Brianne, what is one thing that you should throw away but you could never bring yourself to do it?

There are probably a lot of things like that, because I tend to associate memories with things a lot of the time. I have a lot of childhood things that I just can’t get myself to throw away. One that stands out in particular is a stuffed animal that I had- I got it when I was a baby. Most kids get teddy bears or something, but for whatever reason I got attached to this little lamb. I named him “Baa-Baa” and I’ve had him around ever since.

How did you find Agape/Ecclesia?

So I didn’t actually know about Agape during the first semester of my freshman year. Sam Snyder was my roommate at the time- we kind of did everything together. We tried Gospel Choir, we tried a bunch of different things. I think the first time we came was the Easter service of Ecclesia. We just got really attached to it, and then later learned about Agape just kept going.

What would you say draws you into the community?

I think the people, for sure. I remember the first time Mike talked, even. They were just very true messages and it was a real community- it wasn’t just a Sunday service. People wanted to connect with you, clearly, outside of Sunday nights. Especially with the Facebook group blowing up all the time, people want to connect with each other outside and serve and everything.

Why are you a Christian?

I think the simple answer is that I was born into a Christian family. That’s not why I stayed a Christian, but that is why I became one. The main reason, though, is because it makes sense to me and I’ve experienced God and the miracles he can do. That’s a feeling that you can’t explain any other way.

What draws you to Jesus?

I guess his messages. I mean, everything about him is just so pure. Everything makes sense, even if its difficult. These things are just ingrained in me after hearing them for so long, and they should be- I’m proud that they are ingrained in me. The way that he treats people, the way that wants to carry thigns about, they’re just such timeless messages that make sense to apply even today.

What has God done for you that you couldn’t do for yourself?

I think God gets me through each and every day. I don’t think I could do anything without God. I mean, especially the times that you cry out for help. You realize how much you need him, that you can’t do anything on your own- whether that’s because you’re suffering or you just need encouragement. I think I forget how much he provides for everyone but when it comes back to it, he’s at the center of my life. Everything about it- the people he brings in, everything.

What breaks your heart?

I think suffering. I hate the way that people suffer every day and you can’t understand each other’s pain because its not something you can always explain. It’s not fair- not only if you don’t have access to resources to fix the suffering or if there are no answers to the suffering- it’s just deeper to me than poverty or other issues. It’s awful, but there are cures in a lot of ways; you can wrap your head around it, but with suffering you can’t. You can’t explain it, no matter how much you talk about it.

What gives you hope?

I think people give me hope- specifically Christian people, the way that they live their lives and just care about each other. The way that people go out of their way and love each other, for sure, can only be explained through God. Even when I lose hope, it’s the little things- when people reach out to you and actually want to know what you have to say. That gives me hope.

Do you have a favorite book?

I do. I have a lot of favorite books, but I have to say because I’m obsessed with childhood books that it would have to be a picture book from when I was little. I’ve always really loved pigs, so a lot of the books I read when I was little were either pigs or redheads or a combo of the two. There was one called “Lady Lollipop.” It was about this princess who wanted a pet pig and was adamant about this pig- it was a series about her getting the pig, training the pig, and I was just obsessed.

If you could say one thing to the readers, what would you say?

Embrace the good things that you find and don’t let go of them. Also don’t settle in that or get comfortable. If you find a community that fits you in all ways, don’t give it up because it’s wonderful, but also don’t just get comfortable with that. Reach out to others and invite them in. Share the goodness that you find.

Nick, you are vacationing with one celebrity. Who would it be and where would you go?

I would travel with Stanley Tucci, the actor (Beethoven, The Hunger Games), and I would go to the Japanese countryside.

Why the Japanese countryside?

First of all, I’ve heard that the rural parts of Japan are really gorgeous and I think he’d have a similar appreciation for it as I would. Then we could go to a city, maybe for a day, but we could also just hang out wherever we were staying and just be friends.

