From Fear to Faith: Vincent Finds His Mission

Every three years, Cru® participates at Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship®’s Urbana, the largest and longest-running Christian student missions conference in the U.S. At the end of December, 7,000 students came together in Phoenix, Arizona, to be challenged and resourced to invest their lives, gifts, and training to reach the world for Christ.

One of those students, Vincent, from Brooklyn, New York, arrived with a burden on his heart. Having come to Christ in high school, Vincent was encouraged by his church to start sharing his faith. Overcoming his initial fears, he discovered he enjoyed telling others how they could know Jesus. “At first,” he said, “it was really nerve-wracking, but to feel the joy of sharing the gospel with someone, to know that they’ve heard the good news, is so amazing!”

Last year, when he arrived at Manhattan’s Guttman Community College as a freshman, he felt alone in his faith. “My school has zero Christian presence, zero Christian influence. There are no clubs and no Christians there.” He wanted to begin something, but he didn’t know where to start. “The idea never left my head, but I gave up because of how scared I was. I felt like I wasn’t ready enough, I wasn’t a mature-enough Christian.”

At Urbana, Vincent met Cru staff member Dan Allan with EveryCampus®, a global partnership uniting dozens of Christian ministries to reach every college campus in America. Focusing on the 1,742 U.S. campuses with no Christian presence, EveryCampus mobilizes and equips local believers to pray and then, hopefully, start ministries on each one.

Vincent told Dan how he came to faith in Christ, and that he had a growing desire to reach his campus. Dan said, “We’ve been praying for months to meet students like you here at Urbana.” Vincent’s response? “You are an answer to my prayers!”

Dan offered to help Vincent launch a gospel movement on his campus, completely changing his perspective. “I was so wrong to give up,” Vincent said. “Coming here and getting the opportunity from Cru to start something is really God-sent. I hope there will be a Christian ministry very soon at Guttman Community College. I hope everywhere around the globe has a safe space for students to know Christ, to know the good news.”