My Story (Part 7) - College Bound

Read Part 6

New friends.  A new start.  College!

Malone University campus

The very first thing that freshmen at Malone had to do was take a course before the other students arrived on "how to survive college."  It was also a way to force you to make some new friends.  To do that, they took us to a nearby camp for some team-building exercises.  I had to admit, there was one girl in this class who caught my eye from day one.  I just couldn't muster the nerve to talk to her.  Other guys didn't seem as shy to fight for her attention.  One thing led to another and she asked to sit with me on the bus trip back to campus.  I thought I would have a heart-attack right there!  We had a great time talking and I was now madly in love with her, but she had a boyfriend from high school.  Oh well.  I was quite happy to be friends.  I loved being around her.

As this first year of college went on, it was wonderful.  I made some wonderful new friendships and found new ways of serving the Lord.  I became active in the Spiritual Life Committee which planned spiritual growth opportunities for students, as well as working with the administration to hire a chaplain - something that would later be important.  My discipline of daily time with God was greatly tested, though as friends would knock on my door and try to get me to grab a pizza with them or any number of other activities.  Keeping up with it all was a struggle, but it was a good experience.

As I began taking courses towards my major in Christian ministry, I found some challenging new ideas that I was not prepared for.  Let's just say many of the professors had a liberal slant to them.  Who was i to debate them?  I began to be influenced, not on major points of doctrine, but other points where I have since come back to a conservative position (such as women in ministry, views of Genesis, and other matters).

As for the woman who had captured my heart on day one, well she had since ended her relationship with her high school boyfriend (to my delight), but was still not interested in dating me.  We continued, however, to be best of friends.

The first year had gone so well that I wanted to help other students in their first year.  So, I applied to be a Resident Assistant in my sophomore year (a pretty rare thing at that time).  To my surprise, I was accepted!  I went home that summer eager to get back to campus in the fall and start a whole new realm of ministry!

Read Part 8