It was a long week.  No one got much sleep around the house.  One of our sons was preparing to go to college.  Sorting through and packing items, collected over the years, he was a little apprehensive about what college life would be like. 

Even though my wife and I had tried to prepare him, he still may have held to a television version that filled his head.  You know the one.  It shows how nerds can eventually take over the campus.  Another version shows where all the guys and girls get together at the malt shop and later meet on a lonely road for a drag race.  The winner gets the girl, etc.  No where in the movies does it show the cramped dorm life, mounds of homework, midnight vigils, pouring over books, studying for a test or feeling like a single rat in a cage filled with thousands of other rats.

I have told my kids for years, "Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else."  At first they didn't know what I meant.  One by one, they are finding out.  This was one son's turn to find out. After a couple of hours of restless slumber, we headed our cars down the highway for a 170 mile trek to the campus.  It appeared that every other parent was on the road with their college-bound kids.  When we arrived at the campus, we were not surprised to see the snarl of traffic or myriad of people unloading cars and carrying boxes into the dormatory.  They really need more than two elevators for a building with a 20 million students.  At least it felt that crowded to me. We sent the boys off to park one of the cars at a remote lot while I unloaded the wagon.  The plan was to unload my car and shuttle it off to another lot while they took my parking place and unloaded the second car.  After everything was unloaded, they would shuttle the second car off and we would carry everything inside, and upstairs, and down the halls, and into the room, and unpack the boxes, and set things in order.    The place was a zoo! As the last box reached the sidewalk, a group of people emerged from the building and approached us.  They were wearing matching t-shirts and appeared to know their way around.  At first, I thought they were going to tell us we could not put our boxes where they were, or that we were not in the right place.  Instead, they smiled and one of them asked if they could help us carry our things up to the room.  Amazed, I stuttered for a moment, looked at my wife and then back to the smiling group, who was still waiting for an answer.  Here we were dreading the dudgery of dragging the heavy belongings into a confusing environment, and there stood 6 angels, asking if they could help.  We quickly accepted the offer and then noticed their t-shirts identified them as members of a campus ministry called Christian Campus House.  Halleluiah! They quickly set to work, grabbing the heaviest of things and filed into the building.  Amazingly, it only took one trip to get everything inside.  After we had everything in the room, they stepped into the hallway to say goodbye.  I spoke with them for a while because I wanted to know more about these kids who were obviously working hard for the Lord that day.  I introduced myself and my family.  I pointed to the son who would be staying at the dorm.  I told them that we were all Christians and that our son played guitar at our church.  They quickly lit up and asked him to come and play with their worship team.  Very cool, indeed!  Off they went to help someone else move in. We spent most of the day, getting things in order, picking up books and getting the computer hooked up to the school network, etc. Needing a network cable, I made my way to the car and came across another group of kids with matching t-shirts.  This time, the shirts identified them with a group called Chi Alpha.  I wondered if this could be the same Christian group that I ran across 30 years ago, so I asked them.  Indeed, this was the same Chi Alpha group that I had fellowshipped with back in 1971.  They wanted to know if they could help me in some way.  I said "No thanks" and started to smile as they walked away to help others unpack and get settled.  We were surrounded by Christians! I told my wife about meeting up with this other group.  As we got on the elevator, I said "We need to find out more about them."  A girl on the elevator asked "Can I help you with anything?"  I told her we would like to find out more about the Chi Alpha group.  She smiled and said "I am a member of Chi Alpha!  What would you like to know?"  By this time, my wife and I were shaking our heads and giving thanks.  The girl told us that "David" is also a member of Chi Alpha.  David is the RA (resident assistant) for the floor that our son is on.  She  told us about a bar-b-que they were having the next day and that David would probably bring some of the freshman with him.  We thanked her as we got off on our floor.  Later that night, David came by and took our son to a meeting on campus.  This morning was worship and tonight, they are at the Chi Alpha bar-b-que. We know that what happened at the SMS campus in Springfield, Missouri was a blessing from God.  These Christian kids are practicing what they believe.  They are serving others.  Sometimes we forget that our service can be more than inviting someone to church or witnessing.  Sometimes we can serve others by breaking into a sweat and sharing the load. We feel like we were in an episode of "Touched By An Angel".  It was as if God was saying "It's okay.  I've got him." Thanks to all of the Christian Campus House and Chi Alpha angels that God sent to welcome us and our son.  You set a wonderful example of Christian service.  Stop by Gentle Ministries sometime.  http://www.gentle.org
Christian Campus House
622 East Monroe
Springfield, Missouri  65806
(417) 862-8080 Chris Jones
johnnyv@cconthe.net
The CCH web site
http://www.cchonthe.net/home.htm Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship
602 S. Florence
Springfield, MO 65807
(417) 869-8950 Joe Zickafoose: joe@smsu-xa.org
SMSU Chi ALpha web site
http://www.smsu-xa.org/
 
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• Topic: Devotionals

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