How did you find Agape?

I met Sanj and Taylor- I knew other people, but they were two that I became really close with in the community, and just over time seeing them do really amazing things and knowing what they believed, it made a lot of sense of me and I felt like God was pushing me toward this community. The first few things that I went to before I was super involved, I just felt so welcomed. People didn’t know me, but I just felt like I fit so well.

What draws you into the community?

I think the accountability that is a part of the relationships I have with people in the community. My relationships with people were borne out of really good, pure intentions and consequences. Just getting to see the benefit of that for me, and the benefit that I feel like I get to bring to other people. There is a really symbiotic relationship between the people in this community. There’s a depth I don’t get to experience outside of this church. The common ground and having it rooted in Christ is just amazing. It’s allowed me to explore a different depth with people in general.

Why are you a Christian?

I don’t know, I think it makes a lot of sense. At this point, I realized how much God has done in my life. It makes me want to be better. Pursuing a relationship with God has just been really interesting and made me grow as a person in ways that I don’t think I could have if I didn’t know God. I don’t know- I think its just really cool to get to live my life for something that I really believe in and something that I think is making me better every day. I’ve learned to be a lot more trusting in God, especially in things that I think are going wrong- I’ve learned to give a lot to God.

What draws you to Jesus?

I think the way that I see Jesus in other people, they are constant reminders of Jesus’ presence in different communities that I’m a part of. In China, they don’t really have religion, and I still felt God all the time and saw Jesus in people there every single day. It was overwhelming to me. I see so much good from people a lot. Not to be naïve or think that everyone is just this amazing person, but when you’re aware of it, it’s really hard to look past. Jesus was so present with people that it makes so much sense that that is how he’s reflected on this earth.

What gives you hope?

I think knowing how many things have happened to me and knowing that I’m still alive and better for all of them. When I was talking to Kelly Ravenscraft today, we were talking a lot about doors closing and how shocking that can be when it happens. But later on, you begin to understand why that happened. There is almost always a present purpose for everything that happens. That instills a lot of hope in me. I realized that as much as I might think things totally suck, in the past year I’ve had a lot more understanding that things won’t be that way forever.

What breaks your heart?

My heart feels really broken when people don’t have an openness to other people. I really try and be open to meeting every single person I cross paths with. It really makes me sad when I see people who feel like they don’t have time for that. I think those are some of my saddest moments, when I see that in people, an unwillingness to extend yourself past what’s immediately around you. That breaks my heart a lot because there are so many good people in the world and so many good things in each person.

Do you have a favorite film?

Yes! I think my favorite movie is Amelie- it’s in French but it’s really famous. It’s about a girl who lives her life for other people, but keeps to herself all the time. She does random acts of kindness every day. It’s a really involving story. I think it has to do a lot with the idea that if you extend good, good will come back to you. She’s such a good person in her heart. She cares for her dad who is a widower, and for the people in her building, and gets really upset at injustices. I’m always in awe when I watch that movie.

Any closing thoughts?

First, I want to give a big ol’ shout out to Agape and Ecclesia- I’ve felt a lot of love for them today. I think at the root of our church, it’s so positive. i see so much life emanating from our church, so much God, Jesus, Holy Spirit- it’s so cool that our relationships are postured that way.

Hannah, scenario: you still have the same body, but you have the head of an animal. What animal is it, and why?

My favorite animals are elephants, so I’d probably pick that. Plus it would be really fun to have an extra limb to pick things up with and eat with and such.

Now, would this be the size of a regular elephant head?

No, it would be proportional to my body, because otherwise I’d be falling over and all that jazz.

How did you end up in Agape?

When I came to college, I knew I wanted to be involved in a church or some group on campus, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted that to be or look like, and so I started visiting a few churches in the neighborhood and thinking “should I be involved with that and do things during the week?” It wasn’t until October that Emma Haney invited me to Agape; she had been already so she dragged me there. So I go and there are all these crazy people and I didn’t know anybody. I snuck in a group with her, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I felt like it was different from my youth group and that was kind of what I was looking for; I thought “oh, this is college, I shouldn’t just be playing games all the time. This has a purpose.”

