28. Peace and Purpose

Kevin  went to college and found his path in life; one that didn’t require a college degree. But this path would change his life forever, and bring him peace and purpose.  

Website for the Church at R I T 

Toby: Welcome back to Renewed and Redeemed, where we share stories of how God has renewed and redeemed everyday people’s lives. We are glad you are listening and hope this episode blesses you. 

Crystal: Today, you’ll hear from Kevin who went to college and found his path in life, one that didn’t require a college degree. But this path would change his life forever and bring him peace and purpose. 

I am so happy to have you here today, Kevin. 

Kevin: Thank you. Thank you. It’s good to be here. 

Crystal: Yeah, I was so excited when I, I met you and your story really just touched me and I can’t wait for everybody to hear about it. And you hear about just what’s going on in, in the movement that you’re involved in.

But to get started, if you could just tell us a little bit about what your life was like before you met Jesus. 

Kevin: Mm. Okay. That’s a good question. Before I met Jesus. Yeah, my life was totally different. My family is Catholic, but just like culturally Catholic. If that’s a thing.

Didn’t know Jesus at all. I guess I like believed in in God but didn’t have any purpose in my life didn’t mean anything to me. So, I was just living heavily in the world really pursuing like academics and just doing well in the world’s eyes. And I did, did pretty well in the world’s eyes, I guess.

But yeah, just really full of brokenness and didn’t have any true, like lasting purpose. Like it, it was always changing as I kept going on, like to the next stage in life. And so never really found fulfillment in that. Never any true, like joy or peace before knowing Jesus. So 

Crystal: Yeah, I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that. I know that I can. So, tell us about how you actually met Jesus. What was the story surrounding that? 

Kevin: I went to college in 2020 onto R I T Rochester Institute Technology. And I came in and didn’t know anybody. It was the fall.

2020. So COVID was crazy. Everything was different. And only knew like two people from my high school that went there, but I didn’t, I wasn’t even friends with them. So. Yeah, just started going at it. And a couple weeks in, I met some people who liked playing Badminton and I at the time did too. Cuz that was one of my hobbies.

I chased after. And through them. I met this guy named Jack who just talked to him a little bit and I could tell that he was, he was sort of different from everybody else. He really like full joy and, and peace. And he not like any other person that I met before. And so, a little bit after that, he shared his testimony with me.

Basically, how God changed his life. And through that, my eyes were just opened. I was like, what? I don’t know. I never heard about like anything like that. Like God can change people’s lives? And so, I was really eye opening and I started reading the Bible for the first time ever. Never did that before and just spending time with him and some other believers.

And about a week after that, just reading through scripture and just being around people who were living out the gospel, I gave my life to Christ one night and yeah, just really feel like filled with so much peace right away after giving my life to the Lord and just been walking. In that comfort, the Holy Spirit since then.

I remember like shortly after that came actually a week after I gave off to Christ, I went to kinda like a weekend retreat, sort of where we did a big training on making disciples and who make disciples make disciples.

And I, that was the first time I was surrounded completely by like true Christians who are following Jesus. And I just remember like, being so shocked, like, wow, I’ve never met anybody else like this in my life. And there’s like a ton of, and so I was just, yeah, enjoying it so much. They’re like warmth and their love and just their openness and how nice they were compared to people who live in this broken world and how I was before I knew Jesus. So that was awesome. And really caught, caught the vision. Pretty early on my walk started running with it, sharing the gospel as I had it modeled a couple times sharing the gospel and just loving my family and friends back home.

And yeah, it’s been a joy. 

Crystal: Wow. So, was Jack also another student? 

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. So, Jack he’s actually he just graduated, but he was coming in the same year that I was. Okay. So, he was a new student as well. 

Crystal: That’s awesome. It just shows you that you don’t need any kind of special years of training or anything like that, just in our daily walk of people that we meet, and we have relationship with that we can make an impact and share our story with them and let Jesus change their lives also.

Kevin: Mm. Yeah

Crystal: tell me a little bit about everything that’s going on at R I T that you’re involved in. 

Kevin: Okay. So, Fall semester of 2020 Jack and some other believers, existing believers or people who just wanted to know more about Jesus.

We started gathering together every Sunday as like a little house church and then sort of morphed into Wednesday night, whatever we just met in his apartment every week. And from that just. Yeah, formed church identity and really began to like walk with the Lord alongside other brothers and sisters, which was super helpful and crucial for extra growth.

