“I’m tired of making excuses,” Jason told me last week.

I met Jason over a year ago, during the second week of his freshman year at UC Davis.  After following up numerous freshmen who indicated they were interested in getting involved in a bible study or talking more about spiritual things, Jason was one of the more intriguing people I met with.  He had hardly any spiritual background and new hardly anything about Jesus.  However, he realized something was missing in his life.  He had decided that when he got to college, he would investigate a religion, and somehow decided that that religion would be Christianity.  As I met with Jason, I realized he was essentially saying, “Educate me!”  While Jason and I continued to meet up frequently to talk over his questions, he also started attending numerous Christian events on campus with different college ministries.

Jason and his family had placed a big emphasis on academics.  His main goal was to do well in school.  So, while he was thoroughly investigating Jesus and the nuances of Christianity in his spare time, his search would take a backseat when there was a homework assignment to do or when exams came up.  He had to do well at school.  He definitely had his priorities.  It continued this way all throughout his freshman year.  Yet, and the end of the school year, he had a fairly good understanding of who Jesus is.  He still wasn’t ready, however, to fully place his trust in Jesus and surrender; he felt he needed to do more research.

Jason began to see how his academic drive and his need to do more research were both excuses that kept him from placing his trust in Jesus.  He saw this theme of making excuses come up again and again in his life.  “I’m tired of making excuses,” he told me.  At last, he had decided to take the plunge.  After a year of investigating and still not knowing everything, a few weeks ago Jason finally decided to surrender his life to Jesus at a fall retreat!

Jason is now learning what it means to follow Jesus daily.  He desires to be grounded in his faith and consistently walk with God.  Yet, he has a fear that he will repeat his tendency to make excuses and somehow fall away from Jesus.  I’m thankful that God has the power to keep those who belong tom him.  I showed Jason the following verse and am praying it for him:

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…” – Jude 24

Thank you for your partnership in reaching students like Jason with the gospel!

Prayer Requests

Thank God for his work in Jason over the past year.  Thank him for placing within Jason the desire to seek out truth.  Pray that Jason is grounded in his faith and continues to place following Jesus above everything else.

Thank God for working in the lives of our juniors and seniors at our recent Crossroads conference.  They were challenged to live fully for God wherever they go after they graduate and were given practical tools to make an impact.  Pray for discernment in their upcoming life decisions.

Pray for our upcoming Winter Conference (Dec 28 – Jan 1).  Every year, God uses this conference in so many ways in the lives of our students.  Pray that God would place it on the heart of freshmen to attend.

Pray for Carmen, the searching student that Cameron was meeting with this summer, who is currently in Rome.