The youth are on the move. God is working on the college campus. And you say, Stu, why do you keep doing shows on this? Because as long as we have this program, we are going to go and we're going to speak. Of what God is doing and where He's working.
And my nephew, this is close to home, friends. My nephew, Caleb, and my niece, Karena, are leading Bible studies. They have a ministry, Ignite, right? Caleb, tell them what that is a little bit. Those of you that have never met you, those that have never heard about Ignite.
Yeah, so we do Ignite at NC State's campus, and it's really just a A campus ministry where we have just rhythms of prayer, we have rhythms of just worship and teaching, as well as Bible studies, and we do that. Weekly, on a weekly basis, we gather together community to be able to really build each other up and have friendships and have connections. Of course, we have a lot of fun with eating meals together as well as doing a lot of sports and games and all of that. But it's just a great way for people to feel connected while they're at college. NC State's one of the largest campuses in the state of North Carolina in the whole country, and you've got Chapel Hill, UNC, Chapel Hill, you've got Duke University, that kind of triad, that triangle of schools.
And on top of they call it Tobacco Road, big sports rivalries, but One thing's for sure, kids need Jesus now. Caleb, a lot of folks heard the big buzz on social media and everywhere. about sidewalk chalk. I want you to tell about that and then I want you to tell about this recent high Hi, you're on. From what just happened in the baptisms and the salvations, that just how you literally just came back, you're like gleaming because you were just around it.
But first, tell everyone about this sidewalk chalk thing that you did that was pretty remarkable that made national news and was all over Facebook and Instagram. Yeah, there was a sidewalk chalk movement that I was blessed to be a part of. It came out of UNC. Wilmington, and what was so beautiful is I learned about it like. The day before it was about to happen on campus, and it was at night, like at 10 o'clock.
We met. And there's 100 plus students there ready to write the whole Gospel of John in chalk on NC State's campus all over the brick pathway.
So when students walk, they're able to just see the gospel, they're able to see the word physically in front of them.
Some of them may have not even read any scripture before, so being able to have the Lord highlight these random scriptures wherever they walk was just a beautiful thing of community and just unity. To see all these different campus ministries. It wasn't led by one specific campus ministry. It was a conglomeration of just all these students. And what was so beautiful is we.
Broke up into groups and each took a chapter. I remember writing out like three verses. And it was just amazing to be able to sacrifice and write out together the whole book. And people were taking pictures. People were like, what are you doing?
Like, what's going on? Like, why is there such a united effort? And, like, people's lives were changed. And there's a worship time afterwards because students were just so excited and filled with just the words of Jesus that they wanted to celebrate and worship together.
So it was just awesome to see that. Yeah, from that place. with Bible studies We wanted to do a men's Bible study retreat with a lot of the guys that we were just diving deep in the book of John together with A lot of questions, a lot of growth with some people who've not even ever been in a Bible study before. And one person ended up getting saved, and then he brought his roommates to come. And so we all went on this retreat.
Just recently, and four people got baptized and gave their lives fully to Jesus, and just like a full devotion of, I want to live my life for Jesus, even no matter where I go. Like, the guy is going to work in California, he literally sent me a text message: Hey, I found a church here. I'm so excited, and that just blessed my heart to see that they're able to carry what they've learned, what they've grown in, wherever they go, and be missionaries and be a light to the ends of the earth. That's the voice of my nephew, Caleb, who is actively involved on the college campus ministering, leading kids to Christ, discipling. He just came back from a huge men's Bible study retreat.
They baptized four. That's got to be exciting, Caleb. And I want our listeners to get a little perspective of this because a lot of kids do a lot on. This show about the importance of sending Christian kids to school and even to consider Christian colleges because we want them to get fortified, built up, you know, in the faith and whatnot. But at the same time, You're encountering a lot of kids who have no Christian background.
There's a whole nother culture. Of people that grew up in complete paganism. No church, didn't you know, Sunday is just another day off, whatever. And you're meeting these kids, and it's the f you're the first time they ever hear about Jesus. Talk about those kids and how kind of the light has come on, and how that's blessed you.
