Living the “Yes” Lifestyle

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:44:42 +0000

Gordon Govier

Living the “Yes” Lifestyle

Bible study was a personal discipline Howie Meloch started before he enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis. But he was surprised that his spiritual growth accelerated as he got involved in ��ñ��. “I look at those four years of college as being pretty foundational for the course and the direction that was set for my life,” he said. “��ñ�� was also the place where I found community and dealt with the challenges of school.”

During his sophomore year, Howie was invited to become one of the leaders of the ��ñ�� chapter. As he considered that decision, he read Isaiah 6, where God made an invitation to the prophet. Howie realized that saying yes to God was not a one-time decision but a lifestyle. Like Isaiah, he responded, “Here I am, send me.”

Howie also said yes to rooming with the leader of the independent Black Campus Fellowship and working together in ministry. “I saw the power in being reconciled with one another and loving one another,” he said.

Lessons in Arkansas

After graduation, Howie joined ��ñ�� staff and was assigned to two campuses, The College of the Ozarks and the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. When the University of Arkansas chapter dwindled to three students, he felt like a failure.

But at the same time he was looking for opportunities for cross-cultural friendships, so he decided to join the campus Gospel Choir. The professor who led the choir was a music minister in a local church. Howie was impressed by how the professor thanked God continuously, through both good and bad experiences. Howie’s prayer life and Bible study experiences also grew during that time.

“I think that God did a number of transformative things in my life through being involved in the choir,” he said. “God opened my eyes and began to teach me what it looks like to minister to Black students on campus. That became my focus as a minister there in Arkansas. Then when I left Arkansas, God opened up more doors for me to minister to Black students.”

Returning to St. Louis

Howie returned to St. Louis at the same time that the Black Campus Fellowship at Washington University requested an ��ñ�� staff member be assigned to them. As Howie worked with them, the chapter grew to 90 students. He also helped set the groundwork to plant another chapter at Harris-Stowe University, a Historically Black College in St. Louis.

When a member of the Washington University fellowship joined staff and was assigned to the chapter, Howie was given broader responsibilities. Today his duties include overseeing Black student ministry in four states as he serves as Associate Regional Director for the Central region, based in St. Louis.

“I’ve been amazed at where God has taken me as I’ve said yes to him, but I decided to continue to say yes and not argue with God about my qualifications,” he said. “I’m going to trust God. It is clear to me that God continues to call me to reach Black students on campus.”

“Howie has lived a life of saying yes to Jesus,” said Regional Director Jon Hietbrink, Howie’s supervisor. “Howie’s leadership has had a catalytic effect in a variety of spheres across our region. He’s consistently taken steps to combat different ‘Goliaths,’ whether it be schools where we felt like we could never plant (like Harris-Stowe State University), or problems we could never solve (finding new sources of funding for minority staff). God has blessed his courageous faith.”

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News Keywords

University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Washington University

Harris-Stowe State University

Willing to Take Risks on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:06:19 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Willing to Take Risks on Campus

Ashley Smith attended two Urbana Student Missions Conferences as a student, Urbana 03 and Urbana 06, and they were completely different experiences.

As a freshman at Urbana 03, the last one on the University of Illinois campus, Ashley attended all of the seminars she could find and totally enjoyed worshiping together with 19,000 fellow believers. “Urbana 03 opened my eyes to what God’s Kingdom actually looks like,” she said.

Ashley returned to Washington University in St. Louis and became a leader in the the Harambee chapter of ��ñ��. In 2005 several people encouraged her to join ��ñ�� staff but she was hesitant.

Honest Dialogues

Urbana 06 was located in St. Louis, her home town, and Ashley gave a spoken word testimony in one of the sessions. But she spent much of the rest of the Urbana week in the prayer room at one of the hotels, wrestling with God’s call to campus ministry. “I didn’t want to be called to staff,” she recalled. “God and I had some honest dialogues during that week.”

Ashley had a long list of reasons that staff work was out of the question. “I told Him, ‘There’s no way I can raise the money needed to be on staff,’ and He responded by bringing unexpected donors across my path. I told Him, ‘My heart is geared more toward elementary and middle school aged kids, not college students,’ and He responded by re-shaping my heart and giving me a burden to see the lives of college students transformed.’”

Ashley concluded, “After I laid aside all the excuses, and wholeheartedly accepted the call of God on my life, He began to open my eyes to dream bigger than I ever had for what He could accomplish in the ministry He has assigned me to.”

Influence on Campus

Ashley started as an intern, working with the Harambee chapter at Washington University, and then became a full-time staff member a year later. In the last year or so the chapter has been struggling and Ashley has challenged the students in their faith walk and in their outreach to the campus. She also restructured the chapter leadership, to give it a new sense of purpose and direction.

On September 6, 2011, when an emergency meeting was called to announce the death of one of Washington University’s top officials, Vice chancellor James McLeod, Ashley was invited to the meeting and asked to pray. She was invited to help organize a candle light vigil that evening, and asked to pray again at the close of the vigil. “Having personally been close to Dean McLeod, I am definitely feeling the grief that comes with the reality of his death, but I am grateful to Jesus for providing platform and opportunity to be a minister of hope to a hurting community,” she said.

God keeps calling Ashley out of her comfort zone and Ashley keeps responding. Last year she expanded her work by planting ��ñ�� on another St. Louis campus, Harris-Stowe State University. HSSU is one of two historically Black colleges in Missouri, and was founded before the Civil War.

“Ashley is building a strong culture of servant leadership and Kingdom witness for this new ��ñ�� community at Harris-Stowe,” said Ashley’s supervisor, Missouri Area Director Elizabeth English. “In the midst of many demands from her primary chapter, instead of being an additional burden, the trips to Harris-Stowe have often been the most life-giving moments of ministry for Ashley.”

Building Relationships

Howie Meloch, ��ñ��’s Associate Regional Director for the Central Region, has known Ashley since she was a sophomore at Washington University. “Ashley is highly respected on campus by students and faculty,” he said. “She has great relationships with everyone from security workers to residence hall leaders to college deans. I am impressed by her love of campus and her engagement in the community.”

Howie also admires Ashley for being a risk taker. “At Harris-Stowe she was invited to lead a faculty-staff-student prayer gathering she was attending. They enjoyed what she did so much they asked her to do this regularly. She has worked hard to develop a broad base of relationships with faculty and staff on both campuses where she works.”

After four years on one campus and two years on the second campus, Ashley is just getting started. “I know that God has more for us,” she said.

(Ashley also did a spoken word presentation on John 1 at Urbana 09, which you can view on YouTube.)

News Keywords

Washington University

Harris-Stowe State University

Ashley Smith