He Led Me to the Church, E.H.

Seek Jehovah while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6

My prayer during my freshman year at The University California at Irvine (UCI) was to find a Christian group that was solid in the truth, and to find spiritual companions on campus that I could pursue the Lord with. I really wanted to grow in my understanding of the Word, because that was something I was lacking in. My family attended a small church in New Jersey that consisted mostly of young families. I was the oldest one in the youth group. All the other kids in the youth group were at least two years younger than me. So I saw my college years as a chance to grow spiritually.

Coincidentally, my father's job got transferred out to Orange County, California, the summer before I started at UCI. Instead of living in the dorms I commuted 20 minutes to school every day. To my disappointment, the church my parents started attending did not have a college group, and once again, there was hardly anyone my age. So I church-hopped and attended many different Christian clubs on campus, but none of the groups seemed to satisfy.

I met the brothers and sisters from the local church the winter quarter of my freshman year, during a time when I had many questions spinning in my mind concerning certain matters in the Bible. I started having Bible studies with two other Christian sisters on campus. To my surprise they were willing to meet with me any time I wanted to study the Bible. And even though I never asked them the questions in my mind they indirectly answered my questions through their sharing on the book of John.

I also started attending Friday night meetings and met many other college students loving and pursuing the Lord. Through these meetings more of my questions got answered! I realized the more I fellowshipped with the brothers and sisters in the local church the more certain issues were being settled within my being. The best part of it all was that my questions were getting answered without my ever having to ask them out loud, so I knew God was using them to answer my questions. Every time I was with the brothers and sisters I sensed that God was so real and living in their lives, and I felt drawn closer to God too. The brothers and sisters in the local church were the spiritual companions that I had been asking the Lord for.

As I came in contact with more brothers and sisters in the local church I began to realize that my search to understand the Word in a deeper way required more than just studying the verses in the Bible. They showed me that to truly know the Word I must know the Person of Christ and experience Him and all that He is in a personal way.