TRUTH

I promise this is the last "tribute", or what I like to call my "lasts!"

Tonight was the last TRUTH of the semester. If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that this bible study has meant more to me than I could have ever imagined. It all started in the fall of '04 when I arrived at Sam and I heard there was a bible study on Sunday nights that gave a free meal to the college students afterwards. The bible study sounded great, but the free food was a pretty good incentive. I'm not gonna lie, my first year here I pretty much had free food everyday, I knew which churches served free food and when they served free food. Oh, the joys of being a college student.

I ended up going to TRUTH and loved it. At this point I had not yet found a "home" church here, but considered visiting UHBC that Sunday to try it out since I loved the bible study so much. After a few weeks of looking around, I ended up at UHBC and have not left since.

During the Fall of '06, they decided to move TRUTH to Tuesday nights. As much as change can be a good thing, I'm pretty sure I hate change. And, to add to the change, dinner would no longer be served after bible study. Wow. Double whammy bad idea.

Well if you didn't notice, it has been the best change yet. Forget the dinner, I have been taught some TRUTH that I can absolutely cling to. For about 2 years we have had the absolute pleasure of having Afshin Ziafat lead us in God's Word. It has been amazing and challenging. His testimony and story are proof of God's faithfulness and goodness as He has been so faithful to Afshin and Afshin faithful to Him. We are blessed to get to hear from him each week and each week I look forward to what God has to say and how he is going to move. TRUTH has been my greatest delight.

Tonight as Afshin closed and the band came up to play I could not help but get emotional. It was everything in me not to bawl like a baby, but I held it in. The ugly cry in public is never a good thing. As we were singing the words, O come let us adore Him, We'll give Him all the Glory and We'll praise His name forever, I was truly giving Him all the glory for what he has done in my life these past 3 1/2 years at Sam Houston. Y'all, I can truly say that I am a different person. My faith is my own, not my parents. I chose to follow him in this wild journey called college, and through that He has blessed and changed me more than I asked for. I have been redeemed and KNOW it and love Him for who He is and what He has done in my life. I have been set free. I have been molded. I have been challenged. I have been encouraged. I have exchanged lies that I believed for Truth. This church and bible study have brought along some amazing people that I know the Lord has a hold on. This is the church I got baptized in. This is the church (and I'll say it again) where my faith really did become my own and for that I am eternally grateful. This church loves college students like no other, and I hope they know how much it means to each and every one of us.

I would personally like to thank The Lyle's, The Holland's, and Afshin. Y'all have seriously been the hugest blessing any church or college student could ask for. Bert and Afshin, thank you for sharing your hearts and wisdom with us. I don't take anything y'all teach us for granted. Y'all have challenged me in ways I never thought I could be challenged, and by being challenged, I know that I have been changed for the better. So, thank you for being obedient to the Lord by following His calling for your life and taking us through this journey. I am forever grateful for you. Ken and Nicole, I know I just met y'all this semester, but I feel like I've known y'all longer. Y'all are the perfect fit to this group and have blessed us abundantly by taking on huge responsibilities, but most of all just loving on all of us. Your ministry to us is a huge blessing and we are all so grateful. I just wish you would have come back sooner so I could have really gotten to know you. Simply because y'all are too fun and your kids are too darn precious!

Thank you so much for letting me serve along side all of you. I don't think that just by being a Truth volunteer I could ever give back to this church or ministry what they have given to me. From the bottom of my heart I am ever so grateful for all of you and how you have shaped and molded my life. It means the absolute world to me.

Much love to my TRUTH family and many big hugs.

But, you better believe I'll be visiting as often as possible in the spring! :) I mean, I'm not really a college graduate until then anyway!! ;)

Love y'all!!