Unlike many of my peers, growing up I had the advantage of knowing about God through my family and church. When I was 8 years old, there was a guest speaker at our church who shared the Gospel and challenged me to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It was during the meeting that I decided to follow Jesus with my whole life!
To help me live out my decision, I would attend a youth summer camp each year. I would feel like I was “on fire for the Lord.” However, after a few weeks, this feeling would slowly die out. At age 15, the youth director was called to a different church, and with her went many of the older members in our youth group. This left me feeling very lonely. I was still attending church physically, but my heart was no longer in it. I then began to backslide into the world.
I enrolled at the University of South Florida in 2007 after high school. During my orientation to USF, I met a campus minister from Cornerstone. When I started my classes in the Fall, he called me the first week. This really shocked me. He even offered to help me move into my dorm. Afterward, I started doing a weekly Bible study with a campus minister and also attended Cornerstone Christian Church on Sundays.
Through the discipleship I was receiving, I saw how important it was to get connected into a church. So, I became a member of Cornerstone in May 2008. In the Spring of 2009, I became vice president of the student group, Cornerstone Student Fellowship. Since then, I’ve been in a leadership role to host events bringing other students into the fellowship of the church. With the help of other campus ministers, I am able to effectively share the Gospel with students on the campus. Thanks to the discipleship and fellowship, I’ve “been on fire for the Lord” ever since. ~ James
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Click on a students' name to see a previous Testimony of the Month: Carlos, Ali