Campus Conversations

Yesterday and today a local church hosted GAP (Genocide Awareness Project) out on our campus. In a nutshell, it’s a very graphic display trying to get people to really think about abortion. The images are shocking, graphic, and highly emotional (at least for me). Many of our staff and students were out and about throughout the last couple of days trying to engage people in conversation around these horrific images. I think I watched a number of conversations of small pods of students going on for hours. I was amazed at how easy it was to engage students around such a highly controversial and volatile subject.

Set up near the display was a student group advocating genocide awareness in Darfur. This afternoon, another gal and I got into a conversation with Dustin, one of Darfur reps. What initially began by us asking him what he thought about the display and his pursuit to help the people of Darfur developed into an hour long conversation about his own quest to understand truth and Jesus for himself. He admitted that he didn’t want the “religion” of his parents – he wanted to make his own pursuit, even if that meant he came back to the beliefs of his parents.

Talking to him, I was reminded of me 14 years ago – a heart that was stepping out in faith and trying to figure out the faith that was, in a sense, mine and not my parents. That old memory made me hungry for that place, that freshness of faith pursuit once again. In some ways, I feel as I’m about to move on after 14 years, I’m there again. What have I learned that I need to keep? What needs to go? Will I be able to thrive out there on my own? What kind of woman will I become as a result of moving on?

I’m thankful that the Lord crossed my path with Dustin, today. Not just because I hope that our conversation sparked some new buds of truth, but because his quest and findings challenged me to see my own heart.