I Want This Place

Maybe it is time I was a little more honest:

My ministry partner, Morgan, and I recently drove to Georgia Tech for a meeting. Because we have been in the process of raising a support network that can partner with us to provide the financial and prayerful needs to begin this ministry, we have been unable to spend much time on campus this summer. It was the first time Morgan and I had been there in months, and as we drove past the campus buildings, I couldn't help but feel my heart shatter into a million pieces.

I want this place.

Almost a year ago, when our supervisor Nick has sat Morgan and I down during our application process to discuss strategic possibilities for our first steps as staff, he mentioned planting a multi-ethnic ministry at Georgia Tech as a viable option. I remember feeling my heart catch - I didn't want to let it on, but I was the idea of going to Georgia Tech was absurd to me. I had so many fears… my mind raced: "I mean these students are geniuses! Surely with their intelligence they could see right through me… It might be hard to reach out to a bunch of engineers, I mean I don't know the first thing about engineering! How could I share the Gospel to an engineer?" So many fears and prejudices and incorrect assumptions plagued me. It felt like it would be easier to go to a much smaller and much less affluent institution… maybe that would be a better option for my first year on staff.

It is truly amazing how God can completely overwhelm your sense of comfort and even your sense of desire. For many months, I wrestled with the realization that I really wanted to be an InterVarsity staff worker, but I wasn't necessarily wanting to do that staff work at Georgia Tech… so much has changed in that time. I have walked the streets of this campus, chatted with students, ate lunch in the cafeterias, marveled at the building names - and I have completely fallen in love. It almost feels like a romance novel, the one that I resented and pushed away for so long ended up being the exact one I needed all along.

I want this place.

I want the students - I want them to know about Jesus, and I want to be the one to tell them. I want them to find a true and lasting purpose for their degrees, careers, and skills, and I want them to go on and change the world! I want to see new life brought to campus, and I want to labor with Jesus in the broken areas. I want to send students to build witnessing communities that reach out to other communities… I want my students to come over to my place for movie nights, I want to drive them to get groceries before large group meetings, I want to watch them take risks, I want to see them take important steps in their faith, I want to bring them to Urbana, and I want to see them become leaders that follow Jesus for their whole lives…

I dream of this. It's all I can think about. It's what I want to dedicate my life to. It was through the InterVarsity movement that I began to follow Jesus, and it was through his sovereign mystery that he continued to beckon me onward - straight into the place where my deep passion and the world's deep hunger meet - and that place is Georgia Tech.

I want this place.

But I can't be there yet. This is where my heart breaks - the students are moving in. Classes begin Monday. And we are still preparing to begin the work. I want to be there so badly… I wanted to be that exceptional case that managed to raise everything needed (and then some) so quickly that we would still have time leftover to plan some amazing New Student Outreach events. However, our ministry partnership development journeys have been different - and it is taking longer than we hoped for. Jesus remains sovereign, and we continue to trust him and have faith from him and learn how to take risks from him. It hasn't been easy, and so much work is before us… but we will praise God in plenty and in emptiness. And he will provide.

I cannot thank God enough for his mysterious manner of working in my life. And I cannot even begin to fathom all of the incredible things he is doing and is going to do at Georgia Tech in the next years - if there wasn't a harvest to be had at Georgia Tech, we wouldn't be here. Friends, join in with us in reaping the harvest to be had at Georgia Tech - I invite you dream alongside us. I want you to want this place  - I hope you will envision this campus reflecting the Kingdom of God! Over 20000 students and 900 faculty live and breathe and work on this campus, and that is 21900 souls that are fashioned in the likeness of God, deeply loved and uniquely designed to be intelligent, entrepreneurs, explorers of truth and inventors of efficiency  - just imagine the impact they could have on the world!

Georgia Tech, the students, faculty, and the entire campus belong to God - every inch.

He wants this place.