Campus Testimonies: Ms. Lilly’s Story
By Timothy W. Tron
Burke County
Many ask, and some may only wonder, what does a college campus ministry look like? How does a student come to know Christ at a secular college, if it is even possible? Most only hear of the negative press that percolates to the top of the news media about the strife and turmoil on our nation’s campuses. Seldom does good news ever reach the light of day. However, good things do happen and our campus ministries do yield fruit. In that vein, it came to me that I should share one such testimony with you; that way, you, too, can marvel at the power of the Holy Spirit.
The names have been changed, but the story remains true.
Allow me to introduce you to Ms. Lilly Madison. Her testimony begins as a rags-to-riches story. She came from a rural part of the mountains of North Carolina, from deep in the hollers, where time has nearly stood still for over a century. There, in the rural blight of the American South, a people have long been overlooked and scorned, leaving behind the ravages of human nature and time. The agrarian economic structure that once supported their ancient lifestyle melted away, leaving behind the bleached bones of a rich cultural history that has been negatively portrayed as poor and ignorant. Many from this region have little hope of a promising future from the world’s point of view. As the song, “I’ll Never Leave Harland Alive,” says, “Where the sun comes up about ten in the mornin’. And the sun goes down about three in the day. And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you’re drinkin’. And you spend your life just thinkin’ of how to get away.”
Ms. Madison, thanks, ironically enough, to her socioeconomic status, had been awarded a full-ride scholarship to any of the prestigious colleges of the UNC system. Wanting to be closer to family, she chose Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, for her college career. It was all a dream come true for the young woman who had grown up in the shadows of the mountains, born into a working-class family. She, like many of her Appalachian heritage, was seeking a way out of the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle – a legacy plagued with the moniker that was mostly known for its poverty and backwoods culture. She believed that her ticket out was securing a college degree that would bring with it the wealth and acclamations of a higher standard of living. Landing on App’s campus, the beautiful, blonde, intelligent but naïve to the world, eager young woman immediately immersed herself in the features expected of any successful secular collegiate attendee – classes, frats, and partying.
Entering her sophomore year as a member of Phi Mu Sorority, she was on track to realizing that upper-class debutante dream. Although she did her best to cover her rural Appalachian roots, she was convinced that a career in Architecture would elevate her into that white-collar upper crust. Once she made it, she could return triumphantly to those detractors in her life and stick it in their faces. Even though those occasional late-night soirees, drinking, and sexual promiscuity left her feeling dirty and discarded the following mornings, it reminded her that this was how it was supposed to feel – it was just the way the world worked. Although her family was more or less Christian, she didn’t feel it was anything that was that important; it was just something you did to “fit in” to society once you settled down. Up to that point, she had managed to keep the spiritual side of life at bay.
Those first few days of the fall semester can sometimes get a little crazy. Lilly entered the Plemmons Student Union that crisp Sunday morning with somewhat hapless expectations to explore the various Christian clubs set up in the Grandfather Ballroom as part of the Spiritual Life Fair. Why she was even there, she later recalled, was a wonder in and of itself. She attributed it to an underlying guilt that had begun to permeate her thinking – supposedly, she was a Christian, but as of late, she was acting anything but. In other words, her attraction to that morning’s event more or less felt like something she was supposed to do.
As she meandered through the various tables staffed with smiling, cheerful faces eagerly waiting for someone to ask them questions, she inadvertently bumped into a couple of other young women. It was at the Inner Varsity booth where she first met Michelle and Ellen. The encounter was more happenstance than anything. Michelle, unlike Lilly, had been reared in a devout Christian home, having spent most of her life in Argentina, where her parents worked as missionaries. She, too, was seeking the campus ministry, but unlike Lilly, hers was a desire to find a spiritual match, something that would allow her to continue to grow in her faith and increase her ability to evangelize. Michelle and Lilly hit it off and planned to attend the next large gathering of Inner Varsity the following night.
Lilly had been wondering about her collegiate career in terms of what type of foundation she was creating and who, until now, had based everything on being a frivolous sorority girl. She began to ask herself, “Was it something that was really benefitting her life? Should she dare lift up a prayer to God for direction, for clarity of what it meant to build her foundation on something other than material things?” With these thoughts in mind, she attended an Inner Varsity meeting the next evening with Michelle. When the youth leader began speaking, Lilly nearly fell out of her chair when he said, “What is your foundation built upon?”
