Exceeded Expectations - Samantha Chin

“Why do you want to be in the fellowship?” The question that every fellow is asked of in their interview and, a question that I could answer so confidently. It was simple, I wanted to be included in a Christ- centered community. I attended a small division 2 school out in West Texas and had expectations of what my college experience was going to be like. I expected to be a part of an on campus Christian ministry, be poured into and mentored, have life changing revelations, and have amazing friendships that last a lifetime. Let’s just say, the Lord had other plans and none of those examples aforementioned happened.
Instead the Lord placed me there to compete for my alma mater for 3 ½ years. I swam for The University of Texas of the Permian Basin and being a student athlete, I juggled school, practices and meets, a job, and prepping my resume to get into graduate school. I was gone every other weekend for swim meets and no organization wanted to invest in me because I couldn’t commit to their time commitments. The Lord seemed to be telling me, “I know what you desire but right now, you need to learn to be discipled the one who can give you the most… me.” I learned a lot in college, but coming out of it I wanted a community. One that cared about me, and one that I could be intentional with and be genuine with.
The fellowship has been just that for me. Living with nine other girls and learning what it means to love each other how they want to be loved. I cannot love them how I want to be loved, because that is projecting my selfish desires onto them. There are many challenges with the job in Colorado. Yet, knowing that there are nine other girls and seven other boys who are going through it with me, and have my back at the end of the day makes things easier. Come evening time, when we’re all tired we are constantly building each other up because the Lord knows we all need it. We have the hard conversations with each other too. The ones where I am constantly being shown the sin in my life but most importantly because the people around me genuinely care about me and want to push me to look more like Jesus. The fellowship is a humbling life.
So what do I have to say about the fellowship? We do a lot of behind the scenes work here, and its not glamorous at all. I’m not here to make money, or to look awesome living in the mountains. All that to say, following the Lord in obedience is hard and its not comfortable but the reward in trusting in Him truly is more that we can expect. If He worked in ways that we expected… then He wouldn’t be God, would He?

- Samantha Chin