Why I'm not mad waiting for Lex.

Right now I am sitting in the bottom of a dinghy parking garage at Michigan State, in the middle of a snowstorm, waiting for my sister. And actually I am pretty happy to be sitting here.


Let me explain.

My lovely sister Lex is a freshman at Michigan State University and she has been planning on coming home for a long weekend (MLK day Monday) this weekend. I volunteered weeks ago to come up to East Lansing and get her on Thursday night. I came up after work (through the snow storm – in our awesome Explorer), and because of that snowstorm I texted Lex and told her I didn’t want to dilly daddle around East Lansing, like we are known to do. I didn’t want her to go to Real Life – Campus Crusade’s weekly meeting- that I just wanted to get headed home. She texted me back that she is so sorry but could I please wait for her to go to Real Life. Ugh. But then she explained, not just because she is awesome and loves Jesus and wants to see her friends and worship. Nope, because she invited a girl from her teaching class last semester, and this was going to be her first time coming, and that she didn’t want to ditch her. That she wanted to help her new little friend get plugged into this awesome ministry, and hopefully come to know Jesus, and that makes me excited. I am not sitting here waiting for my little sister to get done with thirsty Thursday (where I am sure a good chunk of the campus is), but to get done with worshiping Jesus and sharing life with other college kids smack dab in the middle of this (very) secular University.

To see her thrive, and grow in huge ways in her relationship with Jesus is such a testimony. I see so many high school Christian’s not want to go to a big, pagan university like MSU, because they fear they would not grow as Christian. That makes me sad. Mark and both grew more in our relationships with Jesus at MSU through campus crusade than I think any other four year period of time in our lives. We were both discipled by strong, faithful leaders, and taught so much. We learned how to worship, serve, share the gospel with others, have an intimate relationship with God, date for the glory of God, our identity, theology, how to live our lives in non Christian environments and most importantly more about Jesus. We both met some of our best friends, and MSU is where Mark actually made the decision to follow Jesus. I look at my sister Lex, and right now she has one roommate who is Indian, and never heard the gospel, as well as a roommate (and another girl on her floor) from Vietnam. Those two girls both came right from Vietnam and will probably go back there after they graduate. They have never seen a bible, heard the gospel, or been to church. Lex gets to share Jesus and the gospel with them, as well as show them love and grace each day. She got to buy a bible for both of the girls who had never seen one, teach them how to look up verses, and bring them to bible study. God willing, they will come to know Christ and be able to go back to their countries and tell people about Jesus.

So, no, you do not have to have a jaw dropping testimony on your application to get to into Michigan State University, and yes, there are a lot of parties here. But, God is moving. God is using Christ followers in this place to rise up future leaders, and change people’s hearts for Jesus. And now I have to go pick up my little sister Lex and hear of the awesome things God is doing in her life.

-Brittany