The semester is only one month underway, but God is already opening eyes and stirring hearts. Three MBCollegiate students have put their trust in Christ, and five have recently followed Jesus in baptism.

SLU Student Comes to Christ After John Study

God used a study of John last semester to stir the heart of one Saint Louis University student. After winter break, she returned to campus asking Campus Missionary Brad Russell if she could sit down with him and her friend to talk. She shared with them about challenging circumstances at home. “We discussed the reasons for heartbreak and how Jesus is the healer,” says Russell. With her eyes opened to the gospel, she put her trust in Christ. 

UCM Student Comes to Christ at Campus Starbucks

A freshman at the University of Central Missouri came to know Christ near the end of January. Her best friend from high school, also a UCM freshman, got involved with the BSU at the start of the fall semester. He kept inviting her to their weekly dinners, and she finally came. She enjoyed it and kept coming, eventually plugging into a BSU Bible study and a local church.

After Christmas break, Campus Missionary Jerome Stockert talked with her at their first weekly dinner. “I told her I’d love to sit down and connect and hear how her break went,” he says. “She said she’d love to do that and stated she had a few questions she’d like to ask me.” They met later at the Starbucks on campus. After catching up, she started asking questions. 

“She had been reading on her own through the book of Matthew and doing her own annotations,” says Stockert. “Her basic question revolved around the fact that she was learning so much about this man Jesus and was really liking him. I asked her if she knew what it meant to be a follower and if she knew how to become one. She did not so I explained both. I then asked her if she would like to become a follower. She said she didn’t feel she knew enough to follow Jesus. We worked through the misunderstanding that you have to know a certain amount of information. She did understand she was a sinner and that her sin separated her from God. We talked about the consequences of this. I asked her again if she would like to follow Christ. She said “yes” and “right now.” So, in the middle of Starbucks, with students all around, she prayed a prayer of repentance and belief.” She was baptized at her local church on February 11.

Truman State Student Accepts Christ During BSU Worship Service

One Truman State BSU student had been having regular spiritual conversations with a friend. Her friend came to their weekly worship night. “As our night was ending, our students organized a time for everyone to pair up and pray together,” says Campus Missionary Greg Xander. “Our student and her friend paired up and as that time came to an end we could see our student jumping up and down. That’s right, her friend that night gave Jesus her life. Wow God!”

Three Lincoln University Students Baptized in December

Two football players and one soccer player at Lincoln University talked with Campus Missionary Clint Mahan about baptism after church one Sunday, expressing a desire to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. All three were baptized at the end of December.

Two Missouri Valley Students Baptized in January

At Missouri Valley, two students from The Bridge got baptized on January 21 at FBC Slater. “Nelius has been on our leadership team for a year now and has been doing discipleship with Alex [my husband],” says Campus Missionary Marita Avilez. “They went through the commands of Christ and talked about baptism. He had been baptized as a baby but now that he understands what it is and is following Christ, he wanted to publicly display that.” 

Another student on their leadership team, Elen, has been a believer for a while and had been wanting to get baptism. “When she heard that Nelius was getting baptized she asked if she could too,” Avilez says. 

Faithful God, Faithful Friends

God uses all kinds of means to open eyes and move people to obedience. In most of these students’ cases, the persistence of faithful friends played a huge part in their decisions to follow Jesus in belief and baptism, as have the campus ministers who labor to bring the gospel to college students. Praise the Lord for these new sisters in Christ!