Thoughts on Discipleship (3): Caila

When I came back from summer break, I met with Darcy to discuss the possibility of leading a Bible study.  Over the summer, as I’d thought and prayed about it more, I really became excited, though still scared.  As I thought through who I’d like to have a BIble study for, the only thing that was clear in my mind was that I did not want to have a Bible study for Greek girls (sorority girls), for the same reason that I was not interested in Jeff Patterson whatsoever (he was the president of Lambda Chi).  In my little mind sorority girls were shallow, vain, and prone to passed-out-drunkenness.  No thanks.  (I’ve since become a little less judgmental I promise!).  So, during my first meeting with Darcy, what does she say?  “So I’ve been thinking about it and would really like you to join with another girl and co-lead a Bible study for sorority girls.”  What?  Why me? I was not a sorority girl! What on earth would I have in common with them?  I had to shake my head at this, at God obviously pushing me past my judgments and prejudices…to minister to the very girls I’d been prejudiced against.

Meeting Caroline, my co-leader, put my mind at ease.  She was wonderful!!!  She had been in a sorority but was now living out during her senior year, and we hit it off immediately.  Within a few weeks, our Bible study was announced, and we began meeting in her little one-bedroom apartment off campus.

I was terrified. Fortunately Caroline was more experienced, so each week we would meet to pray and prepare our lesson, then go back and forth sharing parts, opening discussions with the girls, and praying with them.  We divied up the girls so that we’d each meet with several of them one-on-one during the week and generally “keep tabs” on them, so to speak.  Darcy would meet with us periodically to see how things were going, pray for us, and help disciple us in our own walks with the Lord.

At the end of Fall semester, Caroline graduated, leaving me on my own.  She’d gone out of her way to pay special attention to one girl in particular, a quiet, little blond girl from Hawaii who looked scared out of her wits.  Her name was Caila.  Caroline insisted that Caila had something special about her, and asked me to please keep meeting regularly with her now that she would be gone.  I didn’t have much of a connection with Caila, but promised her I would.  I don’t remember things necessarily taking off right away.  She was quiet and seemed shy, and didn’t seem too eager to open up her life.  I’d visit her at her sorority, try to talk to her about her personal life, and meet with her for coffee whenever possible. But weeks would go by when I wouldn’t hear from her, and I wasn’t sure that it was really worth the effort.

Something changed Caila’s sophomore year. You’ll have to ask her for the details, but Caila became transformed as she fell more and more in love with Jesus.  During her four years at OSU, and then her three years on staff with Real Life, she quickly became my prized disciple and friend.  It didn’t take long for her to surpass me in wisdom, maturity, and excellence in teaching the Bible and leading others.  She soon began her own small group, discipling shy little freshmen (she wasn’t shy any more!!) girls just like she had once been.  She joined me on a mission trip to Brasil, acted with me in the Real Life Spring Dramas, and after college, she became the House Manager for the House of Charis, a Christian girl’s home, where she oversaw, mothered, and shepherded more than 50 girls each year.  She now excels as writer, mother, wife, woman of God, and discipler of others.  I could never have dreamed how God would use Caila’s life for His glory.  To Him be the glory, who sees what we cannot.

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I share these stories because it illustrates for me, again and again, why a simple life poured out is worth it.  Countless times I have had girls come up to me and say, “Thank you for pouring into Caila. My life is changed because of her.”  Is that not the coolest thing?  And I have to just say, thank you for Elisa and Darcy (among many others!), who have poured into my life.  And they have others to thank, and we all ultimately thank our Lord Jesus, who so brilliantly uses imperfect men and women to raise up other men and women to walk with Him.   Because of Elisa and Darcy, God let me minister to (and learn from!) more than 50 girls in small group discipleship groups through college, then more while on staff through Real Life.  Of course, only a few were close discipleship relationships, but through Caila’s life alone at least another 100 lives have been touched and changed and transformed by God’s grace in her years of college ministry.  Do you see what happens?  Divine multiplication, transforming lives by His grace.  Is this because we are great? No!  It is because God in His grace chose to use simple women to help us along the way, and then we respond by letting Him use us, simple women, to help others along the way.  This is discipleship, and this should be our life.

Not all of us will be in a formal disciple situation.  But we’re all called to disciple (Matt. 28:18).  In the next few posts, we’ll look at just a few of the principles and pitfalls that have emerged from the years described above.  I learned a lot by failure, and I cringe when I look back at how often I did it wrong!  But God! But God is so good, so big, so able to use our feeble attempts for glorious results.  I pray we’d never let fear of “doing it wrong” keep us from helping others along the way.