Texas

Off the Charts and Fitting Right In

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 19:02:03 +0000

Gordon Govier

Off the Charts and Fitting Right In

Chelir Grady tells people that she was created to be on staff with ��ñ��. “I love every moment of it,” she said. She loves it so much that she walked away from a lucrative and fulfilling engineering career with a generous employer because, “When I was at work I felt like I was wasting my time.”

Five years ago, Chelir had no clue that ��ñ�� existed. When she attended Texas A&M University her spiritual life centered on her church, where she started a Bible study for fellow students and recruited friends for the church’s Sunday School and choir.

She graduated in 2009 with a mechanical engineering degree and began working with an energy company. Her work took her to Salt Lake City and Atlanta, before moving her back to her hometown of Houston.

Her introduction to ��ñ�� came at Urbana 12, which she attended after starting seminary classes part time and going on a short-term mission trip to Peru. When she learned about the Urbana triennial student missions conference it seemed like a good place to learn more about missions. The third day of the conference she saw an invitation to a meeting to learn how to get more Black students to come to Bible study. Since she was leading a Bible study at her home, she decided to go.

At the meeting, Chelir was the one who ended up talking the most, sharing with the students who were there some of the Bible study tips that she had learned. The ��ñ�� staff in attendance wanted to know who she was and asked if she was on staff with ��ñ��. She said, “What’s ��ñ��?”

After the meeting, Chelir had a long conversation that ended with an invitation to join ��ñ�� staff. She brushed off the invitation, saying she had a job she liked that paid well and wasn’t interested in a job that called her to raise her own financial support.

But her curiosity was piqued. Back in her Urbana 12 hotel room, she researched ��ñ��. Chelir noticed the chapters at many Texas colleges but not at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Soon she was telling someone she would like to start an ��ñ�� chapter at Texas Southern University (TSU), an HBCU in Houston.

Chelir struggled with the idea of raising her financial support, until she realized that even a large energy company like her employer couldn’t provide unlimited job security. “If I’m putting my faith in something it should be in God,” she concluded, “because I know he will always provide.” When she got back to Houston, she told her employer she was quitting her job to go into vocational ministry.

The transition to ministry took longer than anticipated. Chelir’s employer offered to reduce her hours, saying they would rather have her part-time than lose her. She continued working at the energy company for two 10-hour days a week, and began ministering on campus for three days a week. On the weekends, she caught up on reading and wrote papers for her seminary classes.

Jason Thomas, ��ñ��’s Executive Vice President for Field Ministry, remembers interviewing Chelir when he was the Red River Regional Director. “Chelir was off the charts on our rating system, and we thought, ‘How is it possible for a non-��ñ�� person to score so high?’”

But with her church heritage (her grandfather and uncle were pastors), her volunteer church leadership roles during and after college, plus the home Bible study she led, campus ministry felt natural. The church she began attending near the TSU campus helped her meet the students and faculty that she needed to become a registered student organization and the TSU chapter was officially launched in the spring of 2014.

With her schedule of off-campus work, on-campus work, and seminary studies, Chelir has had to develop student leaders quickly and the students have responded. Growth has been steady and the chapter is now made up of about 75 core students.

At the end of 2016 she finally said goodbye to the energy company and started working full time on campus. She expanded her focus to another HBCU, helping plant a chapter at Prairie View A&M University northeast of Houston, and also began planting a Black Campus Ministries chapter at Rice University. Chelir discovered she liked planting: “I plan to be planting chapters forever because there’s always another campus you can go to.”

But Chelir’s vision for ministry ranges far beyond campus. Back at Urbana 12, Chelir happened to share a meal with a man who graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1987, the year she was born. As they discussed her ministry plans, he challenged her with this thought: "What if God has invited you to train students who will one day be missionaries all over the world?"

This summer, Chelir is part of ��ñ��’s Global Program in Kenya to see if she can find a way to move forward on that other mission that God put in her heart at Urbana 12, to help Black students become missionaries to African countries. As ��ñ�� continues to pursue its mission of transforming students and faculty, renewing the campus, and developing world changers, Chelir has fit right in.

News Keywords

Texas Southern University

Connecting Christians on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 19:12:18 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Connecting Christians on Campus

Texas appears dry and dusty. But Leon Fillyaw has found Texas to be fruitful for chapter planting twice in the past. In his current job he hopes to plant more chapters in and around Texas.

Twenty years ago Leon drove his 1966 Mustang from North Carolina State University in Raleigh to Texas Tech in Lubbock. He’d worked as a volunteer staff member with ��ñ�� for a year at NC State, and was about to give up on campus ministry. But a friend on staff told him that the Texas Tech chapter needed replanting and some of the faculty had raised enough money to support a campus staff member for one year.

“It felt pretty risky to drive out to Texas,” he said. He knew no one there. His experience at NC State had not convinced him he could cut it in campus ministry. But as a volunteer, and before that as a chapter leader and during a summer mission trip, he had experienced the fulfillment of taking risks for ministry. He was ready to take another risk.

Replanting the chapter was slow going—a lot of trial and error. “I kept being faithful in doing what I knew I could do,” Leon said. Four years later the chapter had grown to about 60 students, which is close to average size for an ��ñ�� chapter.

Then he moved to San Antonio, got married, and began replanting another chapter at Trinity University.

“I loved the work; I found it very rewarding, challenging, and stimulating,” Leon said. “At the same time those were lean years in Texas. Our ranks were decimated and we were struggling. But I had a strong sense from the Lord that I wasn’t finished yet.”