 Just kept sharing the gospel. Wasn’t doing it very regularly that first semester, but then I went to Kenya to help out with a movement happening there. And there, I really like caught the vision and I think it was because I just saw people who were like making disciples and making Christ known by sharing the gospel, in a place how many thousand miles away I was like, wow, that’s that’s awesome.

I wanna do that too. So. Really got on fire there and came back that next semester and really started sharing the gospel regularly and frequently with just the lost around me. And it’s not hard to find the lost on a college campus, cuz yeah, pretty much all my classmates don’t know Him actually.

In fact at R I T as we’ve just kind of noticed this, not done an actual survey, but just like surveyed from the people we’ve shared the gospel with about like four out of five 80% have never heard the gospel before. 

Crystal: Oh, wow. 

Kevin: At least like in a true sense of it and right. Yeah, it’s crazy. 

Crystal: And that is, is crazy.

Kevin: Like 5% actually know Jesus. So, it’s just harvest is plentiful. Laborers are few. 

Crystal: Yeah. Wow. So, what kind of challenges have you come up against? You know, doing all of this or even in your own walk with like I guess I would say maybe being the first person in your family, maybe to really know Jesus like this and, and to be a disciple?

Kevin: Immediately that first semester I went home and just shared with my friends and family, what the Lord’s done for me and how He’s had mercy on me. They were kinda just like, oh, okay. That’s that’s cool. It was heartbreaking.

And none of my friends believed when they heard the word just kept praying for them and like, I, I sort of like expecting them to see like my testimony lived out because they knew me before I knew Jesus. Right. They saw me afterwards, but yeah, so I, they still don’t know Him to this day, but just keep praying for them and really hoping that they do come to know Him someday.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Sometimes it’s just the long, walk, you know, like them saying your long-term walk, that’s not just like something that you kind of pick up as a fad, but that you, you walk it out for a period of time. Mm-hmm , you know, and that’s gonna, that’s a testimony in itself.

Yeah, actually I have a good story with that. So, my girlfriend so I had a girlfriend in high school and we stayed together, went to college and she was with me when I came up to Christ her name’s Tess and So she saw the whole. And immediately, of course I share with her. And she was like, Nope I don’t want this.

And she was really repulsed and just like rejected anything about Christ. And so that really hurt me and didn’t, well, didn’t hurt me about, because I knew it wasn’t me. She was rejecting, it was Him, but just made me sad and then things just kind of like through that. We kind of just grew apart because as a, as I was growing closer to Christ it was just became like harder and harder sometimes to like communicate with her and be with her.

And it was also hard getting outta like a world relationship in, in a sense, like stuff, stuff that like people in the world do. Right. In a relationship. And then just working through that took a while. And then the spring semester, she still, like, we were like many points about like break up and stuff.

And but from the beginning I just felt the Lord, like clearly saying to me, just endure, like run to me and. I’ll take care of it and just like kept getting visions of her, following him. And so I was like, okay, I’m gonna keep doing this. It’s it’s not like, it’s not really that good for my walk, but I’ll keep loving her if you want me to.

And that next semester finally, she was like, all right. I, I, I see. You’re gonna, you’re gonna keep following Christ no matter what. And so, I guess I’ll find out what this whole thing’s about. so she is, she said, and I’m gonna read the Bible in a year, like one of those Bible in the year plan things and right.

Started doing that and learn more about who God is through that. And slowly she like asked, started asking me more questions and stuff, gained a little more interest. Still like some problems, but a little bit less. And then the church that I was leading as people, cause I was like making disciples.

I was leading church with them in it, just helping them grow. She decided to come to that too and just kind of grow with them in like a knowledge of who God, his, and then that summer came along and still like on the fence, still reading though, and learned a lot about Jesus. And then finally at the end of the semester, the first actually.

It was August. So, the first week of college she actually transferred to R I T and she gave her life to Christ and got baptized and

Crystal: I was like, oh gosh. Wow, praise God. That’s awesome. Yeah. that’s awesome. Yeah. 

Kevin: So, well that was, it was almost a year, but uh, yeah, well worth a wait. 

