So this is a story of God’s providential workings. From as far back as I can trace the events.

Kristin moved into the school district my freshman year. We had a bunch of classes together and thus became friends.

I went to Kent State for college. Kristin started at Cornerstone, transferred to Ohio State, studied abroad in Germany for a year then finished at Ohio State. While she was in Columbus, she started working at Starbucks.

I graduated from KSU and joined staff with Cru. After graduating and becoming engaged, Kristin moved back home for a short while. She transferred to the Starbucks in Bowling Green.

Omar was an international student from Saudi Arabia. He spent a lot of time at Starbucks and got to know Kristin. Last fall, he transferred to Kent State. Kristin asked me if I could meet up with him and introduce him to my friends.

So a couple weeks ago I and my former roommate Nick met Omar at the Starbucks in Kent. I asked Nick to come because while support raising, I’m not in Kent full time yet. And I knew Nick is a very outgoing guy and would connect with Omar quickly.

We hung out for an hour or so and Nick and Omar exchanged contact info afterward. The next weekend, Nick, Omar and my friend Matt met up at Jimmy John’s. Nick and Matt shared the gospel with Omar, who’s Muslim, and answered his questions. Omar was interested in hearing more and wanted to invite one of his Arabic friends who understands English better to translate.

Do you see what happened here? God lined up ordinary events in people’s lives — college, coffee shops, high school friendships, etc. — and created an opportunity for the gospel to be shared with Muslim students in Kent.

God sets up the opportunities perfectly. And our only job is to see the opportunity and take that step of faith.

Be praying with me that God would continue to give us opportunities to share Christ to Omar, his friend and the whole international student community.

One of the freshmen guys who’s been getting really involved in the movement is Cody. He’s a Cincinnati kid and lives where I used to live on campus, so when I met him last fall we connected on those things.

For much of this winter, he had been planning on transferring to the University of Cincinnati next fall. Cody wanted to major in astrophysics, which Kent State doesn’t offer. A lot of us were sad to hear his news.

But that changed. While I was visiting Kent last weekend, Cody told everyone he had an announcement: he wasn’t transferring.

I know Kent State isn’t about to start offering astrophysics anytime soon, so I had to ask him why he changed his mind.

“I feel like my work here isn’t done yet,” he told me.

“Ok… how so?”

“This semester especially, the gospel just hit me like a brick wall. I feel like I’m really understanding it for the first time. And God is doing so many awesome things with people in the Quad. I want to be a part of it.”

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I still didn’t even know how to respond. This is a freshman who is willing to sacrifice his current college plans for the mission of the gospel at Kent State. To see his friends in the dorms and classmates begin personal relationships with Christ. Amazing! My freshman year, I struggled just with getting my laundry done, never mind what I could be doing to advance God’s kingdom.