Leon nurtured the Trinity chapter for six years, and then nurtured Trinity campus staff for another four years as area director. The chapter continued to grow—even after Leon moved his family to Africa to join a church planting mission for a while—eventually peaking at around 100 students. The Trinity chapter also became known as one of the most consistent sources of new ��ñ�� staff in the region, year after year.

Today, he is area director for Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM), covering Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, a job he’s held for the last three years. Leon’s passion for campus ministry has not diminished through the years. His main charge is to recruit more staff to work with graduate students and faculty members at the key research universities in the area. Only one campus currently has GFM staff.

He’s met with Christian faculty at Texas A&M, and hopes to have a chapter operating in College Station soon. There are a couple of other schools where grad students have organized chapters but a lack of Christian community is common. “Being faculty and being in grad school are isolating experiences; you might not know any other Christians,” Leon said. “We’re seeking to build outposts for faithful presence throughout academic departments at these institutions.”

Leon was inspired by the story of a group of grad students at the University of Texas who met together several times to discuss how the Christian faith influences the development of virtue. Through the experience of reading a book with some fellow PhD students, one student who had been an atheist began to embrace the Christian faith.

“Because everybody is so busy, they only met three or four times, but some relationships formed out of that,” he said. “People weren’t as isolated as they were before. It was a light in a dark place, and it was beautiful to watch.”

Leon is hoping that as the number of campuses with GFM staff grows in his area he will get to see many more lights emerge from the darkness.

News Keywords

Texas

Oklahoma

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Arkansas

Discerning God's Will

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:10:24 +0000

News

Discerning God's Will

In 1996 as a student at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Josh Howell was preparing for a career as a Civil Engineer. But God had other plans for him.

Josh had been a Christian since eighth grade when he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And in high school he had even thought about a vocation of full time ministry, perhaps as a small church pastor in a rural setting. But when he entered college, he began taking courses that would prepare him for civil engineering. And his vision for becoming a minister faded.

Gifted Student Leader

At the university Josh excelled in his studies, but he also was a gifted leader in the ��ñ�� chapter on campus. Today he remembers his first year of college as the beginning of a spiritual journey, a remarkable adventure of faith, during which he began learning how to trust God for guidance in every area of life.

As a freshman, a significant confirmation of God’s calling came through Josh’s experience in an ��ñ�� small group Bible study. He loved studying the Bible with his classmates, and he showed an aptitude for discerning spiritual applications within the biblical text.

As he proceeded through his sophomore and junior years, Josh found more reasons to believe that God was surely calling him to a vocation of ministry. Within the ��ñ�� chapter, he was now regularly leading Bible studies, participating in missions projects, and leading other students as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

The summer before his senior year, Josh participated in a Baptist Men’s Missions project to South Africa. Seeing the needs of people in a different culture deepened his hunger to help them and minister to their lives.

And though he went again on a two-week mission to South Africa in 1997, the plan for a conventional career and lifestyle lingered in his mind. So it seemed a good sign that his senior year he received a job offer as a civil engineer. Still, about his vocation, he was conflicted. He desired to discern God’s will.

Hearing God’s Call

Then one day he sense God’s presence in a special way and the Holy Spirit’s quiet voice speaking in his heart. Josh recalls to this day the words from Jesus. “You can keep running from me, but I will always love you. But you will never be content until you follow me.”

The deep conviction entered Josh’s heart that he was God’s servant, called to follow Jesus. Josh rededicated his heart, talents, and future to God’s use forever.

Soon thereafter, ministry opportunities and ministry fruitfulness seemed to blossom around him. “Bible studies were a joy, and I was seeing people’s lives change,” said Josh.

��ñ�� staff recognized his giftedness and invited him to consider working as an ��ñ�� staff member. With each ministry event, Josh was seeing God’s blessing and guidance.

He now believed that God was calling him to take that courageous step toward full time ministry by not accepting the civil engineering job and instead beginning the process of becoming an ��ñ�� staff member. He was encouraged in his decision by receiving the understanding and blessing of his parents about this choice.

Assigned to Texas

His first assignment was to plant new ��ñ�� chapters in Texas. And this first job required him to trust God’s will, for Josh had never before lived so far away from his close-knit family in North Carolina.

Another challenge was raising financial support for his ministry. For years he struggled financially, but he remained faithful to God’s calling. And with each passing year, Josh learned more about God’s guidance and how to discern God’s will.

He prayed much and always. He yielded his heart to God. And then he acted, knowing that God loved him. Time and time again, Josh sensed God saying, “It has to be enough for you to follow me. Trust me. I love you.”

And as Josh continued to say, “Yes, Lord. Your will be done in my life.” He found that the funds he needed to sustain his ministry on campus grew. And new joys and blessings entered his life.

Blessed by family

In 2001, Josh met Ellen, and they married. Today they have two young children, Jack and June. Josh says that his family is a source of God’s blessing, joy, and strength.

Today Josh works as the Area Director of ��ñ��’s Red River region in Texas. He is responsible for guiding the planting of new campus chapters in the Houston area. These days he is seeing God open many doors for advancing the kingdom as students expand ��ñ��’s ministry on campus.

Through his strong family ties not only in Houston but those of his extended family in North Carolina, Josh has learned that God speaks to us through loved ones and that God’s will is as joyous as playing outdoor games with his children and planning romantic vacations with his wife.

Josh hopes one day to write a book about all that he is learning about ministry to benefit others and to show people that God loves us always, even during those times when it’s difficult to discern his will for our future.

News Keywords

University of North Caroline-Charlotte

Texas

Houston