Corey's picture is blacked-out due to his Global Internship location.
I’m a people person and like talking to people. I have a desire for God and love Jesus with all that I have inside! I love my family, playing sports and hanging out with my friends. I love to have fun, but who doesn’t? I guess if I were to define fun, it would be hanging out around people and going places. I like adventure but am afraid of heights, and I really, really want to travel. I also love food—and eating. That's me!
I go out to eat a lot. I recently went to the Cheesecake Factory, and there I had the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my life! And I’ve had a lot of hamburgers in my day. I love grocery shopping and get an adrenaline rush out of it.haha It’s like there’s so much food at my fingertips and I’m deciding what my life is going to be like for the next couple of weeks. I also like bargain shopping—there’s some of that around. Sometimes I go home with friends from BCOM to their houses on the weekends. When we’re around we go to Walmart or we check out the local museums. Sometimes we just go to the Twin Cities and walk around.
I play ultimate Frisbee and other sports with fellow students in the gym, outside on the grass, or on the soccer field or football field. I seek the Lord, hang out with people and do homework.
My time here has really been about self-transformation. I feel bad sometimes because I feel like I forget about what’s around me because there’s so much going on in me. As I grow to taste and see how good my relationship with Christ is, I start to see how much other people should have this too. I don’t have a burden for a specific country—I mean, I don’t cry when I see a video on Africa, Asia, etc. I know that as our heart becomes like Christ we will begin to have the burden for others, which I'm working on with God. I’m praying for a heart for Southeast Asia before I go there in January.
I love the classes here. I get stretched a lot in my relationship with God and I grow so much through the teaching. I didn’t really understand the Bible very well before BCOM—I knew it was true, but didn’t really KNOW it. I didn’t even know John 3:16 before I came here and now I feel as though I have a good grasp of Scripture as a whole and I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a Christian. It is like a big family in the classroom, and feels like community, not just some distant lecture.
The teachers are awesome and Spirit-filled. They’re really comfortable and easygoing, but they challenge you at the same time—not always just academically but also spiritually. The professors here are like your friends; you can sit and talk with them at lunch or dinner.
I’m a people person, so I don’t like being alone in my room. I’m always around talking to people, and it’s great to have the support of a whole bunch of guys who love Jesus around you all the time. I also love eating when I’m in my dorm.
While I’ve been here there has been such a transformation in me! My Christianity has went from God being in a book, who had very little to do with my life, to a God who’s real and applies to every little corner of my world. I’m learning how to be vulnerable and to tell God that I don’t understand certain things about Him like I’ve pretended to do in the past. It’s a daily thing—I know Christianese and can answer questions logically from the Bible—but do I firmly believe it and apply it to my heart? I feel like since I’ve been here the Lord has taken me back to the basics of everything. Day by day I’m beginning to get understanding of what truth is from Scripture and how it applies to my life. My whole journey at BCOM has led up to a sincere hunger for truth. I don’t want a bunch of opinions about what the Bible means, I just want God for who He is and to be right with Him. When I first came here I didn’t know if I was saved or not, and I wasn’t at all assured of my salvation. But God has been revealing Himself to me throughout my journey here. Christianity is faith—not something you read in a book. I’m in the right place—physically and in my relationship with Christ, and I am really happy that I’m at BCOM. A Misty Edward's song sums it up perfectly: “Happy am I to bring my hunger to life and blessed am I to thirst. My desire for You is my gift within. I am blessed. I am blessed among men.” If I had to put my life into one word right now, it would be “blessed.” The only thing that I am seeing in life that’s really worth having is a desire for God.