I believe God’s gonna do that with the rest of your friends and family too. You know, sometimes we don’t, don’t see the harvest right away. . So what kind of advice or lessons that you’ve learned, would you give to maybe somebody else that’s going into college or interested in knowing more about Jesus or making disciples, or just anything that you’ve learned along the way that you feel like this is one of my life lessons that I have to pass on.

 Yeah, I’d say just continually praying and fasting for more of God’s heart and compassion in like yourself. So that He’ll lead you to the lost and His desires will become yours and everything that He wants. His will. Will be yours. 

Crystal: Yeah. That’s good. Yeah. That’s funny that you said that because actually when I first met you just, I guess for the listeners, we met actually at a, a conference.

And we just happened to get chatting, but. The first thing that I noticed about you is that, and if I had to like summarize you I really felt like you had God’s heart like that you really were pursuing His heart and that you wanted His heart. So, it’s so funny that you just said that as your lesson.

Is there any kind of testimony that just come out of your church that you like it’s really impacted you or that you would like to share with the listeners? 

Kevin: Okay. It’s not, not about the church that I lead, but rather downstream. So Not the church I lead, but this one guy I know I’m discipling him. Name’s Isaiah. He goes to church. I lead he’s a discipling guy named Paul.

Who’s really on fire for the Lord too. And Paul one day was out in the harvest, just sharing the gospel. and he meets this girl named Ushan and Ushan is from China. And she’d never heard the gospel before, like at all, never even heard about Jesus.

And she just saw the, like the peace. That was upon them. And my were just walking in, joy the two of them and noticed that. And like, because of that, she was like, whoa, I want to follow this guy. And she, she gave her life to Christ, like two to three weeks after that got baptized and. It’s just been awesome seeing. How she, like has been changed by Christ so much and coming from like, not even knowing Him, not even knowing His name to following Him with all her heart. 

Crystal: Oh, that’s awesome. Praise God. Yeah. Well, I’m just so encouraged by you and by, you know, everything that’s going on at R I T and I just can’t wait for other people to, to kind of catch Just that fire that you guys have.

 Well, is there anything else that you would like to share, or would you like to offer the listeners your contact info if they wanna reach out and talk to you either about Jesus or starting a disciple, making a movement in their college or, you know, in their school or anything like that. 

Kevin: Yeah, definitely for sure. The, so we are the church at R I T the, the body leaders at R I T our college. And so, we actually have seen good bit of multiplication of churches and disciples through the college.

That’s all college led student leaders who are leading students to Christ. So, it’s like the best way. To reach college students is with college students. And so, if anyone like is going in college and wants to see God move on, their campus wants to see disciple making movement multiply movement on their campus, then yeah.

Certainly, reach out to me. Or you can go to our website churchatRIT.net We got a website and yeah, just kinda see what’s going on and there, you can find ways to contact the other church leaders from the church at R I T. That’d be awesome. 

Crystal: Thank you so much for coming on before we mm-hmm, close out though. Would you pray for the listeners and for boldness, for them to, to strengthen them, too, to walk like like a disciple making disciples. 

Kevin: Sure. Father just thank you for this time to be able to speak about what you’ve done in my life and other’s lives. And at R I T Father, we praise you for it all. Pray that, just give you glory and bring you so much joy as we’re walking with you, Father, I pray for everybody listening right now. That day would just be filled all in the fullness of who you are.

They would know. The love Christ and just walk that so deeply hand in hand and yeah, that there’s anybody out there who wants to make disciples, that they would just walk in that really accept and obey, that commandment that we have from your Son, Jesus. And one out there wants to reach out about what’s going on and see you move Father on their campus or in any way that they would reach out and just have that faith and boldness to do that.

And yeah. Pray this in Jesus’s name. 

Crystal: Many people go to college, hoping to find their path in life, or just discover who they are. Well, Kevin found a lot more than that. He found God who then gave him purpose. 

He became a part of a disciple making movement that is radically changing students’ lives on his campus. Everyone is called to be a disciple that makes disciples. We’re not called to be Christians just for ourselves or to hide under a basket. We’re called to go out and shine our light for Him. We’re called to go out and share the good news. 

Kevin shared that four out of five students on his campus have never heard the true gospel. This is an America. That number is staggering. Are you interested in being a disciple that makes disciples? Do you want to get involved in starting a disciple making movement in your area? If you’re interested, you can reach out to Kevin through the church at RIT’s website, which will be listed in the show notes. Be blessed.