"Surrounding Myself in a Community"

“When I first came to college, I thought it would be easy to keep going to church on the weekends, be plugged into my faith, and stay engaged in my relationship with the Lord. I quickly realized that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I kind of forgot all my framework for my faith and it was not until the second semester of Freshman year when I made some friends who asked me if I was interested in checking out a local church. Willing to, I said yes so I could get back into the groove I knew before.  Nothing really changed at first, I just went on Sundays weekly. My spring break plans were getting a little confusing and I was about to go home, when a friend of mine asked me to join her in Panama City Beach to do mission work through a Greek Ministry. It was the most life changing week, as I got to see the Lord work in so many ways. After spring break, I realized that all of us college students are going through the same struggles of finding the Lord and putting our value and identity into many different things. I fell in love with the ministry because they encourage anybody to attend no matter where you are on your walk with the Lord. College is nothing that I would have expected when it came to my faith, but I am so grateful for the work the Lord has done in my life to get me where I am today. Surrounding myself in a community has made it very great for my journey because I have so much accountability and so many people that continually push me towards Jesus”.

- Neely Reilly (Sophomore), The University of Tennessee