My Story Part II

Man I can't believe it has been ten days since I posted to this journal. I have basically only been online to look at my email lately. Anyway... sorry for the delay of part two of my testimony. Click here for part one. I am sure many of you have been anxious to read part two! HA! Yeah right! Anyway with no further interruptions... here is the conclusion to my story. I guess it is not really the conclusion because I am just getting started. Stay tuned into cjfootprints.com for regular updates of my adventure in the Air Force which begins in 6 days!!

The College Years

Five years that changed my life...

When I graduated High School and went to Kansas State University I really didn't know what to expect. I was very excited to get away from home but at the same time I missed home quite a bit that first year. I had really enjoyed Hoxie growing up and it was somewhat hard to let it go. I tend to make friends quite easily and I had a great roommate but none of my really close friends from High School came to KSU. About half-way through my first semester I got back together with my girlfriend that I had dated most of my senior year. I didn't get back together with her because I was homesick but getting back together with her did help defend against it. She was going to this thing called Christian Challenge on Thursday nights and my friend Kyle had asked me to go before so I started going to see what it was all about. I had never seen anything like it. They were singing praise and worship songs to the beat of a full fledged band. The speakers sometimes seemed to be speaking directly to me and there were lots of good-looking girls there. I thought I had found a little piece of Heaven. So I started living my Christian life on Thursday nights... but that was about it.

I had gotten an Air Force ROTC Scholarship and I was really enjoying ROTC stuff. I was doing well in it too. I made some close friends in the dorms and was doing well in general except for one thing... classes. I was not doing well in my classes at all! Towards the end of the first semester I thought for sure that I was going to flunk out and that they would take all my scholarships away and make me enlist in the Air Force! Well, I ended up barely scraping by with straight Cs that first semester and not much better the second semester. So I changed my major from Computer Engineering to Management and Information Systems.

If I had known MIS existed before I went to K-State I probably would have started there. It is amazing really how I ended up there. I met a man the summer after my freshman year that changed the direction my life was taking. He convinced me to switch to MIS and to join his fraternity... the Pike House. Most people thought I was nuts when I told them I was joining a fraternity. I am not your typical fraternity guy. At this point at the beginning of my sophomore year I was still attending Christian Challenge but only sometimes and I was still dating the same girl. Life was good and I had lots of friends... I really didn't need to join a fraternity to buy some more... but God blessed the decision and put some amazing people in my life. Even though I wasn't walking, God was still working in my life.

I met Adam not long after joining the house and one of the first things he asked me was if I was a Christian. I said I was, thinking it was a weird question cause I figured most of the guys in the house would have said yes to that question. After I said yes he got all excited and asked me if I wanted to go to a Bible Study that he was leading. I really wasn't sure if I wanted to go because I was pretty busy the way it was. I also knew they would ask some personal questions and I wasn't sure if I wanted to share because it would be convicting. It ended being at a time I couldn't go so I didn't really think about it much. But I became really good friends with two guys in my pledge class that were attending the Bible Study. I really latched on to those two because they were the only ones that didn't drink and I didn't drink so I felt comfortable hanging out with them. To their credit, they were really cool guys that I enjoyed hanging out with... not just because they didn't drink.

Well, second semester my sophomore year I went to my first Bible Study not long after I broke up with my girlfriend. I was feeling a bit lost and new that I could find comfort in God and other Christian men who I had become friends with. It wasn't long before I quit going and decided I could deal with it on my own. Going to Bible Study and talking about issues I normally tried to avoid wasn't what I was looking for.

At the beginning of my Junior year I came to school ready to live the Fraternity life. I had moved into the house after two years in the dorms and I was 21. I figured it was high time I had some fun in college. Early in the semester I was forced to make a choice that would determine the course of my life. Adam once again asked me to be a part of his Bible Study. At one of the very first ones I went to that semester Adam challenged us to keep a prayer journal. My very first entry I asked Jesus back into my life and I asked that he would help me learn what it meant to live completely for Him. I started meeting lots of cool people that were friends with Adam and it made me realize how awesome Christian fellowship could be. It was that semester in early December of my Junior year that I turned the sin in my life over to God, realized that He had never left me and asked for forgiveness for turning away from Him for nearly 7 years.

Since then my life has been more amazing and fulfilling than I ever thought possible. Don't get me wrong... there have been hard times... real hard times... but being filled with the Holy Spirit and knowing Christ was on my side even when I made mistakes, has been priceless. Since then I have also been very involved in campus ministry. Leading Bible Studies, being on leadership teams for Campus Crusade, going to conferences, doing a summer missions project and just taking part in other activities.

Now the adventure continues as I enter into the Air Force. I personally see the Air Force as a ministry field. I will serve my country to the best of my ability as a 2nd Lt but I will serve God first and foremost. I am very excited about moving to England and starting a new ministry there. But first I will be in Biloxi, MS where I will be spending three months in communications school with a very good friend and fellow Christian brother, Brent Feldt, whom I went to High School with. He went to the Air Force Academy and by the blessings and grace of God we ended up scheduled for school at practically the same time. He will have been there for two weeks when I arrive.

Thanks for reading my testimony. By all means leave a comment or a question... and have a great day!

- footprints of Chad, 1:51 PM

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