long as I still had other things to do. During my first year of college, my brother and I were in different cities, which was pretty rough. I didn’t have my twin to balance me out like I’d had for the past 18 years, so I was in a rut.
If I didn’t have OCCM, I probably would have stayed in that rut. But they stepped up. They notice when someone is down or in need of encouragement. They would text me, check up on me, come and visit me, and just stay with me. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was all I needed to get back on my feet. College Station has a strong group of students who are all very close together. We all check up on each other and help each other get through whatever comes our way. But most of all, we pray for each other. We all know that God is the only healer and fixer of problems, which is another reason we’re able to help each other out, because we keep God in the center of it all. In all that we do, we remind each other that God is the one thing that stays constant in our lives no matter what. Our campus ministry is one of the only reasons why I kept remembering that and I’m glad I did.
