A little motivation

Utenited ....

Most of you may not know what Utenited is and therefore I will give you some background before I share my thoughts a little more:
Utenited is a non-denominational group of college students who meet on Tuesday nights at 8:00 pm in the Heritage Center for about an hour to worship, socialize, and listen to a short message that we can apply to our lives. At Utenited we believe that college students juggle school, work, friends, clubs, and that a Tuesday night break from all of that is a dose of what we need from our stressful routines.

When entering college in 2007 at the University of Utah, I knew I wanted to live in the dorms to get the whole college experience. Ben Robie and I decided to be suite mates since we had been friends with each other at South Mountain Community Church. When we got to the U., we had an idea to start up a group for students, but wanted something different than other existing Christian groups. At first we thought of modeling it after a college group that was once held at our church. So, we contacted David Figge, who once led this group. He was game to meet with us and listen to our ideas and desires to start something that would nurture and invest in our college peers. I did not know much about David, only that he had once led this group and he himself was still a college student at heart.

After meeting with David, we knew we wanted him to be a part of our new group. Eventually we all had the passion that this group would grow into something bigger than us and would need more than 3 to make it happen. There was a calling from God to start something up here that could really affect the lives of students on campus. We decided that Ben would lead worship for about 30 minutes, David would talk for about 10 minutes, and we would close with a final song. With all of this in place, at this point, we decided to try our first "soft-starts". There were about 5 people total who attended our soft starts in a little room downstairs in the Heritage Center. Our first official launch was the second Tuesday of October '07, and we were so excited since we had about 10 kids show up and we used this cool little speaker system with a mic and Ben's guitar. We laugh now.

Long story short ;), I can happily say that we have grown, immensely. Today we average about 80 attendees every Tuesday night, thanks to Him. We have upgraded room size, picked up more vocals, a pianist, a drummer, and base player to go along with Ben and his guitar. Oh yeah, and a better sound system. My role during this past semester though is changing. Due to the growth of Utenited and fellow Christian students stepping up to help, I have now taken on a different role with my teammates. I have been given the opportunity to meet and fellowship to the athletes on the football team.

This point here brings me to the overall idea of this blog.
God is truly amazing. A year and a half ago I was a new student up at the University of Utah who walked on to the football team and had no idea where I was going with my life. Now, through all the struggles and roller coasters I have been through emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, I have come to notice how great my God really is. I have met so many people and developed so many great relationships since Utenited started. Truly I am so blessed. Unfortunately I spent too much time thinking about how mistreated I was in both football and the dating world.
Last night, at Utenited I felt something that I had not felt before, it was not pride in what I had accomplished, but it was realizing that through God, you really can achieve anything. As I sat back and sang the songs with 70+ other Christian students, I realized what God had done through Ben, David, and I just a year and a half ago. It's a great joy knowing that you have helped provide, through God, a way for Christians not only fellowship with other Christians but for them to grow closer in their walk with Christ. Most importantly it introduces other students to our God and show them how He really can be everything you need in your life.

Through all of this, I am encouraged with what God is doing in my life and the lives of so many college students. There are billions of people out there who know nothing about God, and if we were able to affect 80 people in a short time, IN UTAH, what can't we achieve? If we just trust in Him our goals will be reached ...... all we need is a little faith and patience that He will achieve what is best for us all.

Living for Him