Send the Letter, Have the Meeting, Make an Impact

This past Monday, I had the opportunity to reconnect with a family that I hadn’t seen for over ten years and share with them the vision God has given me for Central Florida. I had grown up around this family, playing with their son from a very young age. We would have sleepovers and go to church together but eventually grew apart.

I was somewhat shocked when Pam answered the phone, I had nearly neglected sending them a letter altogether. Pam told me she had seen the letter but not yet opened it, and once I briefly explained who Campus Outreach is and what we do, she happily told me that she and her husband, Mark, would like to meet.

As I approached their house, I prayed and was met with a sense of peace and calm that overtook my feelings of nervousness and self-consciousness. I was greeted at the door by Mark, and as I walked in the front door the first thing I noticed was that there wasn’t a single light on in the house. There was a somewhat unsettled feeling surrounding both Pam and Mark, but the Spirit
kept me calm in the moment.

As I sat down, we began to catch up on life and where God had taken us. I invited them to pray with me and specifically asked for the Spirit to be present. As soon as I had finished, Pam got up and asked if I wanted water and proceeded to turn the lights on. In that moment, the entire energy of the meeting changed and what followed was the essence of why I have come to love partnership development.

This meeting it was special in more ways than I could ever hope to know or imagine.

I briefly shared with them what God has done in my life over the past three years and the nearly miraculous story of how God brought me into ministry. I told them how God has given me a passion for developing meaningful relationships with others through a summer training program and why this passion has led to me pursuing full-time mission with an organization with an emphasis on relational evangelism and life on life discipleship.

I shared with them my vision for transforming student’s lives and campuses across Florida. They asked all the right questions, and cherished the thought of generations being affected by the
disciples that will be made on campus.

They then proceeded to tell me that Seth, their son, had fallen away from the Lord through his time in school and had dropped out of college altogether. Pam told me through tear-soaked eyes that she was inspired by seeing what God had done in my life and that it gave her hope that her son would eventually come to the Lord and desire a relationship with Christ. Although they had seen glimmers of hope that God was working in his life, he still seemed as far from God as ever.

Mark & Pam couldn’t stop telling me how thankful they were for me coming to share with them what God is doing.

All I could do was assure them that God had a plan for Seth just as he does for all of us. That one day, they could see Seth come back to the Lord and receive everlasting salvation. That there was always hope through Jesus, and that they can count on me to be praying for him moving forward.

As the meeting came to a conclusion, Mark & Pam couldn’t stop telling me how thankful they were for me coming to share with them what God is doing in Central Florida. Mark told me this meeting it was special, in more ways than I could ever hope to know or imagine. Little did they know, it almost never happened.

- Graham, Campus Outreach Staff