“Had God actually been listing?” Lily was beside herself.
At that night’s meeting, Lilly and Michelle ran into Ellen again. Come to find out, Ellen was one of the staff members of Ratio Christi, the campus Apologetics ministry. Ellen, a devout Disciple-Maker, got Lilly and Michelle’s contact information. More out of curiosity in a new friendship than seeking God, Lilly, and Ellen began to hang out. At first, those conversations were merely relational, building a friendship, but as time went on, Ellen started asking questions that probed Lilly’s faith, or lack thereof. As Ellen continued to plant seeds, Lilly was drawn closer to the realization that she was missing something essential in her life – the love of Jesus.
It wasn’t long before Lilly attended her first apologetics meeting at Ellen’s invitation. Even attending the meeting caused her to question her hard-fought Sorority girl image – did she really want to be a “Jesus Girl?” Against all her fleshly desires, something seemed to be drawing her closer to God. Yet, it would be a while before the nudge became real. At Ratio Christi, Lilly was attracted to the Apologetics intellectual side of Theology. She had heard the charismatic side of religion her whole life but was never convinced by it. She wanted more substance. For the remainder of that semester, she lived a double life: one as a sorority girl and the other as someone seeking answers to many of her unspoken questions.
As the semester neared the end, several sequential events occurred that would later become the dawn of her awakening. First, one of the Ratio volunteer leaders, Jack, took her aside and asked her if she wouldn’t rather do something that added purpose to her life. All she had thought about up to that point was prestige and wealth. Suddenly, Jack’s questions forced her to pause and consider, “Was there something more?” The question hit her deeply.
Next, the Apologetics club held a Bible Study on the parkway, where a member brought along an elderly friend and retired Dentist, Dr. Robert Grimes. There, Lilly heard something that would change her life. There, under the canopy of the forest sitting on a mountaintop, Robert, a genteel southerner if ever there was one, shared his testimony of how his hometown down East had expected that once he became a Dentist, he would become a wealthy member of the upper crust of the community. Instead, Dr. Grimes heard the call to serve the Lord. So, instead of joining the country club mindset, Robert made it his mission to help the impoverished community, giving free dental care to those who could not afford it, forgoing the riches to help the less fortunate. The story touched Lilly deeply. Inside, she felt a conviction that had been missing; a longing to serve others began to grow. Was she being greedy, wanting to become an Architect? Was her purpose for becoming rich really helping anyone but herself? Would she sell her soul for the sake of money?
Combined with Jack’s questions and Dr. Grime’s testimony, Lilly began to feel the pulse of conviction flowing in her veins. She seriously began to question her motivation for the degree she was seeking. Was it really wealth and prominence she sought, or was there something greater than herself and money? As the semester progressed, she felt that something had to change. Lilly finally realized that she couldn’t avoid it any longer; she needed Christ in her life, fully and wholly, not just as some Theological concept, but as a real, living Savior. Then, one chilly spring morning, Lilly Madison, at last, gave her life to Christ.
And then everything changed.
Not long after her conversion, after attending a women’s Bible study, Lilly went for a walk with Tia, another friend she had met at the meeting. She told Tia that she didn’t know if she truly wanted to be an architect anymore, but she didn’t know what else to do. Tia responded, “Have you asked God about it?”
“No, do I have to? Isn’t He just going to tell me something I don’t want to hear?” Lily was of the mindset that if she heard God’s answer, she couldn’t ignore it. So, instead of getting an answer she didn’t want, she just refused to ask. Tia left her with these parting words that evening, “I think you should ask.”
Later that night, Lilly was torn. She thought of all the advice from her friends and Dr. Grimes’s testimony – there was so much to consider. What would her parents think? Was she meant to be a professional in the world of architecture, or was it something else? Wanting to find answers, she did something that she had learned from Ellen in their discipleship meetings, something she had feared because of what might come of it – to pray. Later that evening, after talking with Tia, probably for the first time in her life, while kneeling on the floor in her apartment, Lilly sought God’s direction in her life.
“God, what do you want me to do for my career?”
She would share later, “The answer came as clear as anything she had ever known before, not a voice, but a clear answer. He said to me, ‘Teach.’”
“Teach what,” she replied, somewhat dismayed.
Silence.
“God, what do you want me to teach,” she repeated desperately.
But the response was still that unbearable silence…nothing.
