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A Wonderful Surprise
What do you think you know about Geneva College? When I returned to Geneva a year ago to serve as Director of Alumni Relations, I thought I knew Geneva. In many ways, I did. Yes, many offices are in different places than I remember—for example, my office was part of the Bible Department when I was a student here. But most of the spaces (like Old Main, the Student Center and the dining hall) feel like old friends.
Still, a college is about people, and as I have talked with alumni over the past year, I have been wonderfully surprised by how Geneva has been used to eternally transform the lives of so many of my fellow graduates.
We know Geneva is a Christian college. But you also may remember that incoming students are not required to sign a statement of faith. Students come from many denominational backgrounds—or none at all. Some arrive with wobbly faith—or none at all.
Some students come to Geneva, and the people here nurture and strengthen an already well-established faith. (That was my experience.) But some students come to Geneva, and the people here meet them in places of doubt and even despair. Still other students come to Geneva, and God uses the people at Geneva to lead them to a new and living faith in Jesus Christ.
Did you know this? A year ago, I may have said I did, but I have been amazed by conversations with numerous alumni. As they reflect on their experience at Geneva, they realize it was a crucial place in their spiritual development—even the place of the start of their spiritual development. God uses fellow students, staff members and faculty in the lives of young people—and radically redirects their spiritual journeys.
We live in a culture of spiritual confusion and decline. I am heartened to hear these stories about God′s amazing grace to the students here—not just because I work here, but because I want to see the next generation know Christ and grow in Christ.
As alumni, we are part of Geneva College′s history, but we are also crucial to the future of this wonderfully surprising place.
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Tom Stein '86, Director of Alumni Relations
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