Jenna Krause

(MN Mission Leader ’08-10/University of Minnesota ’08)

Growing up, God was always a part of my life, but there always seemed to be other more important things.

My first year at the University of Minnestoa was difficult to say the least; I had friends, but no relationships of spiritual merit. I was craving something deeper, I wanted to grow in my faith, but I had no group or people or even person to help me in that.  That summer, I was a counselor at a Catholic camp, and my eyes were opened.  I discovered that the goal of life is to go to heaven—to spend eternity with the one that made you to be with Him.

I went into my second year of school thinking “Yes! I’m going to take on the University of Minnesota!” That year, I was living with girls that were not choosing to live a Christian lifestyle and I quickly felt alone in my faith. That year, I prayed fervently to meet people who shared my beliefs and who tried to live them out. SPO was the answer to my prayers. I was walking in the activities fair near the beginning of the year, and I saw St. Paul’s Outreach on a banner, and I had a minor heart attack! I think I scared all of the missionaries that were handing out candy, but I was so excited! I started getting involved in SPO on campus, but I would go from an amazing prayer meeting back to drunken roommates getting ready to go clubbing.  I felt torn between two very different worlds. I wanted the life I saw in SPO, but I did not have the courage or strength to live it.

My dilemma was soon solved when I was asked if I had ever considered living in an SPO women’s household my junior year, something clicked. This meant leaving everything I knew, everything I had grown comfortable with, my best friends, my campus, and moving to live with a bunch of girls I didn’t know at all.  After moving into household, I saw how rich and beautiful and challenging it was. I found beautiful friendships with people that would know and love the whole me, that would encourage me, and laugh with me. I was surrounded by holy, fun women of God, and I knew that this was where God was going to do his work in me. I remember one day at dinner, when my fellow housemates and I were having a conversation about how God has been working in our lives and then we switched to some random, goofy topic that I don’t even remember, but I remember sitting back and thinking, “Wow. Thank-you Jesus! Thank-you for friendships that encompass the whole me!”  Instead of being holier-than-thou “holy rollers”, these were real men and women who live in the world but are not of the world.

Household life is hard, but it is full of blessings. I saw the importance of prayer, and the example of my housemates convicted me everyday, as much as I would try to avoid it.  Seeing other women and men model this life convicted me and showed me that holiness is lived out in the nitty-gritty of life. Holiness is in the details, it is in the paper I don’t want to write, the housemate that got on my nerves, the cringe at the alarm for early, early morning prayer….and doing it anyway.  It is a life of love and of sacrifice, and has blessed me so much. It was and is in these relationships that I have built through Household and SPO that I am continually challenged, that I continually reexamine myself.

Through the grace of God, He has given me friends who have courage when I have none, who have prayers when I have nothing to say.  I, and thousands of other students, are abundantly blessed by the work of SPO and the support and prayers of its benefactors. Thank-you and God Bless!