Pause & Pray: Walking with Students is Discipleship and Meeting Needs
Walking with Students is Discipleship and Meeting Needs
Roland* started to help out at our free lunches on our campus and eventually became a student leader for our Del Mar free lunch ministry. In the beginning he was someone who was mostly around during free lunch times. By November, he was regularly helping out at the other BSM events on his campus and at TAMUCC as well. Roland became someone who was well liked and someone that was often invited out for late night activities. As a CMI, I was happy that he was starting to fit in, and was happy when he expressed to me that he felt like BSM was his home and that he enjoyed the friendships he was making. I wanted to learn more about him so i opened up dialog about his past. I had already known that he came out of the foster care system and that he had aged out of CPS. I also knew that he had reconnected with his biological dad who lived in corpus after he had been released from his 10 year incarceration. Roland had told us that he was living with his dad for about a year and that his house was about a five minute walk from the college. Roland often walked everywhere he went and sometimes looked disheveled. I asked him why he looked messy and he said that sometimes he liked to hangout downtown in his spare time, which is a four mile walk going and coming. I also noticed that sometimes he would be wearing the same clothes to school. I started to meet with Roland weekly as a part of discipleship. It was there that i learned that he and his father had a falling out about 3 months ago and that he was homeless and sleeping on the streets while still going to school. I was just surprised. One of our student leaders was homeless. I was heart-broken, but was determined to try to help him anyway possible. What was to follow was an intervention that involved my BSM director, my local pastor, Roland, and I. Over a period of two weeks we were able to help get Roland resources that would help him back on his feet. Today he is no longer on the streets, he has a job and is still in school. Roland is likely to get into a small apartment in the next coming weeks. He is also still serving as one of our free lunch leaders. He is an inspiration to me, because despite great adversity, he still firmly believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He was never one to talk about his hardships, and he never complained about his circumstances. I am truly thankful that he decided to join our BSM and serve with us. He is a crucial part of our team and is now a member of our BSM family.
*name has been changed
Pausing and Praying with you,
- Pray for Roland to continue to have work, a place to live, reconciliation with his family, school financed, and connection to the BSM and local Christian community.
- Pray for BSM leaders to discern ways to help meet their students needs both spiritually and physically.
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