What draws you in? What keeps you coming back?

I would say the people. Definitely. I feel like that’s the classic answer, but it’s definitely a community. You can walk all around campus. Yes, there’s those friends that you see from classes or your job, but if you see someone from Agape, you feel like there is something binding you together; like they are your family in a different way.

Why are you a Christian?

I was born and raised a Christian, I think; my dad would do bible studies every morning before school, and go to church every Sunday. I think I had a really rough time my freshman year of high school; going through a lot and my family was going through a lot, so I started questioning God. I started questioning why these things were happening, and I really separated myself from God. Through that, I found that without him, things weren’t good. It was lonely and scary and this world that I couldn’t comprehend, and still can’t comprehend. So, I realized that yes, I don’t have to know all the answers, but God wants me to question him and be real with him- we can’t hide anything from God anyway. I think throughout the rest of high school and a lot of college, Ive been trying to come into my own faith, and not the faith of my parents or family, necessarily.

Why would you say that is? Have you found a reason that it’s for you?

I definitely have those roller-coaster moments where I’m asking the question, “why am I a Christian, again?” and I keep coming back to the fact that I can’t live a life without God.

What draws you to Jesus? What is it about Jesus that keeps you?

His grace. He’s not legalistic; that’s really what I struggled with in high school: the legalism of the Bible. I was struggling with all those questions and kept missing the idea that Jesus is the opposite of legalism; he’s full of forgiveness and of grace. Its such a simple thing that I just kept missing.

I’m also drawn to his forgiveness. I kind of feel like Peter sometimes, where Jesus asks him “do you love me?” and Peter keeps saying “yes, of course I do.” And I say that to God all the time, but at the same time Peter denied Jesus and I deny Jesus all the time. But Jesus loved Peter, and Jesus loves me that way, too. I have to remember that, because I think I get drawn into the legalistic side and not being perfect or good enough, and I have to remember that Jesus loved Peter and Jesus is grace.

What gives you hope?

In Agape, we’ve been studying the Trinity. In every passage, we’ve talked about how this isn’t the end. This isn’t what God intended. I think what gives me hope is what is coming.

Where do you experience grace?

I think, like when I talked about how my faith is a roller-coaster sometimes, where I turn away from God and go back to him. I’ll go on tangents where I read the Bible every day, and then don’t read it for two months. But also with people, I’m the same way. Especially people who I can tell love Jesus in the way that I do, and then you can see his grace through them, too.

How have you experienced it through people?

More recently, I feel pulled in all different directions as a senior. I feel like I’m not giving enough, and I’ve felt grace through that. People have definitely been forgiving.

What are some of your favorite books?

The Year of Biblical Womanhood, I know Emma talked about that one, but I really liked it. Also, Frank Peretti books- he uses really good imagery, and its hard for me to imagine God or Jesus or spiritual things in real life, so I really like how he does that. Also, for more secular books, I’m a big fan of Cormac McCarthy (The Road, No Country for Old Men, etc). I really like post-apocalyptic books, but also his use (or non-use) of grammar, it makes things interesting.

Any parting words?

You can’t be a perfect Christian or leader. It’s impossible. Just remember that Jesus is grace.

Hey err-body!

Emma, you have $10,000. You have to spend it by tomorrow. What do you buy?

I would buy a trip to Patagonia in Argentina.

What’s in Patagonia?

Just like really awesome mountains and hiking and views and penguins.

Penguins?

Yeah they have penguins.

Are they like cold penguins?

Yeah- it’s the furthest south. You can take a shuttle from the end of Patagonia to Antarctica.

Wow.

Yeah, I’m just really obsessed with Argentina so I really want to go there, especially to Patagonia.

