Written by: Edward Backer
Neither Adventism nor its educational system meant much to me while I was growing up. Despite being raised by Adventist parents, I didn’t go to Adventist schools, so my only interactions with other Adventist youth took place in Pathfinders. But by the time I graduated from high school, my Pathfinder club had dwindled from 30 youths to only a couple. The lack of a spiritual community with others my age led me to feelings of loneliness.
Nevertheless, God was with me. Near the beginning of quarantine in 2020, I became involved with an online youth group called Amazing Facts Youth. I was ecstatic because I had found a community of youth committed to growing their faith. But while I valued the time I spent with them online, I craved having such a community in person.
I truly began taking my faith seriously in the summer of 2020. The following August, I started attending Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) with the hope of getting involved in the local church and meeting other Adventist youth there. But my hopes were quickly shattered when I encountered a severe lack of young adults at the church.
After spending two years at RIT, I had yet to meet another Adventist student. My desire to have a thriving, local community of Adventist youth was still strong, but I felt trapped with my choice of school. I was depressed, earning a degree I didn’t want at a school I no longer wanted to attend. Around this time, my long-distance girlfriend decided that she would commit to Southern Adventist University after her year abroad in France at Collonges Campus Adventiste du Saléve.
On a whim, I decided to look up Southern. Since my mother studied there years ago, I was already somewhat familiar with the name, but what I found was not what I expected.
While watching the recorded vespers and reading about campus activities and LifeGroups, I heard a soft voice in my lonely bedroom that said, “This is where you belong.” It was enough to make me burst into tears. After taking some time to gather myself, I immediately began praying about transferring schools.
I knew that my father would be firmly against making such a change, especially as I would go from studying biomedical engineering at RIT to psychobiology at Southern. Still, I put the situation in the Lord’s hands.
My mother, girlfriend and mentor all helped me pray, but after getting shut down by my father time and time again, I gave up. I was angry at God for seemingly denying what I thought He wanted for me.
To make matters worse, my girlfriend and I broke up a few months later, but she was still planning to attend Southern. I was overwhelmed with depression and had a choice between staying at RIT, where I wasn’t happy, or withdrawing and not having the support (financially or emotionally) to transfer schools. The only thing I could do was pray and try to believe that God wanted me at Southern.
So, after a month of praying and mulling it over, I took a leap of faith: I withdrew from RIT and committed to Southern, knowing that God would guide and protect me no matter what. And, by a miracle, my dad’s negative stance on my decision changed overnight to the point where he became my most prominent supporter as I transferred schools.
Looking back, I can see how everything from the breakup to my dad’s oppositional stance all helped prepare me to take that leap of faith. God had to make me uncomfortable for me to fully trust His plan for my life. And after being here since SmartStart, I can firmly say that Southern is where I’m meant to be.