You do not have to go far to hear people call Grove City College\u00a0\u201cthe\u00a0bubble.\u201d More than not, the\u00a0bubble is not\u00a0referred to as a good thing.\u00a0After being here two and a half years, I can confirm, Grove City\u00a0College is in many ways a giant\u00a0bubble \u2013 we leave our wallets everywhere, never lock\u00a0any doors, can find\u00a0people praying almost anywhere on campus and\u00a0almost everyone you encounter on campus\u00a0is abnormally friendly. But are not we called to be salt and light? What does that look like on a Christian\u00a0college campus? I\u00a0have one of many solutions to that question through\u00a0getting involved with Prison Ministry.<\/p>\n
Grove City College\u2019s\u00a0Prison Ministry\u00a0all\u00a0began with one student getting a group\u00a0of their friends\u00a0together\u00a0to go to neighboring Mercer County\u2019s Prison to lead Bible studies. Since then\u00a0the ministry has continued to grow and became an official\u00a0organization in 2016. I found out about the ministry at the Org Fair, which is an all campus event hosted in the early fall where students are able to learn about all the different organizations on campus. I knew\u00a0I wanted to get involved with an off campus\u00a0ministry, but prison ministry never\u00a0crossed my mind. Like many of the students at Grove City, I grew up in a Christian family, attended a Christian school\u00a0am\u00a0now at a Christian college\u00a0\u2013 my qualifications for\u00a0working with prisoners’ backgrounds was\u00a0nonexistent. Which brings me to\u00a0perhaps the greatest\u00a0reason why Prison Ministry is\u00a0such a powerful ministry to be involved in:\u00a0It does not\u00a0lightly penetrate the \u201cbubble\u201d students\u00a0live in at Grove City, it tears it to pieces.<\/p>\n
Every week, two or three individuals from the ministry are sent into the prison. Girls go into the women\u2019s pods\u00a0and the guys go into the men\u2019s pods. It\u2019s typical to\u00a0work through a Bible study curriculum and use whatever remaining time\u00a0to get\u00a0to know the prisoners and\u00a0to\u00a0spend time praying with them. With that being said, some weeks I have\u00a0gone in and\u00a0never\u00a0touched the\u00a0planned\u00a0lesson\u00a0because the girls had big questions about faith or because what they needed most was\u00a0simply\u00a0a loving\u00a0ear\u00a0to listen. I quickly learned how little\u00a0we as Christians know about sharing the gospel with nonbelievers. It\u2019s so easy at a place like Grove City to feel like the ultimate\u00a0superstar\u00a0Christian between being involved with hall Bible studies, attending chapel twice a week and talking about God on the daily with other Christians, but\u00a0we miss the mark. We so easily overlook the major component of our faith which is to share\u00a0the gospel with nonbelievers.<\/p>\n
To listen to a girl tell you she is sentenced to 30 years behind bars, to see the tears well up in her eyes as she tells she has no family, that she has lost everything because of\u00a0a\u00a0meth\u00a0addiction\u00a0and hear her say that there is no purpose for her life, it changes you. I learned that talking about God with other Christians on the daily is not a substitute for Jesus\u2019 command to share the gospel\u00a0with nonbelievers. Being a part of Prison Ministry has been one of the most challenging, growing, joyous things I have done with\u00a0my time at Grove City. The ministry works\u00a0as continual reminder\u00a0that we are\u00a0not called to merely know about Jesus, but to be Jesus\u2019 hands and feet to this broken world.\u00a0 Spending time\u00a0with the prisoners forces you\u00a0to trust the Lord\u00a0to give you words when there are none, to give you wisdom where you lack and to fully rely on His spirit for guidance. One of the most amazing parts of going to the prison is that the individuals who come desperately want to know God. It fans into the flame the love you had for Christ when you first\u00a0came to know Him and ignites a deep passion in your heart to share the life-changing news of God and what His son did on the cross.<\/p>\n
When I come back to campus after spending time at the prison all my priorities are realigned. The trivial things of college such as the quiz I failed that morning, the research paper I have looming over my head, the stress of getting a successful job after college and selfish pursuits all fade. The Grove City bubble has been broken.\u00a0I recommend this ministry to anyone who is looking to be pushed out of their comfort zone and be exceptionally challenged in their faith during these college years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the fall, Professor Sweet taught a class endearingly called Internet Content Marketing. In this course, students learned the importance of tailoring content to particular audiences in order to make a profit or showcase credibility. Towards the end of the semester, Professor Sweet asked the students to put their lessons into practice and write articles for this blog. As the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":6314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,190,73,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-organizations","category-extracurriculars","category-ministry","category-off-campus","category-spiritual"],"yoast_head":"\r\n