Often, when I am conversing with a student at the recreation center on campus after playing a game of basketball with him, he discovers that I am not a student and asks what my job is. I tell him that I work for a Christian ministry  on campus, and he asks me, “So what do you do?” Depending on my level of discernment and/or boldness in the moment, I tell him, “I’m doing it.” He doesn’t understand that there could be such an informally relational job. He doesn’t understand that he is my job.

Our job is not measured by how many hours we put in at the office. It is not measured by how much of a certain product we produce, nor how much we sell. It is measured by lives. It is measured by the joys and pains that we feel when we tie our lives in with others’. It is measured by the rescuing of souls, by the binding up of the broken-hearted, by the liberating of captives. We know we are doing our jobs when we hurt. When we bear burdens. When we aren’t thinking about ourselves. In other words, our job is not a job. It is a life poured out. It is, in the words of Isaiah 43:4, giving “men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.”

Not so tangible, huh? But it is oh so rewarding.

This past fall I had the privilege of meeting a freshman girl, Jessie.  She was a Christian, but did not have a lot of depth to her relationship with Jesus, but wanted that to change.  She also loved meeting people and introducing me to them, too – it was great I had an open door to hanging out in Territorial Hall (T-hall, a freshmen dorm at the U).  I was able to bring along two of the sophomore girls I am discipling, Whitney and Elizabeth, and do ministry along side of them and in front of Jessie.

After a semester of building relationships with those girls I can see that God has been at work.  Whitney and Elizabeth are now having a weekly evangelistic Bible study in T-hall with the girls we were getting to know in the first semester.  Part of building a friendship with these girls was sharing our lives with them, which meant sharing our relationship with Jesus with them.  They had questions and were excited to have a time during the week to get together and talk about the gospel and their questions.  Please pray for Libby, Whitney, and Leah – these three girls do not know the Lord but are really seeking.

Last night I had dinner with Jessie and we were talking and I was blown away by how much God has changed her in just four months.  She has depth to her relationship with Jesus.  Her faith is no longer a part of her life, but actually affects her whole life because it is the center of her life.  She is growing in boldness in sharing what she believes with others because she is believing the gospel is the power for salvation.  Jessie’s life has changed.  Jessie’s roommate, Maggie, has crossed from death to life this year – and God used Jessie and their conversations to really start investigating.  Jessie said last night, “It is like talking to a completely different person!  God is so sweet!”  And she is right, God is so sweet – what a joy to get to be used in His plan for salvation.  He is using the weak at the U of M – as we are dependent on Him to do the saving work, but we are willing to open our mouths…and this is just a glimpse into what God is doing in T-hall.  It really appears the Spirit is at work.  Please pray that God would continue to do a saving work in the lives of these girls in T-hall for His glory.