Yeah, I Like, it's just been such a blessing. It's actually a shock, really, being in the Bible Belt and just growing up from a Christian high school and just so much Bible. Most people are very familiar with Jesus, but we have the nations at NC State. I've talked to people from Saudi Arabia, I've talked to people from France, I've talked to people from different places. Places in South America, including like Peru and Bolivia, and these people that are sending all of their Best and brightest people to this university from even closed-off nations that we don't have access to.
Are very open to the gospel, and what they're familiar with has been religion and works, and they don't really know the relationship that Jesus can bring.
So, even bringing that up is just such a new concept, but it's amazing to break through. The walls that people have put up, or their ideas, or whatever they've learned, or their upbringing, and to show that in the midst of community, in the midst of just the culture of like, no, we love each other, we support each other, we want to do more than just say the things, but live like Jesus does. Which just shows you, it's just as simple as loving someone. Hey, let me help you move into your dorm. Hey, let's go get ice cream, let's hang out, and then building a relationship with them and leading them to Christ.
It's like, well, why aren't other people kind to me like that?
Sometimes they're thinking, hey, what's in it for this guy? This guy, they might be a little suspicious of that kind of kindness, right? Yeah. No, definitely. I remember just a quick story.
I set up a volleyball net. And it was meant to be for my group, but no one showed up because we're pioneering this community. And a group of ten people, ten students from France, French students that are there for a year. We were like, hey, can we play on this volleyball net? And I had snacks and drinks out.
And I was like, yeah, sure, totally. Like, no one's using it. I ended up playing volleyball with them, and it turned into a rhythm, a weekly rhythm of playing volleyball with these French students. And we ended up inviting them over to our house and having a meal with them. It was so beautiful.
They're like, this is our first meal in an American home. And they're so blessed taking pictures of the mac and cheese and the crock pot. They're like so amazed. And it's just beautiful to see the joy that hospitality and just loving does. And they're like, why are you doing this?
Why is this for free? And I would tell them, I'm like, for God to love the world that he gave, you know, his only begotten son, Jesus. And like, we're supposed to give as Christians. And so it was just so beautiful to have that connection.
Some French students rededicate their lives to Jesus and were able to be discipled and now are back in France.
So who knows the impact there? But it's just beautiful just to see that and just one of the cultures at NC State. Yeah, you support missionaries like my nephew Caleb here at the NC State campus leading these colleges to Christ. You're impacting France. You're impacting Saudi Arabia.
You're impacting people all over the world because they're loving on these kids that are coming in from all these countries. And you may not go to those countries, but they're coming to you. And it also reminds you how lonely people are. Just to have someone share a meal with you, just to have someone reach out to you like that. Hey, come to church with me.
You know, we don't really invite people to church much anymore. We should be getting back to that. Caleb is my nephew. He's a minister with a ministry called Ignite. He married my awesome niece, Karena.
They have a precious little baby, and they are in the Raleigh area ministering on the campus, fully dialed in. What's ironic about the timing of this interview, we're just now leaving a family reunion. The Epperson Reunion. We're driving through the mountains of the Blue Ridge Mountains, beautiful area, Arat, Virginia, Surrey County, Stokes County, Patrick County. For those of you who know our family and our roots, Caleb, it was just a couple years ago.
In Airat. That you said, hey, let's share around the fire. And I said, Well, Caleb, you got something to share. I mean, you love the Lord and that sort of thing. And you just dropped us all, you dropped a bomb.
You said, hey, God's called me from being a successful engineer. to going into full-time ministry to lead to lead disci and disciple In Christ, uh all these all these uh These youngsters, these college kids, talk about. Your journey to Christ, and then your journey to that unique call to ministry, which. You know, your college days, you never thought you would have been doing this. You thought you'd be, you know, dr doing architectural drawings and doing engineering services and and and living that American uh dream in the marketplace.
