Mathew's Story

I have always said I believe that I became a Christian in second grade because I remember very clearly, even to this day, having an inner dialogue during church where I thought to myself that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  So, I thought, I believe that Jesus was the one who died for my sins so that I could go to heaven.  Now this being second grade, it is what it is.  I don’t think that it was necessarily a situation where I understood exactly what those things meant or at least not to the degree of my understanding in college.

  In college I was playing bass guitar at my church’s college service and I realized that I was the only person who was playing an instrument that was not a piano/organ or a microphone.  I felt alone and I went back to my dorm room and a guy who played video games with me talked to me about a Campus Crusade needing a bass player that night.  I went to check it out and met Dave Roux.  Dave met with me and clarified a whole bunch of stuff that I knew to be true about my relationship with God and specifically Jesus, but was not crystal clear about what they really meant.  I actually prayed to receive the gift of salvation later that day because I didn’t grow up in a family where we prayed with someone and I wasn’t comfortable doing so.  But that spring afternoon in 1999 I was clear on what things meant about me, my relationship with God and Jesus and why I needed and wanted to belong to them, so that was my informed decision.  Since then I have consistently grown in my relationship with Jesus.  I am not saying that some periods were not slow going, but I have always sought out growth in our relationship.

My wife and I pursue growth through attending church, participating in a small group and surrounding ourselves with friends who look out for us and want to see us grow in this way.  We desire to get into the Bible as often as we can.  Recently God has been teaching me that I need to un-complicate the love I show to people I come in contact with.  What I show to others has to be real and genuine and uncomplicated by daily stuff.  On my own I can show generosity with strings attached, and share how “bad I’ve got it”, but the Spirit filled love is one where I can just listen to a customer or coworker and understand the path they are on, and meet them there with some of God’s love.

After being baptized in the Spirit, I ask the Spirit to fill me and take over.  Sort of prioritize me.  I can be saved but still be direction-less and not growing.  I can ask the Spirit to pray because I know not what I need to pray.  I ask the Spirit for guidance, discernment, wisdom, teaching, etc.  The Spirit will give gifts as I am filled, such as those that I mentioned.  The Spirit is then filling me up constantly though I must remind myself to keep asking the Spirit for everything or I know I will go back to doing things my way.

I have been involved in the church since I was in first grade.  I have participated in youth group from 4th grade up to high school.  We did community outreaches like serving meals to the elderly and the homeless.  In college with Campus Crusade for Christ we did a lot of different ministries.  I was in the worship team for 3 years and then lead the worship team for 2 years.  I went through student leadership training with Campus Crusade for Christ.  I worked with the Prayer Team ministry for a year.  I attended a weekend workshop with a Keynote band to better train us in our music ministry.  I participated in a summer project with Keynote receiving more training yet, where I learned more about music and effective ministry.  On summer project I played in a band and was assigned the role of road manager.

From helping serve meals to actually being able to drive meals to the needy myself the response was always the same.  Thankful but cautious.  Was I there to serve them because I genuinely cared or for status of my piety?  Even being a kid I had to ask my mom why the priest wanted to talk to the drunken smelly guy getting food at the church cafeteria.  That made me care for those people because I saw it was what God wants me to do.  In college, one of my roommates was somewhat opposed to the idea of God because of family influences and some faulty science.  I shared Jesus with him in several ways and we talked at length countless times but he never made a decision.  He would even go to bible study with me, church, Crusade weekly meetings, etc.  A few years later, while he was living with another guy who went to Crusade, he did make a decision for Christ during a bible study.  When my friend and this roommate told me, it was like I finally saw that my sharing had led to fruit though I thought it was all for not at the time.  At TCX conference we took meals out to families and tried to share a bit with them, but it didn’t seem like I was getting anywhere which was disappointing.  But when I arrived home and my mom and brother wanted to know about the conference, I felt I had to share Jesus with them for they did not know him personally.  My brother accepted immediately and then shared with his girlfriend, but my mother was and is still ever the skeptic.  When my dad was in the hospital with cancer and only months to live I shared with him about Jesus and his saving gift one last time.  He did not accept Jesus at that time but in a later conversation he told my mom that he was ready and that he did believe.  I can not say that he meant he accepted Jesus salvation but I really would like to believe it to be true because he passed away not long after.

I was involved with Campus Crusade from the spring of 1999 through the winter of 2003 as a student and then through the summer of 2007 as a volunteer.  Almost from the start I was involved in the worship team and stayed involved in the worship team in differing roles throughout.  In 2003 I worked with the prayer team in a capacity to bring some worship music into the weekly prayer meetings.  I went on a summer project with Keynote during the summer of 2003 and was involved with a band playing bass.

