All I Had Was My Yes

I always chuckle when asked how I came to Chi Alpha (XA) because my route has been anything but normal. In 2014, I first experienced the transformative community of XA while serving a three-month summer internship with Kelly Brown, campus minister, at the University of Texas at Austin. I was a fish out of water: a Nebraska boy, bible college student, with plans to pursue a church pastorate (not a missionary). I don’t know how I ended up spending that fateful summer at UT Austin, but needless to say, experiencing the Gospel in the frontlines of “being on mission” stirred a deep longing in my heart the likes of which I have never been able to shake. 

Who are these people?

Fast forward to 2016 I graduated from Evangel University with a Biblical Studies degree. I began working for National XA with Severin Lwali, national director of XAi  and Gary Paschal, national specialist, Conference and Events. As an outsider to the XA movement, I was shocked at how the excellence of leadership, character, and passion was ubiquitous through every level of this organization. The more I experienced, the more it stirred that aforementioned longing. I was embraced, given responsibilities and a voice, fought for, and (for the first time) discipled. 

Preparation for Pioneering   

 It was in the hallways of National XA (or maybe Gary’s hot tub) that I first felt the tug towards long-term XA and pioneering. I saw the unmatched passion of XA’s top leadership and realized that they had found it on the secular university campus. A daunting realization for one that had never experienced the secular university as a student. So, I left National XA to go to study at Missouri State University. On the outside I was going for my Masters in Religious Studies, which I completed in 2018,  but on the inside, I knew I was going for a bigger reason: to taste and see what had impacted those that had invested in me so much. 

A Lifetime of Reaching and Pouring Into University Students

God got a hold of my heart as I lived and breathed amongst my new found peers. The need was overwhelming and the workers oh so few. So, while all of my peers were getting established in their careers, taking on churches, and moving on in life: without reservation I signed up for MSU XA’s two year Campus Ministers-in-Training program with campus director, Andy Estrella. I never looked back. Those two years have now turned into what I pray is a lifetime of reaching and pouring into university students. 

“They are ready”

In 2019, God began moving my heart back towards Nebraska. There was only one XA in Nebraska at Chadron State College. And there was over 85 thousand university students between Omaha and Lincoln without a single XA representation. So, while prayer walking these Nebraska campuses, the Holy Spirit clearly spoke to me that  “They are ready.” at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). How could anyone say no to that? In March 2020, I was named the new director of UNO XA and began strategizing and leaning into what God was going to do at UNO. Long story short, it would be a lot! 

Five months In

As I write, we are five months into pioneering and about to complete the first fall semester 2021 on campus. Already, we have an incredible core of students, a staff team of committed volunteers, and a community that cannot get enough of being with each other. Don’t get me wrong, there are many. . . many hard days and weeks. Learning the nuances of UNO is a daily challenge: covid-19, commuter school, located in a major city, 1/3rd are first generation students, highly secular environment, etc. Our team is constantly adapting, being creative, and learning from our failures (which are many). Despite all these things, I am reminded that “it all grows strangely dim” in the light of my house being daily filled with laughter, tears, and divine moments of authentic transformation. How thankful I am to have listened to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit and to be a part of this exciting new move of God in Nebraska. As the lead on a pioneering team, I daily learn, wrestle, and grow in ways I cannot recount in this short retelling. Yet how might I summarize what pioneering looks and feels like? I reap what I have not sown, and sow what I will not reap. To God be the glory!

In 2007 Mike Amiot, the Minnesota District XA Director approached me about re-starting XA at Winona State University (WSU). At the same time, Roger Stacy, of the Minnesota AG Church Planting Network, was recruiting my husband Chuck to be a church planter. We went to visit Winona just to “get them off our backs” but were surprised when we felt a strong pull to the area—myself to the college and Chuck to the community. We left a very established position at a larger church a few months later so I could start XA and Chuck could plant a church. Because I did not know one student at the college and Chuck did not know one person in town this made starting two ministries a huge challenge—not to mention our kids were young. Reid was 13, Ellie was 6 and Calvin was 4. However, we felt God calling us to go even though each of us starting separate ministries was quite unprecedented.

Both the XA ministry and the Church began meeting in the former church building XA owns right across from the WSU campus. This is the same building in the early 1970s that Jim Bradford (former undergraduate student at WSU) with his mentor picked the lock to access the old empty church building to pray for revival to hit the campus. They met in the empty building numerous times to pray. Those prayers, and the hard work of the founding WSU XA pastor Dave Babler and then intern Mike Amiot, built a strong foundation so the group would thrive today.

I saw hundreds of students come to Christ at XA services. Fourteen years later God has brought over 2000 to saving faith in Him. XA has trained nearly 500 students to lead small groups. These are disciples that make disciples!  Many students have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and in water.

Although many have heard the Winona miracles and success stories, there have been many challenges. In the 2017-2018 we had a major exodus of leaders; my knee fell apart and put me on crutches and in a wheelchair and ultimately had to be replaced. The XA house had a fire that caused it to close for months. In 2019 the college newspaper published a very biased destructive article attacking the ministry. In 2020, the challenges to the campus ministry due to the pandemic faded in comparison to the attack my family had launched against us which is still ongoing to this day. A news station from Minneapolis was outside the building this fall as our students walked into service. They were trying to cause more chaos and division, but even fellow campus ministries in Winona were praying that the “enemy’s camp would be confused.” God did exactly that! They ended up leaving empty-handed and nothing has hit the news. We continue to pray it will stay that way.

But even in the midst of those things, we soldier on! I know I have been called to not just lead students to Christ that are disciples that make disciples but to raise front-line warriors on the most intense battlefields. One way we are doing that is by becoming a Campus Missionary-in-Training location in 2020 (yes- during a pandemic). We are entering into some of the most challenging yet rewarding days of campus ministry and I am confident God is walking us through these many struggles as a way to educate me and my staff on how to train strong resilient warriors for Christ. We look forward to what’s ahead!

Check out Winona State U XA story when they first started in 2008.

When Steph Peterson held her first XA planning meeting at Winona State University (WSU) a decade ago, the group numbered 10 students —barely enough to qualify as a campus club. Her daunting task focused on restarting the WSU XA chapter, one that had included as many as 200 students on the Minnesota campus of 9,000 in the 1990s and early 2000s. But after the departure of previous leadership, membership had dwindled to a solitary student. Steph began her time on campus by connecting with one football player, and day by day she introduced herself to more students. The small group began meeting in October 2008 with 18 students and grew to over 50 by the end of the first year. check out: