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The Work of God in NKU UBF (Registered student group “Deeper Roots”)

“The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it.” Psalm 68:11

     The Lord has been working to raise up disciples of Jesus at NKU UBF.  We are probably not your traditional UBF chapter because much of what we do involves around the work of God in making us the author of 4 books written mainly for the teen/college aged. In 2005, God helped us to write our first book, “Crossing the Red Sea.” It was written and published by one of America’s Top Christian publisher’s, Tate Publishing. It was chosen out of a possible 7,000 manuscripts. Though they wanted to publish are other books, we chose to go with a local Christian publisher so that we could build a relationship with the people of Kentucky where God sent us in 2005 to pioneer Northern Kentucky University campus. This segment is written because of the prayer and encouragement of S. Grace Martin who now resides in Chicago. Now, I will explain how God has been working to produce fruit through our publishing efforts and our 1-1 Bible study ministry.

     After arriving at NKU, it was just our family with the exception of a NKU music student which we hired to play piano for us. Pioneering a new ministry is both difficult and sometimes you can get discouraged after seeing no visible fruit for a while. God provided us with a perfect house for ministry in a middle-class neighborhood. For the first few years of our ministry, we struggled much with how to raise disciples of Jesus. God always gave us 1-1 Bible studies but the attraction of the bigger mega-churches or the traditional church has much more to offer from a student perspective. We prayed much and once I was asked to leave the NKU campus and told not to preach on the campus. This is when I prayed much and sought God through deep personal Bible study and even became a music student so that I could be on the campus to meet students. One of the ways I took out my frustration was through writing books to try to answer some of the difficult questions to a teen/college student about the Christian life. During these early years, “His Vision, His Beauty, His Glory” was written and “To Be with God we must wash our robes.” Just this year, “The Life of a Christian” was finished.

     Writing was both good spiritual medicine for me and it was encouraging to be productive during our down time in our ministry. I don’t consider myself a writer in the traditional sense but an evangelist who wants to get the message of God’s love and forgiveness to teens/students. In time, God used our books to aid us in raising disciples of Jesus. A married couple who are a big part of our ministry read our book in Florida, “Crossing the Red Sea” and they were deeply encouraged. God helped them to decide to move up near us to join our ministry. Luis and Michele are the parents of one of my Bible students, Andrew Garnett. God began to open doors, I began to be in the local newspaper, on the radio concerning our books and ministry. I found myself speaking at a Christian High school and many other speaking events. Amazingly, I got to speak at the local rotary club and many of the professors at NKU attended and I got to share with them my personal testimony and give them a copy of my first book. The president of the University has also received all four copies of our books and he has sent us thank you letters.  God used our books both as a vehicle for evangelism and an aid in raising disciples of Jesus at NKU.

     I found that many local pastors like the books  we wrote, and they told me how they used them in their sermons and even Bible classes. I learned writing from testimony writing. I remember when God first called me to UBF from a high school dropout. I had no idea how to express things in words and I could not even write a single paragraph. Dr. Sam Zun rebuked me many times for writing pointless testimonies and even my English professor at UC threw my papers in the garbage because Nicodemus (this was his name) told me how terrible I was in writing. Dr. Sam Zun later asked me to write a book about my life which I did though it took me ten years. His love for me encouraged me. God’s word and the encouragement of many of Cincinnati UBF co-workers helped me to grow in faith and to just write by faith and prayerfully. God put in my heart a passion to write books to express Biblical truths to teens/college students. Mother Sarah Barry once told me how I should reach out to other churches in KY and to think about the whole community. Last Christmas, we had our first Christmas worship on campus and many NKU students came and 5 local pastors joined us for prayer for students at NKU. One of the speakers, Mike Tussey, who is in the Broadcast Hall of Fame and who broadcast the Basketball games at NKU is now a Christian friend and the campus advisor of our new student group on campus called “Deeper Roots.”

     Every year during the fall up to Christmas, we have book signings on campus to recruit disciples and to interact with the students at NKU. We are currently doing these signings right now as we are preparing for our Christmas worship service at the Student Baptist Union. Last year, I met Shepherd Koin Mueller at a book signing and we started Genesis study together and God changed his life and now this year he is preparing our Christmas message. Koin brought his younger brother, James. They were both baptized in our ministry and our growing as spiritual leaders. I found that students are really thirsty for God’s love and for the truth. Later, God sent Shepherd Jacob Robinson who is a regular Sunday messenger for us and a student at NKU.

     I call our 4 books, “four sharp arrows”, of God’s word for students. Students like to talk about our books and they really like them. Our most recent book, “The Life of a Christian” was written with much student input including working with a Paul Whittenberger who is a leader at Campus Flood ministries at NKU but now studies the Bible at UBF and he has helped us in many ways to finally become an official student organization. I don’t know if I will write any more books but I thank and praise God that he is using our ministry to raise disciples of Jesus and that our books have played a big part in the process and are tools to communicate the gospel to them. In a few weeks, we will be moving our Sunday worship service to campus and we believe that God will accomplish His purpose and His will as we introduce students to Christ through our books and through 1-1 Bible study. Please continue to pray for God’s work in raising disciples at the Northern Kentucky University.