There are college students in South Carolina who are growing in their faith, reading the Bible, and giving significantly from their checking accounts in order to show people they don’t even know that God loves them.
Charleston-area college students raised more than $4,000 to help people in third-world countries after reading a book called “Crazy Love,” which caused them to rethink their priorities about money.Peter Hyatt, in his fourth year as Baptist minister for Charleston-area colleges, is marveling at a ministry that a group of 18 College of Charleston students began last fall after reading the book, “Crazy Love,” by Francis Chan.
“We long to see college students take Jesus at his word and follow him,” Hyatt said. “It’s energizing to actually see it happen.”
“Crazy Love” challenged the students to minister outside of their comfort zones. As Hyatt described it, “We learned to do things for Jesus because he commands us to, not because it’s comfortable.” The book focuses on loving one’s enemies, feeding the poor, taking care of orphans, being generous with one’s money, and how God’s love for us should make us love him and others selflessly.
In order to put into practice what they learned, the students decided to raise money for two ministries to third-world countries: Samaritan’s Purse (an international relief ministry founded by Franklin Graham), and a ministry that cares for young women forced into the human trafficking trade.
“God tells us to care for the poor and the orphans,” Hyatt said, “so we decided to purchase goats for families in order to provide milk and cheese for their nourishment, and to purchase care for girls trapped in human trafficking. One goat costs $70, and freeing and caring for one girl is $75.”
The student response was overwhelming. By mid-December, the group had collected more than $4,000, which translates, in practical terms, to 26 families receiving a goat and 27 girls given freedom from lives of bondage. Hyatt said the amount of money raised is remarkable, but the personal acts of selflessness demonstrated by the students also made an impression on him.
He said one student met him in his office to deliver an envelope labeled “goats and girls.” The envelope contained $2,250 and a note that read: “It was really just a matter of thinking whether it would be better for the money in my bank account to be eventually spent at Chick-fil-A and Best Buy, or go toward rescuing and supporting people who have next to nothing. When I started thinking that way, the dollars in my account started looking more like slaves still in bondage and malnourished families, and less like a financial safety net or fun next weekend. It’s really a different perspective when you think of it all as His money and not my money. You start asking if God would rather me feel safer in case something bad happens, or feed and rescue his children.”
Another student called Hyatt on a Thursday night saying he’d committed eight members of the group to work at a basketball tournament that weekend in order to raise some money. Hyatt said he was skeptical that they could find students willing to give up 11 hours on a Saturday to work concession stands at a basketball game in order to earn just 10 percent of the income. But, with just one day’s notice, 15 students showed up to work at the event and raised $500.
“It’s so exciting to see God’s spirit move people. These are poor college students who are giving up the money they usually spend on themselves,” Hyatt said. “It’s a huge encouragement to see them actually take Jesus at his word, to be uncomfortable and generous with their things,” he said. Students from The Citadel also participated in raising money for the ministry.
One student told Hyatt, “God gives us an irrational amount of himself through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. The least that we can do is love others a fraction of how much the creator of the universe humbled himself to love us.”
A freshman from the study group gave Hyatt $200, saying that he would have wasted the money on himself, so he chose to give it to Jesus instead. The student said, “If the children of God will not step up and follow Christ in his love and compassion for the poor and destitute, then who will?”
The experience has done more than raise money for the two ministries, it has drawn the group closer together. Hyatt said the students recognize that when they obey God, they find fulfillment and joy. “It’s also led to them coming up with ideas to be involved; instead of just getting together to socialize, they decided to give jackets to homeless people one evening and handed out hot chocolate on another cold night. They are discovering that there is a mission field right here,” he said.
Hyatt also sees a correlation between “Experience Kingdom Life” – the new South Carolina Baptist Convention focus – and living the abundant life that comes through Christ. “When Jesus talks about giving us ‘abundant life,’ it entails peace, joy, and things that aren’t material. We all desire to be alive in the fruits of the Spirit. Because of this experience, these students are more alive than I’ve seen them all year.”