by Shannon Ness
Irene, a Salt Company student
As leadership interviews begin for next fall, the staff is hearing so many stories of how God is using the community of Salt Company to shape the lives of students and draw them near to Him. Irene is one of the students who applied and this is her story:
“I was invited to go to Salt Company through a friend that I had made during freshman year from On Iowa! I went to Salt Company throughout that year and though I made some great friends, it was a bit hard for me to really make new friends other than the handful that I had made. Everyone seemed to already know one another and with Salt Company being so big and still growing, it gave me a bit of anxiety. The fact that being Asian-American, also made me feel a little out of place. I stopped going afterwards and the following year decided to really focus on bettering my relationship with the Lord after recognizing how much of a baby Christian I was. A lot of my time went into ASK Prayer Ministry, a para-church student organization in which Peter Kim was leading at the time. There, I really grew in recognizing the importance of prayer and the Word. I ended up leaving that community altogether.
Towards the end of this semester, the Lord revealed to me the importance of having a Christian community. Allison Taylor, a student from Salt Company asked me to come to Salt and encouraged me to apply for Salt Company Leadership, since it’s not just about being an adequate leader, but having people to keep you accountable in your faith. I was hesitant at first, not knowing if I would even be considered since I was not consistently involved with The Salt Company. I was invited to Allison’s connection group and to Salt, the first time I went back was the last day to get applications in for salt leadership.
As to why I decided to apply for leadership, a big part of it was a leap in faith. At the time in which I applied, a lot of things were going on in my life. One of which was that I was dating a non-Christian. Long story short, the Lord had revealed to me that His blessing was not in it. And in one way, applying for leadership gave me that final push I needed to break up with him. Ultimately, I wanted to be better equipped and to gain more experience in learning, leading and telling others about Christ. A sister from my sorority started asking me about God and coming with me to Veritas. She asked some great questions and I can see the Lord working in her, as well as other sisters in the sorority, but I felt that I was lacking in experience and leadership in bringing them to the Lord. As well as bridging the gap between people of different cultures (Asians especially, since Asian awareness is something I am very passionate about) and Christianity. Since for those cultures, Christianity isn’t a dominant religion in their country.”
It is so cool how God is created a culture of bold leaders within Salt Company, who are turning away from their sin and leaning into a relationship with Christ.