How did you end up in Agape?

I had a really good experience in my youth group in high school and really strong group of friends and really good community, especially my senior year. I went to college telling everyone that I met that I had led my Christian club at my high school, just hoping that someone would be like, “Oh my gosh! You’re a Christian?! Me too!” Like, really embarrassingly desperate to find other Christians. So, eventually it kind of worked because I met Hannah (Reiman) and she was like “oh, there’s this Bible study we were thinking about going to,” and I was like “YOU LOVE JESUS?! I LOVE JESUS!” and I went to Agape and I remember someone talking to me right away and I remember when I left, I called my mom and said “Mom, I found them! I found my people!”

What drew you into the community?

I think just the community that I saw and the fun that people were having and also the goofiness and sass I saw from certain people was definitely something I resonated with. I think the combination of loving Jesus and being real, authentic, silly people was something that really drew me in and kept me coming back. It was a place to read the Bible and ask hard questions, but also to be silly.

Why are you a Christian?

Sometimes it kind of surprises me that I’m still a Christian because I’ve spent a lot of my college experience being really challenged by my faith and being confused by it and becoming more educated about Christianity and the Bible from viewpoints outside of the church. It’s been really challenging, but I just can’t shake Jesus, so I don’t know- I just feel like any of those times that I get confused or more frustrated, I just have to come back to Jesus and remind myself that the words and actions of Jesus are what drew me to faith in the first place, and I think that they are what draws me back every day.

You said that you couldn’t seem to “shake Jesus”- what would you say draws you to Jesus?

I think Jesus is really weird and funny and also, just the grace and the way that he reaches for the people that no one else is reaching for. So, when I would read the gospels and see Jesus loving children and loving women- women nobody else wanted anything to do with or women that people wanted to throw stones at and kill. The fact that Jesus sees those people and loves those people that the world doesn’t love- that’s what draws me in.

Also, I have “lol” written in my Bible because I think some of the things he says and does are really funny, and silliness just matters to me.

What breaks your heart?

Hmm. A lot of things. I think the thing that breaks my heart most is the way that we will make assumptions about people and never try to understand them. I think I see that in everything that breaks my heart- my heart is broken by mistreatment of people with disabilities and with mistreatment and everything that gets said about immigrants, especially immigrants from Latin America, and any kind of slander in general. I think that’s the root of a lot of problems in the world- people not trying to understand people they view as “the other.” I think that’s something that Jesus is really good at; I think of the woman at the well and the story of the Good Samaritan, which are really good examples of loving the “other,” so that breaks my heart when that’s not what happens.

What has God done for you that you couldn’t do for yourself?

He’s brought me where I am, in terms of being at Loyola. Like, I never thought that I would study Special Education or that working with people with disabilities. That has felt like a direct call from God, and I don’t think I could have figured that out on my own. He really paved the path for me to come here, financially and spiritually and everything else. I think that, in recent times, that’s been the most obvious act of God in my life.

Who is one author or thinker or prophet or whoever that you would tell everyone to listen and pay attention to?

Yeah, I’ve recently become obsessed with Sarah Bessey- she’s an author who wrote “Jesus Feminist,” and has a new book coming out in November that I’m excited about. I think that she asks a lot of the questions that I ask, but she’s more graceful than I am. Her writing is very beautiful and poetic and she gets at a lot of truths that I know in my life, but she’s able to articulate them. I just really feel like her writing draws me closer to Jesus when I feel lost. She’s definitely my favorite.

Any parting words to anyone who would read this?

I would say, don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions when they come. My experience has been that God is big enough to handle it. Don’t be afraid of using the brain that God gave you to ask the questions.

Friends,

Last week was amazing. Over 100 of you came to Agape and around 100 of you were at Ecclesia last night! Thank-you for worshiping with us.

This is what is on the up and up:

Wednesday–Agape at 7:30pm in Damen MPR.  For the first time this year we will be meeting in our small groups.  The first three weeks of Agape (and Ecclesia) we are studying who is God?  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!