Yeah, no. I I I grew up in the church. I've had wonderful parents and just been blessed to be able to grow up knowing the Lord, knowing about Jesus. But of course, that comes with just Having to go to church, having to do these things, and I didn't have a personal relationship until high school came along where I had other peers that were praying out loud and just had confidence and boldness in their faith. And I'm like, I don't have that.
Like, I desire that, I want that. And so I've rededicated my life to the Lord in about 10th grade. And was like praying, like, Lord, help me pray out loud, help me to really live for you and be a light for you, and not be shy or not be just holding fast to my faith, but be a light. And ever since then, the Lord has just. Made me a leader in just different spheres that I was put in, and of course.
I First, I went to a private college, then went to a community college, and then went to NC State. That's a huge public university. And through all of that, he was like, I want you to go to NC State because I want you to be a light in the darkness. I don't want you to go to a Christian school because people need your light and what I've developed in you.
So I knew that, like, The Lord was using me, but I didn't know that. Full-time ministry was going to be the end-all, be-all because NC State's hard, it's rigorous, the engineering program is difficult. And I worked in the field for four and a half years, but the Lord kind of just navigated ministering through the sense of doing youth and then just growing in different areas, developing us to this point where we're able to do campus ministry, which I did it one year while working, and there was grace for it, but I knew there was more. I knew that there were guys that needed to be developed, raised up, and discipled because there wasn't a lot of guys in our group. And I was like, this is the time.
Like, I'm getting older. Like, this is the time. The harvest is ripe. Like, there is so many people that are hungry for the gospel and hungry for truth and are searching and desiring truth. And I was like, I can always go back to engineering, no matter how old I am.
These students need to hear the gospel. What enc what how encouraging is that, Caleb, my sweet niece, Corena, they have a precious baby and You are now full-time supported.
So, we've sent you some chip shots of other folks who have been supportive, other family members. You depend on the generosity, but the nice thing about it is: hey, we have the privilege. of giving God giving through us to you, to Him. To reach a whole segment of next generation youngsters. For the gospel on the college campus, the hottest mission field, one of the hottest mission fields in the world today.
Caleb, how can we support you? Give us your website, your connections, the best contact. Uh the the best way to support us is if you go to ignite ncstate. org, uh there will be a way to donate on that page. Just go to donations.
Uh we currently have just things up there that you can look at, see what we're doing, see what we're about. I'll repeat that again, ignite ncstate.org.
Okay. Wow.
So if you see a volleyball being smashed and and and teed up in Raleigh, North Carolina area, if you see a bunch of kids packed into a stadium or into a facility worshiping Lord with their hands up, You might see my nephew and my niece in the middle of it. And your challenge out there to the next generation, Caleb, on wherever they are. I mean, someone 80 years old could be listening to this. They're saying, hey, I can't get on that college campus. I can barely get across town.
But what's your challenge on people, wherever they are, whether it's across. The world or across the street. On being a bold witness for Christ and making disciples. Yeah, the thing is, start with the people in front of you, the one. You know, there's so many things that we do on a daily basis where we interact with people wherever we go, and we are a light.
So I just encourage you that people need encouragement. People need just spoken into. They need the truth of the gospel. They need the truth of Jesus. He is the antidote.
He is the answer for everything that people are desiring and needing.
So just start with the one. It's simple. You can even start with a compliment, break the ice.
Someone at the grocery store, treat people with dignity, treat them with love, because we are literally the love of Christ. They will know us by our love.
So just continue to love wherever you go. IgnitnCstate.org, and you can find Caleb and Corinne on there. Support them. Support, hey, it's not yours anyway. Support these kinds of ministries to reach so many young people who you might reach the next Billy Graham, Dale Moody, on that campus going out into all the world by just helping, support, and encouraging Caleb from the car.
In the Blue Ridge Mountains, I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk. Download our podcast of this program and other segments. Join us, by the way, on our new podcast, Studying Through the Journeying Through the Book of Daniel. What a deep dive we're doing there!
Exciting! And we'll catch up next time right here. Stay tuned to Truth Talks. True top. Why
