Student Testimonies

In December of 2002, God revealed Himself to me. I had left the church, never wanting to come back. Then the Lord opened my eyes to His greatness and power, and therefore my heart and life changed. I have been on a road of learning and loving Him more as a result. I was called to ministry the summer of 2006. After looking at the gifts, passions, and abilities that God has give me, I knew that I would be unfaithful to Him if I did not pursue ministry as a vocation. The Criswell College has been an amazing tool that God has used to show me more and more of Himself, and being here has challenged me to love and work for Him in ways that I could not even imagine.
I began at Criswell College in the fall semester following my senior year in high school. I graduated from First Baptist Academy in 2004 and planned to play baseball at a local junior college, but God called me into ministry. It was a radical change for my life! I was saved as a child and baptized. I grew up in a mission pastor's home. My dad is a pastor to the homeless. I didn't know it then, but God was at work in all these things. The summer of 2004, I surrendered to the Lord at a youth camp and made public my call to the ministry. I gave testimony in the youth camp service that Sunday evening before our church and my friends. I told my dad that God had closed the door for me to go to junior college and that I wanted to apply to Criswell College. That summer I applied, and God opened the door for me to be here. I am in my third year and am also serving as Youth/College Intern at FBC Dallas. I love sharing the gospel and ministering to youth and college students.

Before I came here, the Lord had been working in my life in several ways to bring me to this point. I grew up in a Christian home, raised by a single mom who, through her life and words, pointed me to Jesus and installed in me a love for the Scriptures. As I got older and my faith became stronger and my relationship with God more personal, I thought of pursuing many career paths and played with ideas of exciting fields of study. But nothing satisfied the longing of my heart for meaning and purpose until, at the age of 17, God revealed to me His call on my life to surrender completely to the plans that He had for me. I've known ever since then that His desire is for me to serve Him in the ministry of His gospel, through the preaching of His Word and the witness of the new life that He has wrought in me. Soon after I felt this call, the Lord opened up an opportunity to serve Him in the church I was then attending in my small hometown in south Texas. My pastor, being bi-vocational and a paramedic, had some Sundays when he could not be at the church. He needed someone to preach in his place on these days. This was a difficult circumstance for him as well as the church. When I told him about my sense of calling and my surrender to that call, we both began to prayerfully consider my filling in for him. This is how I began to preach. I had a limited knowledge of Scripture, but I believed that God had called me to this. I studied hard and struggled a lot. But through this time, God taught me so much! After a while, I realized that I had so much more to learn to be better equipped for the ministry. I then began to seek God about going to Bible college. In the summer of 2005, I first heard about Criswell College and subsequently visited the school that fall. I was convinced from then on that this was where God wanted me to spend my years of study. I am now finishing my second year at Criswell, and it has been difficult at times - stretching and molding - but incredibly productive. The faculty here never ceases to amaze me with their erudition, wisdom, humility, and dedication. I can't imagine a place where I would rather study the Word of God and prepare for ministry.
I was saved when I was a young child and have seen God do some amazing things! I first thought about coming to Criswell College when a few of my friends were deciding to come here. I saw the way that God impacted their lives and how the college also impacted them. It was incredible to me that a college could be so life-changing. I then found out that Criswell taught the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God and did not stray away from the truth, but affirmed it in every way possible. After a couple of years out of high school, I felt a call to go into ministry, and Criswell College was the only place that came to mind. I have enjoyed the teaching and the professors here, and since attending here I know that God has used me to impact others!
I was baptized at the age of five and confirmed into the church when I was twelve. As a young man, I was very faithful to God and my church. I believed in Christ in my own way, but I did not believe unto salvation. While in college, I fell away and eventually became very disillusioned and tried to live without God. This did not work well, and I became very hungry for peace and certainty. In 1972, I was led to salvation by my girlfriend - now my wife. At age fourteen, I heard God calling me to serve Him. It frightened me, and I never told anyone about it. At a church board retreat in 2006, one of the men praying for me made the comment that he thought I was called by God to serve as a minister. From that point on, I have been dedicated to reaching that goal. I am enrolled full-time at Criswell College, and I have applied for the Master of Divinity program.