 There are many people who can tell you exactly when and where they “came to Christ or got saved”. I’m not one of those people. Yes, I had a foundation of Christian education through Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and attending Mizpah Seventh-Day Adventist Church school for a couple years. All that was under the guidance of my parents, grandparents, and teachers. However, it wasn’t until I was left with no other choice but to know God for myself that I began to really put my Hope in Christ. In the spring of my junior year in high school, my mother passed away. She had open heart surgery in the 1970’s and while she outlived the expectations of the medical staff, she was only 39 years old. I finished high school the following year and after graduation spent my first year of college at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, so far from Gary, Indiana. Being that I was considered an “Army Brat” from my Dad’s prior military service, it was too unusual that I would venture out. My Dad, accompanied by my paternal Grandmother, drove me basically across the country in the family station wagon. It was quite scenic, and it was the only time I’d travel by car. I remember that Flagstaff was seasonal, not at all like most people pictured the state of Arizona. The plush green grass lasted only through the fall then came the snow-capped mountains. It was beautiful. What I wasn’t prepared for was the altitude change. It was an adjustment. The first few weeks I was so out of breath merely walking across campus. I visited Oak Creek Canyon and of course the larger Grand Canyon while there. All of this felt just like God’s country, God’s creation. Man couldn’t make these majestic views. It was there at NAU, that I met a young man on the football team who took me to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting. During those sessions is where I felt the pull of God on my heart. It was there I found freedom to listen to God speaking through people other than those who looked like me. In fact, not many looked like me. It was the most diverse worship I could recall. I was there at a FCA meeting that I found renewed hope that God would never leave me alone. Many years have passed, and I still hold those memories of my growing faith. I encourage us as Paul did in his letter to the church in Romans 15: 13.
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