Anna really did not want Alex to join in on her 20th birthday skydiving adventure. Some other friends from her BCM at Kennesaw State University were “all in” on the jump. But Anna knew that Alex was not a believer and did not want to be responsible for a new friend’s early departure to an eternity without Jesus!
I meet with Anna and four other students every week in a discipleship group. Along the way they have learned how to share Christ through memorized Scripture and telling their story. Each student in the group is committed to sharing what they are learning with someone else. We pray specifically for the students with whom they are sharing and Alex was the person Anna prayed for regularly. Anna and Alex had become friends through their library jobs and Anna’s faith was very attractive to Alex. They had a lot of conversations and he began to attend BCM. He even joined in on our “At Home” Mission over Spring Break 2022 working on the BCM Center and in local churches. One day on our Spring Break Mission, I made the “mistake” of asking Alex to pray before lunch. He said sheepishly, “I’d rather not.” There was only awkward silence before I asked another to pray.
The next Saturday was “the Jump.” Two days before, as Anna and Alex were walking campus, Alex asked more questions about the Christian faith, specifically, what it meant to be baptized. Anna explained it was something you did after you put your faith in Jesus… just like she hoped sky diving would be!
That afternoon, on campus, praying with Anna by his side, Alex asked Jesus to forgive him and be the Lord of his life! Saturday, they took their leap!
The next week, before our BCM meeting, I apologized to Alex for asking him to pray during Spring Break. He said “Oh, that was fine. It helped me realize I did not know how or who to pray to!” Well, now he does.
Since then, Alex has shared with me that just last semester he was depressed, even suicidal. On the outside, Alex appeared to have his life together as he approached graduation, but his heart was dead. “And you were dead in your sins and transgressions…. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, has made us alive together with Christ…” Eph. 2:1-5 Now Alex is alive in Christ!
Alex has truly taken his “leap of faith!” And the Kennesaw State University BCM has a new evangelism strategy… it is called “Sky Diving Evangelism!”
[Anna Poole serves as BCM President at Kennesaw State University, Ken Jones is Campus Minister]
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