2021 Christmas Letter: Meet Kelly's Small Group

Meet Kelly's Small Group!

Monday evenings were a blast! These 18-19 year olds came weekly for food & friendship. Laughter turned the heads of those in the Texas Union and C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity'' turned our hearts toward life-change from Jesus! Come meet my guys and hear how Cameron just yielded his life to Christ!

You'll be inspired by unchurched guys' connections & commitment to be together. The guys who grew up in church are serving selflessly & integrating others into the community. Two of these young men are taking our Spring Discipleship Training Class! {Read More!}

Again, UT allowed very few Fall 2020 in-person students. But, four Texas A&M staff guys drove to Austin to join me on UT for a day in October to build relationships with guys. Damion (right) was the first guy we met that day and was looking for a community! After enjoying a guys’ BBQ, he connected in Chris R’s small group last year. In May, I asked Damion to join my small group for the fall.

Jonathan (left) was an incoming freshman and considered going to A&M. His dad met an XA staff member who gave my phone number. We connected throughout the summer and before he’d stepped onto UT for his freshman year, he verbally planned to join my small group and play his keyboard for Chi Alpha & church! By September, a couple guys joined Damion, Jonathan & I in a building community… but Jesus had just begun!

In September, Chi Alpha hosted Cliffe & Stuart (son) Knechtle as open air guests who specialize in "Mars Hill-like" Q&A dialogue. Cliffe was an Inter Varsity campus evangelist many years ago. Both Cliffe & Stuart serve as pastors in Connecticut. Cliffe has traveled to minister on campuses like Stanford, Ohio State & the University of Texas. I’ve known Cliffe’s ministry for every year that I’ve been in Austin. For five days, they engaged UT students in honest, sometimes intense, conversations about world views, morality, science, Jesus… somehow, Fall 2021 felt like it was the most fruitful ever with lasting fruit like Andrew, Jonah & Cam!

A freshman named Andrew popped into a conversation early Monday Day #1 on campus… truth be told, he actually interrupted a conversation and asked Cliffe if he could take a selfie with him b/c he’d followed his videos on YouTube and TikTok (with 500,000 others). Andrew eventually connected with Pedro’s small group and will be taking our Discipleship Training Class this Spring!

Jonah (sitting on cajon) came to engage Cliffe with authentic questions multiple days. I invited Jonah into the community and he has been connected in small group ever since… he too will be taking the Discipleship Training Class this Spring.

Owen (far right) met Damion last year as a freshman and was involved with him in an org called Turning Point. All my guys enjoyed dinner together, but it wasn’t clear if Owen loved the talks around C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Owen came for a month and said he had a Physics midterm during our small group. He planned to eat dinner and take the online exam off to the side in the Texas Union before re-joining us! Huh? This is not the usual response I hear during midterms! Owen was also one of my 3 guys who helped us for more than 8 hours to move into our new home! He didn’t want to miss the last small group hosted at our place. He asked, “Kelly, have you connected to Wifi yet? I don’t want to miss our small group, but I’ve got another exam on Monday.” I think he likes small group!  🤠🤣

Cameron’s story continues to encourage my heart. We met Cam (2nd from right) in the opening hours of Cliffe & Stuart’s ministry on Monday. Cam publicly shared his journey with listeners that he had been an antagonistic atheist less than a year ago. But, after soul-searching he felt that there might be Someone out there. “I spent hundreds of hours watching debates and various YouTube videos on the evidence of a Creator and by the summer, I guess I’d become agnostic… I might have come to believe in some Creator.”  

Cam told Cliffe that he’d been impacted by recently reading C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”... I introduced myself and talked for 45 minutes & informed him that my small group of dudes were just getting started to go through that C.S. Lewis book for the Fall. Cameron spoke with Ona-Lydia for another 1.5 hours that Monday.  I needed to host Cliffe & Stuart’s team for dinner & planned to invite my small group along since we usually met on Mondays 6-8pm… though I seldom leave campus before 10:30pm! I told Cameron, “Let me bribe you with brisket & sausage!” He said yes and hasn’t missed a Monday!

Over the course of two months, Cam shared a story of brokenness and how he did not grow up “churched”. Each Monday evening, Cam engaged in asking questions, but with every week, laughter plowed a path for trust and authentic friendship!

Then, one evening about 3 weeks ago, he asked in all seriousness, “Kelly, can we talk after small group?” After the usual hour of joking, Jonathan, Owen & Damion had to leave. Cam proceeded to share that he had been thinking all weekend prior to his readiness to commit his life to Jesus and planned to talk with me. I pulled Jonah into the moment when Cam exchanged his old life for a new one in Christ! Without any prompting that evening, he voiced that he wants to be baptized soon! We plan to do so on Saturday January 22nd!

Damion has invited officers and members of the UT Turning Point USA into Chi Alpha. Most are now connected to a small group! Many of them are from church backgrounds, but not Marilyn. After months of connection, two supernatural dreams and the work of the Holy Spirit, Marilyn expressed readiness to fully commit her life to Jesus as the semester ended. She is registered to attend Chi Alpha’s South Central SALT Conference with about 2,000 other students from 6 states in our area.

I am grateful for how Jesus brought Damion into our lives last fall. Jonathan came this summer. Owen, Jonah & Cam all connected since September! Two of these guys are positioning themselves to grow in our disciple-making class this spring. I love my small group and cannot wait to see how many more guys’ lives will be forever impacted through lots of food, laughter, brotherhood, learning & late night talks every Monday night in Spring 2022!