Six years ago, a student in my FRENCH 1A started talking to me after class and unexpectedly invited me to attend a Bible study organized by Christian students on campus. I was delighted to learn that there were Christian students on campus as I did not know this. The student also gave me a flyer to post on my office door as a way to advertise their unofficial group on campus.
I am a born-again Christian, and this brief encounter has led to many opportunities to display my faith to others on campus.
I started posting information on my office door about Christian conferences and announcements, highlighting the Cru and Intervarsity presence on campus.
After posting Christian signs on my door, I noticed that a few students, in their French writing assignments in which they were to provide profiles of their role models using French descriptive adjectives, started describing role models who also happen to be pastors .
During my office hours, a student came to my office to talk about a church she attends, what her pastor was teaching on Sundays, and we shared our spiritual journeys.
Besides encouraging students, I had been looking and praying to find a faculty and staff Christian group on campus, and God answered my prayers. I discovered there was a Christian Faculty and Staff prayer group on campus. I later met David ZagRodny (Faculty Commons), Wendy Quay (InterVarsity), and others who helped strengthen and grow my faith.
In summer 2020, I had opportunities to share my faith in Jesus with university-wide colleagues when the CSUS president asked all faculty to address issues of racism when African–American George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer.
During the summer faculty online teaching workshops in Zoom and Canvas, the facilitators asked us how we would talk about race and racism with students. I responded that I would start by talking about “true” Christian values as embodied by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
I also had the opportunity to share about my identity as a Christian in my own department when I shared my ongoing participation in many courageous conversations about race at our family’s church.
I have realized that being a Christian is a humbling and difficult challenge since I have to muster my courage to address subjects outside of my comfort zone, and one of those is to oppose racism as God commands us “to love our neighbor as ourselves” Mark 12:31.
“Mon modèle est Jésus” (My role model/inspiration is Jesus), a student enrolled in FRENCH 1A, wrote in his first short writing assignment. And so is his professor’s.
Beatrice Russell
California State University, Sacramento