By Abbie, CST Resident
Zoey is a sophomore at Iowa State who took the bold step of reaching out and asking for help when she needed it most. Zoey came to college carrying a lot of pain from a very difficult childhood and struggled with depression because of it. When Zoey was two, her brother committed suicide and she was left to confusion, heartache and difficult family relationships for a very long time. She didn’t know much about Jesus, since her family stopped going to church after her brother died.
On one of her worst nights during freshman year, Zoey was contemplating suicide. By God’s providence, a friend interrupted her night by asking her to go to Salt Company with her. It was Zoey’s first time attending Salt Co and there that she heard, “exactly what she needed to hear.” She still didn’t know much about Jesus, but what she heard that night was (good) news that took her out of the dark place she was in and motivated her to learn more about what she heard that first night at Salt. Zoey went to Salt Company the rest of the year, but never felt comfortable enough to join a connection group or completely let people into the pain she was experiencing.
It wasn’t until the summer after her freshman year that Zoey decided she was ready to reach out to someone, ask for help and be honest about everything in her life. Zoey emailed Salt Staff and was eventually connected with a staff member who met with her that summer and weekly the following semester. In the first meet up, Zoey was honest about why she reached out, how she’s struggled and how her family life has been ever since her brother died when she was two. In that same meet up, she also got to hear the gospel and was eager to learn more. Following that, Zoey agreed to meeting up every week during fall semester to read the Bible together and also to getting plugged into a connection group. She did all those things and more; attended the fall retreat, met new friends and loved learning about more about God through reading Romans.
She still wasn’t ready to commit her life to Jesus until she attended the Salt Company Conference in the Spring semester (which she was originally planning on not going). On the last day of the conference, she finally decided to place her trust in Jesus. She realized that weekend and said that it clicked with her that God uses regular and normal people to participate in kingdom work. She realized that the truth of the gospel is that she doesn’t need to fix herself before God, but because of Christ’s death she can humble herself before Him and be welcomed into his family as is. What a sweet time that was to share with her in that moment as she professed her faith in God through prayer! Zoey saw and is continuing to see more and more that God used the pain and suffering that she has been through to bring her to the cross and come to knowledge of her Lord and Savior. Praise God! Since then – she is continuing to learn and grow in her walk with Christ
