Kristi’s story
“I didn’t think that organized religion was an important thing, I didn’t think it was necessary, and I had no interest whatsoever. I had had some bad experiences with people saying, “Oh you’re going to hell,” and I was very very turned off. Up until that point, if someone had asked me, “How do I become a Christian?”, I wouldn’t have known what to tell them. It would have been, “I don’t know, just try going to church, see if something clicks.”
T-shirt message
When I was a senior in high school, I went to visit to visit my [current] college – the University of Virginia – and then the next day I went to visit James Madison University where my best friend was attending. When I was there, I saw a lot of EveryStudent.com posters in dorm-room windows and on dorm-room doors, and my friend Adam actually had an EveryStudent.com t-shirt that he would wear around. And so I’d seen the EveryStudent address many times.
I was in the habit at the time of staying up late at night, talking to friends on Instant Messenger, and checking email, and so I just decided, “Why not – I might as well go to this site” and I just read one article after another, and I have no clue how long I must have spent the first time I was on the site – an hour or more.
“...things that had been troubling me”
I first chose the pages that seemed relevant to me in my life and issues that I had been struggling with. It really spoke to me as – I guess a seeker – someone who was searching. I felt it was really directive – right at where I was, and it answered very real issues – things that had been troubling me – about how can there be only one truth and how does this impact my life? Is there hope for a lasting marriage? I also went to some of the articles that were more intellectual in a sense, discussing the differences between other world religions, and why choose the God of the Bible.
Then I came across the prayer to invite Jesus into your heart and I had never heard of that. I didn’t know anything about it. I was blown away that I could actually have a relationship with God. And so I remember sitting there in my desk chair at home, just praying – and crying – I was so happy. It was something I had never thought about, that God could be living within me.
A safe place to go
I don’t know that I would have explored matters and issues as deeply if I hadn’t had that safe place to go, where I didn’t feel silly asking questions and seeking out answers. It guided me to Christ and presented it in such a real way. I continued to visit EveryStudent.com and dialogued with a few people through the website. I was so excited to get their responses – I was checking my email several times a day because I wanted to know what they had to say – I wanted these questions answered. The people who responded were so kind and just so joyful and they told me they would be praying for me. I was so amazed that they just loved me so much through these emails and encouraged me.
After I went to the site and I became a Christian, I wanted to share EveryStudent.com with other people and I wanted my friends to ask about it so I actually borrowed Adam’s t-shirt and started wearing it around my high school. And people would stop and ask me about it. EveryStsudent.com led me to the most important decision I have ever made and the best thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life.
I didn’t think that anything on the web could actually change my life. But it did, and I now realize that was just God directing me to what would be the best way to reach me. That was God – using this tool that I was on every single day – to reach me.
24/7 help
Every student needs to know the website is out there and they can have their questions answered in a non-confrontational way – that they can be reached by the gospel 24 hours seven days a week from their dorm room. It’s just part of our nature now to surf onto a website. And if they know that it’s out there, people will go just out of curiosity, and they can make a life-changing decision right there in front of their computer.”
__________COME
TO JESUS NOW__________
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