Some Place Like Utah (Part 3)
“I’ve been praying for six months for a Christian group to come to my school!”
I don’t know whose mouth was more wide open, ours or Shiloh’s.
We had only been at Pastor David’s (the church planter) house for fifteen minutes when the pastor from the new Orem church walked in with Shiloh. After the usual small talk, Shiloh asked, “Why in the world did you come to Utah?” We explained that we were looking at a few universities in Utah to launch Christian student groups on campus.
When Shiloh told us his prayer we were nearly as excited as a kid getting his first bicycle on Christmas morning. Yet again we were experiencing the hand of God not just gently leading us but almost shouting.
Even more amazing, Shiloh had only recently come to faith in Jesus Christ as God. Now this former Mormon was working with us as we helped the new church in Orem as well as prayer walking through his university! His enthusiasm was only extinguished when he found out that it would be over a year before we would be back to work full time establishing Chi Alpha at his school.
I was reminded recently of how the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul in Acts 16. Not just once (v. 6), but twice (v. 7) the Spirit kept Paul from preaching in two provinces, Asia and Mysia. Then in verse nine Paul had the “Macedonian Vision” compelling him to leave at once for Macedonia. Then in Phillippi (v. 14) they found Lydia, whose heart was opened by the Lord. So wow, what a coincidence (said with sarcasm). Of course, God knew exactly what the plan was. It was not that God did not care about the people of the two provinces, his timing knew better. Later we know from Acts 19 and Revelation 1 that there were churches in these areas.
From the beginning, God planted the desire in our hearts to launch a new Chi Alpha. The question was where. The nation was wide open, but the Spirit of God led us to Utah and progressively to the university to launch the first Chi Alpha. A school of 32,000+ students, no Christian ministry on campus (unheard of!), and of course in the heart of Mormonism. Now you know why we feel so compelled and are working to raise 100% of our budget. The Spirit compels us. We must go.
As we left Utah that week, Noreen told me, “If Shiloh prayed for a Chi Alpha on his campus, I believe God would turn the world upside down to make it happen.”