Saturday–QUADERMELON 2015.  You wonder, “what the heck is this?”  Let me tell you!  On the West QUAD we will be eating WATERMELON.  This starts at 6pm.  We will have blankets to lounge on, lawn games, music, and just enjoy each other.  Who knows what the night will entail?  Perhaps we will go get tacos afterward?  Or go swimming in Lake Michigan?  Or walk to get delicious ice cream?

Sunday–At Ecclesia we are not having our typical worship service because of Labor Day weekend.  Instead we are doing Sunday Sundaes on the Palm Court.  This means we eat Ice Cream on the beautiful balcony of the Palm Court.  #fellowship4lyfe

Lastly–Find our office here on the 2nd floor of Damen!

http://www.agape–ecclesia.com/ (you will find our Facebook links here)
https://twitter.com/agape_ecclesia
http://instagram.com/agape_ecclesia/

Scott, would you rather wrestle a lion or fight a shark? Why?

I’d wrestle a lion just because a shark is in the water and the fact that you’d have to swim against a shark would be near impossible. So I’d definitely fight a lion, because with a lion you could climb a tree or something, but with sharks, you aren’t safe anywhere in the water.

How did you find your way into the community?

Actually through the website- I came to faith my sophomore year, and I didn’t get plugged in freshman year when a lot of people did. But I looked online at campus ministries through the Loyola website and I found Agape and Ecclesia, and then I found them at the org fair. I came on my own; I didn’t know anyone, so I was kind of nervous to come here.

What’s kept you coming back?

The fact that I’m surrounded by people my age and that everyone is in the same spot in life as me, which makes it comfortable to be at, especially through coming to Christ, it’s a whole new thing, and so it was great to have people who were the same age as me and going through the same thing I was going through.

Why are you a Christian?

It goes all the way back to when one of my childhood best friends accepted Christ during college, and once over Easter break I talked to him, and he shared the gospel and I became a Christian. But now what keeps me going forward, the community strengthening my faith has been helpful. Doing it alone is so hard, but having community has honestly just been super fun.

What draws you to Jesus?

It would be his acceptance of you no matter what you’ve done, and through that the joy that you receive when you seek him. No matter what you do, you’re able to seek him and have him accept you, which is just something that you don’t really every experience in life. It’s so nice and unique that its found it him.

Where have you experienced that grace and acceptance?

It would be particularly with this community because a lot of people know that I don’t live with Christians, so that makes it had to live with people who don’t know Jesus. When I’m with this community, though, I’m able to seek him more wholeheartedly and I’m able to see him more fully. So, especially over the last three years, I’ve been able to experience that joy through the church.

What breaks your heart?

Those who haven’t experienced the joy that’s in Jesus. That’s something that I’ve been struggling with and that breaks my heart, because there’s nothing that I can do that can fix the whole world. But I can still go out for the Great Commission that Jesus left us to do, it’s still my job to do it, but it breaks my heart that, no matter how hard I try, there will be people who reject Jesus. That’s hard, for sure.

What gives you hope?

The promises that God makes that one day, every knee will bow to him. The future grace that’s promised, that gets me going and super excited. When I read about it in scripture and how real it seems, and despite me not seeing that in my lifetime, just knowing that is gonna happen gives me hope.

What’s one book everyone should read?

I’d probably go with Mere Christianity from C.S. Lewis. Typically I would give Crazy Love to everyone, but that’s really a specific crowd that it affects. But I feel like Mere Christianity can really enrich the faith of those who don’t know God and those who do know God. It teaches something to a wide demographic. It’s one of the books that really affected me when I was coming to faith and accepting Christ. It really sparked my faith. Going back years later, though, I still get stuff from it. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow that book.

Any parting words?

The one thing that’s always been on my heart is the importance of Scripture and always going back to it. Often times, going throughout the school year with classes and tests, I just don’t have any desire to read it. But it is one of the most important things we have in this lifetime.