She was torn. Was she supposed to give up a promising career, the prospect of being comfortable and wealthy, to teach, to continue to live a life of poverty? She went to a Women’s group the next night, still torn with the answer, and broke down. Sobbing bitterly that evening on the floor of a friend’s apartment floor, she cried, partly in anger, partly in fear of what was to come. The tears shed were her waterpot, like the woman at the well in the Gospel of John 4, who, after hearing Jesus call her to believe, left her previous life behind, the sin, the regrets, all the things the world told her that she had to be. The woman at the well ran, leaving everything behind to share her testimony with the people of the city from whence she came.
Frustrated but relieved, Lilly awoke the next day, confident that she had to change her major to teaching, but to teach what? She still didn’t know. That decision could wait until later. For now, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders, like a boat anchor that had been loosed – she was now adrift on a Spiritual Sea. The expanse and new possibilities seemed more incredible than anything she had known. After all the misdirection in her life, she was finally answering God’s call, and it never felt so good.
Once she decided to change majors, she had to go to her parents and ask if they would support her decision. By then, she knew it was the right thing to do, but would they agree? To her surprise, they responded welcomingly. They agreed, but they did not just say yes. Instead, they both said they had always seen her going in that direction and that it suited her. Relieved, she once again felt God working.
Over the summer, while attending Camp Fire Crest, Ms. Madison was hired as a lifeguard. But, when she arrived to report for duty, one of the young ladies who was supposed to be one of the camp counselors had an accident and tore her ACLU. They came to Lilly and asked if she would step in as a Camp Counselor – having seen her maturity and leadership qualities in the interview, they saw something in Lilly that she had not yet seen in herself. Hesitantly and with much trepidation, she agreed and was soon drinking from the fire hydrant of on-the-job training. Later, she would learn that she had missed a month-long leadership training required of most camp leaders. Yet, as painful as it was, Lilly met challenge after challenge that summer. Through those many trials, she began to grow in her confidence to lead children. Slowly, it began to dawn on her that God was showing her the way. Step by step, He was giving her the skills and experience for what lay ahead. It soon dawned on Lilly that no matter what it was, God would be with her, guiding, leading, and supporting her.
The following fall, after returning from summer camp, Lilly Madison began the next page of her life’s journey. For the next two years, she no longer led a double life. Instead, she stuck true to the path God had prepared, attending Ratio Christi meetings, worship on weekends, Bible studies, and Sabbath Dinners, and sharing the Gospel with anyone and everyone who would listen. Having enjoyed History class in High School, she chose History as her focus in the teaching curriculum. Lilly graduated this past spring, and found that while she had found Christ in her journey at App State, she was now embarking upon an even greater mission – taking her faith to the world through whatever path God provided. Yes, she graduated with a teaching degree, but in the end, she came away with a diploma of eternal life – far greater than any riches she could ever imagine.
But the journey ahead was fraught with difficult decisions. Upon graduating, she immediately had two job offers: a teaching position at a prestigious school where she had been student teaching, where everything came so easy, or another position that would take her back to those dark hollers and the culture she had hoped to escape. Knowing that alone, she could not decide, she lifted it up to God in prayer. It was, of course, not the answer she had hoped – God needed Lilly in the place she wanted to escape, but where He needed her more.
And so, the story of Lilly Madison will continue, seeking God in all that she does, but in so doing, sharing the Gospel wherever she goes, and with it, planting the seeds for the next generation and giving hope to a people who need it the most.
Before concluding our interview, Lilly left me with this: her favorite scripture. It was quite a telling verse, knowing how far she had come and where she was going. Those mountain valleys will be blessed to have one of their own return, not only to teach but to share the Light of Christ with all who will hear.
“He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11-13
Thanks be to God.
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Timothy W. Tron lives in Collettsville, NC. with his family. He is currently the Systems Administrator for the Computer Science Department at App. State. Timothy is the former Director of the Trail of Faith in Valdese, where he still volunteers and helps with tours. He is the author of a new Christian series, “Children of the Light”, with the first book being, “Bruecke to Heaven”, revised as “Bridge to Heaven”, and his recent book, being the second, “The Light in the Darkness”. He is an active blogger, artist, and musician. Timothy also has a BSEE from UF, and is a Lay Speaker. He is currently acting as the Faculty/Staff Liaison for the Ratio Christi campus ministry at App. State. He can be reached at trontw@appstate.edu You can visit his website at //www.timothywtron.com/ or see more of his writings HERE
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