To date, I have been fellowshipping with Christians on Campus for five years. Here, I would briefly like to testify of the revolutionary impact that Christians on Campus has made on converting my relationship with the Lord Jesus from being a relationship driven solely by religious duty to one that is driven by love and a restful understanding that God is pleased with Christ and Christ alone, not anything that I could ever do or accomplish for Him.
I was born into a very poor peasant family in northern Ethiopia that literally existed on a "hand to mouth" basis. In 1984 a devastating drought struck northern Ethiopia, bringing in a period of famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people, including every member of my immediate family. So, at the tender age of six, I was orphaned. It was at this time of dire need that I first called out to God for help. The Lord miraculously provided by sending a woman who gave me food and directed me to the refugee camp where I met the American missionary doctor who eventually adopted me. But even more, the Lord Himself came into me as my life that day and thereby brought me into His wonderful family.
From a young age, I had a strong awareness of God's mercy and care for me. Of the thousands of children in the same situation, why was my life preserved? Within, I knew it was God. What I did not know, however, was why the Lord had preserved my life. Rather than seeking the Lord for the answer to this question, I assumed that He had spared my life for some purpose and that I should, in thankfulness to Him for physically sparing my life, serve Him in some way, shape or form. So, for the next ten years of my life, I invested myself in anything and everything that I thought might possibly contribute to the accomplishment of the purpose for which God had preserved my life. I was busy with much activity related to the Lord, and at times, for the Lord, but still felt, in the words that I used in my diary on a mission trip to Russia, "like there was something missing." It was not until my junior year of college at The University of Texas in Austin that I discovered what that missing piece wasthat piece was the need to love the Lord.
In the first meeting that I attended with Christians on Campus, what impressed me the most was the very genuine and visible love that these young people had for the Lord. I had never seen or experienced anything comparable to it. It so impressed me that I e-mailed my parents that night and described to them how I had never seen young people with such a fervent love for the Lord. What I did not realize, however, was that I too could love the Lord as they did and indeed that this was the very "thing" missing in my Christian life.
A few weeks after that meeting, while studying the Bible with a young believer involved with the group, I began to relate to him how I felt that there was something very important and even crucial lacking in my Christian life. I knew it was not zeal or consecration because by that point, I had already made up my mind to be a missionary for the purpose of spreading the gospel. At this juncture, the believer shared a verse that will forever remain a governing vision to me. The verse, located in John 3:29, begins, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom". Through this brother's expounding of this verse and my own study encouraged by him, I saw for the first time that Christ is the bridegroom and we the believers are His bride. The relationship between a bride and bridegroom, I realized, is not one of duty or obligation but rather is one of love. For the first time in my life, I saw what Christ wanted from me. He wanted me to love Him in the deepest most intimate way possible--as a bride loves her bridegroom. I cannot describe the tremendous sense of rest, satisfaction and relief I experienced when this magnificent truth became mine.
Words fail in attempting to express the gratitude that I feel for the brothers and sisters with Christians on Campus who have so marvelously affected my life. Their love for the Lord and their leading me into the same kind of love and devotion to Him has resulted in my taking a course that eagerly awaits and anticipates His return.
Abey Bruce