Kara, if you could vacation with one celebrity, who would it be and where would you go?

I would vacation with Jennifer Lawrence. It’s probably a stereotypical answer, but she’s really funny. Girl’s favorite food is pizza, so you can’t go wrong there. I feel like you could just sit in the sand and talk about life.

So you’d go to the beach?

I would definitely go to the beach.

Which beach?

I’ve always wanted to go to St. Lucia or St. Martin- some place with one of those saint names that people vacation to all the time. Hopefully she’d pay for it- she’s got the money.

How did you find your way into the community?

I found my way into the community by good ol’ Abbi Carlson. Love that girl. I think it must have been freshman year, in chem class, and she asked me if I was a Christian and I was like “yeah,” so I came a bit freshman year. Then I kind of fell off the bandwagon for a while, and then junior year she sort of re-asked me. I was like “eh”- I know I needed God but I wasn’t sure if I could find a good community, but, lo and behold, I did. I’ve been coming ever since then and it’s been great.

What draws you in to the community?

I think the intentionality of the community draws me in. If I miss a week, I get a couple text messages from people checking in. My grandma just passed away and I just had an overwhelming response of love from this community, people asking am I emotionally okay, do I need anything, asking about my family. That meant a lot to me that people intentionally saw that I was in pain and took initiative to say “are you okay?” and I’ve never had that from friends before so it felt really good.

Why are you a Christian?

I’m a Christian because God never gave up on me. I definitely was in a very dark place a few years ago and didn’t think I needed God all that much, and he pulled me out and chased after my heart in a way that was unique and specific to how I would respond to him, which I thought was really cool. I stay a Christian because being a Christian doesn’t mean you don’t have doubts or questions, it just means that you screw up all the time but there is this savior Jesus who chases after your heart, who’s not gonna give up on you. He loves you so much that he wants to capture you in his arms all the time, and it’s amazing and beautiful.

What draws you to Jesus?

I kind of like that he was radical for his time. I think it was cool that he had to step out of his norms, he had to kind of go against the grain and share what the father had to say and challenge people in ways they’d never been challenged. I also like how selfless he was because I have such a hard time being selfless, and then I go back and think about the fact that Jesus died for me- this most excruciating and painful death and he still chose it. He’s also intentional, too. His community is intentional and he is intentional in the way he communicates and moves in our lives to be able to steer us on this path he wants us to go on.

What breaks your heart?

It breaks my heart when people think they don’t have a place. That’s really sad when people don’t have a community or someone to confide in. I never want people to feel alone or left out. It hurts that some people feel like they have no one- like they don’t have a place. I hope that I can help people feel like they have a place. Being alone sucks and I never want anyone to feel that way. It’s awful. Also, what breaks my heart is the kids that I’ve come into contact with on mission trips who live in these impoverished places and they are still so joyful. It breaks my heart that I can’t be joyful with all I have, and these kids are joyful with nothing. It’s a nice mental check that I need to be grateful.

What feeds your soul? What makes you come alive?

I’ve got a wide range of things that feed my soul- intentional conversations with people, time with God while the sun rises, hearing rain fall on the rooftop, watching the stars, hugs. My mom’s chicken and dumplings feed my soul; she makes them every time I come home. She picked up on that as I’ve gone to college and come home and she’s like “oh, I know you always ask for this,” so it’s an automatic thing, and it really makes me feel good that she noticed something and continues to do it. Thoughtful things feed my soul.

What is one book everyone should read?

I would say Crazy Love by Francis Chan- this book rocked my world. It’s an intense read. I remember I was praying for God to speak to me and I didn’t realize that God could speak through other things besides this audible voice or burning bush. I was in my room reading this book and I was like “holy cow, this is God speaking to me.” I remember I started crying because God had answered a prayer that was unique to me, because reading is one of my favorite things to do. Instead of an audible voice, he decided to speak through a book. That really touched my heart that God connected with me in that way. This book challenges you to think and really puts you outside of your little comfort zone that I think some Christians can get into. It really expands your thoughts on how you live your life and how you want to impact this world.