My wife and I have prayed about staff at length and sought wise council about the decision.  We set out to eliminate one hundred percent of our personal debt and God opened doors so that we were able to pay off over $60,000 in less than five years.  It also comes down to our passion is to serve the Lord.  The talents that my wife and I have are definitely suited to serve in a musical and production capacity.  Both of us strongly feel led by our talents and artistic inclinations to apply for Keynote.  I believe God so intertwined in me His love for music that it just comes out sometimes.  During my summer project, just being able to see how this ministry was able to connect with people who are not easily connected was a tremendous encouragement.  I have always felt a burden for reaching those who are called “hostile” and I think “hostiles” identify with certain types of music because they don’t identify with other things.  They express their feelings through certain types of music and do relate to others who express their feelings the same way.

I am the first of three sons born to parents who married in 1976 and remained married through my father’s death in 2007.  My mother was raised a Catholic, and my father was not religious.  My mother’s mother was also raised Catholic and her father was not religious.  However he accepted Jesus as his savior when I was in second or third grade and this is still a vivid memory for me.  My father’s mother was anti-God, anti-religion, anti-etc.  She threatened her two boys not to mess with it.  My father’s father was similar until his wife was sick, and he accepted Jesus while attending a Baptist church with his grandmother.  He also, shared Jesus with my dad routinely, and when he was dying he told my dad that he would be disappointed if my dad never knew Jesus.  This also had a deep effect on me.  All of my parents and grandparents were faithful in their marriages and never divorced, which has taught me the value of marriage, and family.  I am blessed though because all of my aunts and uncles on both sides are broken and mixed families.  My parents were the only ones who followed their parents’ values.  My relationship with my parents is great.  My mother is very much a part of our lives, and I miss my dad very much.  I have two brothers and have great relationships with them as well.  We have no children yet but would like to some day.  I have had several experiences that have shaped my life but one of the single most significant events is the period from when we found out my father had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma through his death and all things included.  My family has always been close, but we were pulled closer together by this horrible cancer.  We went through everything from melt down to riding high when Dad was in remission for the better part of a year.  We got closer as we spent months by his side in a 9x12 hospital room.  We all asked ourselves the hardest questions even about our purpose and what was really important.  We all came to the same conclusions but not everyone is taking the chance to change.  However my wife and I are forever changed.  My dad worked a job he liked but for a boss fought him constantly.  With still five years to early retirement he began a countdown of when he was eligible for his pension.  He was only 50 at the time, and by 55 he took his retirement on the very day he became eligible he was ready to start living the life he wanted to live and doing what he wanted to do.  At age 56 less than a year into retirement he was diagnosed with cancer and he his life that he had planned was shredded.  We are not going to wait to get to do what we are called to do.  The time is now and we might wake up one day and our plans are turned to dust.  We now desire to do something with eternal meaning and purpose and not wait until retirement to start on it. 

Karris' Story

I first felt the call to full time ministry after attending a summer project through Keynote. I performed with an accoustic alternative band in Hanover, Germany at the World's Fair. I saw first hand how music can be used to show God's love in any language. I saw all kinds of people from different lifestyles. What became clear to me is that there is a need to seek out those who may be looked at as unreachable, and rough around the edges. I saw how music could be used as a bridge to open up conversations and crack into the rough exteriors that some carry as a defense to hide the hurt that they carry around everyday.

During my freshman year of college I was introduced to Campus Crusade for Christ through one of their campus staff members. I was plugged into a women's bible study and got involved with the worship team.  I started to see that my talents could be used for something bigger than the career I thought I was heading towards. After a trip to Germany playing in a band and giving people the message of the hope of Jesus, I came back to school knowing that one day I would be doing ministry full time. Even though I was studying to go a different path than full time ministry at first, I saw that my life could be something different. Maybe my talents could be used for bigger things.

I felt called to Campus Crusade for Christ because it was such a critical part of my life during college. I saw the road I was heading on previously in life and the people I used to hang out with. Campus Crusade gave me a place to belong and grow in my walk with the Lord and I want to give back the hope I received.

It took a long while to get to where I am today. After to getting married in 2004, Mathew and I decided that we were going to go on staff with Crusade full time, we even went through the interview process. Everything looked good on paper except we were in deep debt from school loans. After praying one day Mathew felt a deep sense of unrest about going on staff. We saw that this debt would always be a weight around us during our ministry unless we would wait and work hard to get rid of it. We did just that and decided to go on an intense budget. We were finally debt free four and  half years later paying off sixty thousand dollars. We had freedom from that debt which now meant we could finally go to where God had promised we would be long ago.