If I told you that 5 years ago, when we didn’t have a campus presence at
SPU (Seattle Pacific University), that it wasn’t an ideal place to begin a campus ministry, many
people would have agreed. I saw many efforts made to help start a
ministry there in the past and there were times when I began to doubt
whether we would ever see a campus presence of disciples. It’s a small
college that has deep religious traditions, which makes bringing in new
ideas and approaches to Christianity difficult. Many thought it might
take a full time intern on the campus to provide the students with daily
leadership and direction. And most obviously, there were many
complexities of starting a campus ministry in a school where many
students and faculty might feel threatened or offended by the
differences in our perspectives on conversion, baptism and practical
Christianity.
Today there
are 13 brothers and sisters at SPU (and 16 in their two bible talks),
thanks to a series of little miracles that helped us see a restoration
of biblical relationships and faith lived out there.
The first
miracle was that we had children that grew up in our group of churches,
who decide to attend school there: Ali Winje, Audrey Hoffner and
Fabricio Turcious were among the first. Ali Winje was the first
disciple to start attending classes at SPU. With a scholarship to
play soccer, she was all alone her Freshman year and really fought hard
to stay faithful, having to attend a UW Bible Talk and be a part of a
ministry on the other side of Montlake. The next year, Audrey Hoffner
enrolled at SPU. Fabricio enrolled the folllowing year, and brought a
lot of faith and a strong desire to start a ministry. With Fabricio,
Ali and Audrey together, the 3 of them formed a cohesive core group that
made the Bible Talk attractive to other students. Along with Jake
Tacher and Hannah Templer, who attended different schools,
we finally had enough students to start an SPU Bible Talk. And if one
of those pieces was missing, I doubt it would have worked.
The second
miracle was the City Region purchasing the Queen Anne building.
Situated less than a half mile up the hill from SPU, the Queen Anne
Church building provides a very inviting and welcoming place for SPU
students to worship. I think the stability and permanence of the
building has made evangelism at that school a little easier because
students come and see something familiar, a permanent place to worship
and grow in their faith. The Queen Anne building is a place where they
can have events, watch movies, hold dances, pray all night and of
course, worship on Sundays. The city region of the Seattle Church
sacrificed in dollars, and the SPU ministry is reaping in souls being
saved.
The final
miracle was the conversion of strong spiritual men: Aaron Badilla, Jens
Brenestead and Brian Fisher were the first three brothers converted
there, and they have all grown into faithful, spiritual leaders who have
helped convert other strong men of character. They use their talents
by leading Bible talks and small groups on that campus, outreach, and
even singing and performing on Sundays. Those brothers have provided a
sense of stability and maturity beyond their years and have opened a
door that has made it safe for other students to follow.
This
past week, in sub freezing temperatures, Josh Heinke was baptized into
Christ at Golden Gardens. Josh was the 16th SPU baptism in the past 2
years! The whole moment was pretty overwhelming for me, so I stayed
afterward and prayed. When I closed my eyes, all I could think of was
Jesus’ words to his disciples, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you
see.” Luke 1O. So many
of us have longed to see something like this, a vibrant ministry at
SPU. I believe that SPU is the largest campus ministry at a faith based
school in our movement of churches. What an incredible blessing for us
to see God working like this, and I pray that the miracles happening
here can inspire faith in students on other difficult and hard to reach
campuses.