Any parting words?

First, I want to say thanks to this community for embracing me and all my little quirks, because that means a lot that I can be myself all the time and no one will ever judge me or not let me hang out with them. They really draw close to everyone and make them feel welcome. The other thing is that, through the highs and lows of college, God is always there. Whether you feel him or not, his presence is there. In the moments where you can’t feel him, just keep pressing forward and reading your Bible. Don’t forget to pray, too, because even when you feel like God doesn’t hear your prayers, everyone words are valid. Don’t give up on God because he doesn’t give up on you.

Kelly, if you could be one age forever, what age would you be and why?

Maybe…thirty…five?

Why thirty-five?

Because you can still do all the things you want to do, but you’re not old- you can still run a marathon and have kids and such.

That makes sense. So, how did you find Agape?

Well, I was really committed to finding a Christian ministry when I came to school so I actually did research on Loyola’s website before I even got here and found Ecclesia and then went to the org fair, met Mike Moore, and got invited to Agape. Started going the first week and haven’t stopped since.

What keeps you coming back? What draws you in?

Well, our community specifically I always found the most welcoming, um, I’d gone to other ministries and didn’t really feel invited into the community in the same way that I did here. And just seeing the way that we love each other and love Jesus just keeps me coming back.

Why are you a Christian?

I was raised in a Christian family, so I knew all the right answers about Jesus since I was a little kid, and I thought I was a Christian and knew what I was doing and then, when I was a senior in high school, I met a lot of people who really knew who Jesus was and I realized I didn’t know who he really was; I just knew all the right answers when people asked me questions. But literally everything changed the moment that I met them, and I hung out with them a couple of weeks after I started seeing them at school regularly and praying with them and I prayed out loud for the first time in my life with these people that I’d never really known before and at that moment, I knew it was real and, if God could pull me into that, he was who he said he was.

What draws you to Jesus?

So many things, but mostly when I think about that time in my life where I met all those people, there was a lot of bad stuff happening in my life and at the time, I remember thinking “oh this is so horrible, and how can I believe in a God who loves me if all this really horrible stuff is happening to me,” but when I think about it now, I think about all of the worse things that could have happened to me, how God really protected me from so many other horrible situations. And, being a Christian doesn’t mean that everything is going to be beautiful, and sometimes it means you have to go through the messy stuff to appreciate the beautiful stuff, but even in the messy stuff God has provided for me and protected me from so much worse.

What breaks your heart?

As a social worker, a lot of things. I think the thing at the forefront of my mind, just because I see it day after day, is child abuse. Just seeing the damage that that can do to the individual, especially with the kids that I work with, and on top of that to be rejected by so many people who aren’t their parents, they don’t feel like anyone loves them or cares about them.

What gives you hope?

I think there have been a couple of times at my work where I’d been feeling pretty sad, and then one of the kids has a Bible and asks me to read it, and I don’t know how much he knows what’s going on, but it’s still encouraging to know that that’s still happening. Some of the kids are asking to go to church, and I actually had an hour-long conversation with someone on staff about God and why I think it’s important, so there have been little moments that remind me why I’m there. God is still allowing opportunities for me to have conversations and to be a light in that place.

What’s one book that you think everyone should read?

The book that I read really early in my faith that changed a lot of things was “Blue Like Jazz,” because at that point, Donald Miller gets down to the core of issues in that book in a way that everyone can understand- it changed the way I looked at Christianity.

Any parting words?

I guess, even when everything seems really hopeless and desolate, God has still been there. It’s still been a growing experience for me, maybe not in the way that I wanted, but at the end of it I can see how God was working in that situation. Just because things are bad, that doesn’t mean God has left you.