Friday, September 05, 2008

No Reason To Believe

Our first time setting foot on the INACAP on Av. Apoquindo campus we met Juan Pablo, Kenneth and Camila. The week before a student from this campus, Felipe, attended our student leadership meeting, RaĆ­ces. I set up a time to visit his campus with some of the summer project students who were visiting us from the US. As we introduced ourselves and shared briefly the vision of Vida Estudiantil it was natural to ask them about their beliefs.

I asked them, “On a scale from 1-10, how interested are you in knowing God personally?” It doesn´t happen very often, but Kenneth answered “zero” with an honest grin. He indicated that he thinks people make too much of religion. He did not understand my question, but I could understand his point of view. Over the next month we got to hang out with them a couple of times on campus.

Last week when Felipe and I had made a time to go share our faith, we ran into Kenneth. After talking about girlfriends and different places in Chile, I reminded Kenneth of his response and asked him if he would be willing to share more of his story. He gladly accepted. While he went to buy a pack of cigarettes Felipe and I prayed.

Kenneth has just gotten to campus from donating blood to help his grandmother who is very sick. As he told his story it was easy to see why he found it so hard to “believe”. His story is full of difficulty. The injury that almost cost him his leg when he was young, his broken relationship with his father, the tension in his living situation with uncles and a very ill and cranky grandmother… He could find no reason to believe, even though he had tried. (Kenneth is at the far left, with the summer project)

Even though many things in life may not have a satisfactory explanation, Felipe and I could share how the cross of Christ and the unconditional love of God were even more inexplicable. Kenneth told us that he felt like something really extraordinary would have to happen for him to be able to believe. We helped him consider that perhaps something extraordinary was happening and had happened to reconcile him to God. Please pray that God help Kenneth to see light of the world, Jesus, and that God help us to be lights in the darkness on campuses in Santiago.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
(2Cor. 4:4-6)