Neesa McGuire came to faith in high school while attending a small, mission-minded Baptist church that didn’t let its convictions remain theoretical. The church consistently sent teams overseas, but they were firm that missions couldn’t be an excuse for silence at home: “If you’re not sharing the gospel here, you’re not going to share the gospel there.”
Neesa took that principle to college, already committed to the belief that Christians are supposed to open their mouths. Through her sorority, she met a Campus Outreach staff woman, was discipled, and learned practical tools to share the gospel and study the Bible for herself. That formation shaped how she’d eventually disciple women once she joined Campus Outreach staff. Ava is one of those women.
“I need a lot of help.”
When Neesa and Ava were introduced, Ava had no church background and was living, as Neesa put it, “a pretty run-of-the-mill Greek life.” What God used to get Ava’s attention came at the end of the year in the form of a sorority tradition; graduating seniors leave behind closing words of advice for the underclassmen. One senior used hers to share her testimony instead. It planted questions in Ava that wouldn’t leave her alone. A “Reinvestigating Jesus” Bible study followed, then a summer at home, during which something in Ava’s heart changed. She came back to campus and shared, “I don’t know what to do, but I know what I shouldn’t be doing, and why. I need a lot of help.”
Ava was folded into Neesa’s small group and began living out the same start-with-your-neighbor conviction Neesa had once been taught. Ava didn’t just grow; she started giving away everything she was learning. She learned to read the Bible, learned a couple of evangelistic tools, and started walking her nursing cohort, her roommates, and even the sweethearts in her boyfriend’s fraternity through the same gospel conversations that had once been offered to her.
“I want someone to have to raise their hand next year because of me.”
By her junior year, she had led two other nursing students to Christ. Both of them went to the Beach Project this past summer. Neesa was there for a special moment that tied everything together: during one of the closing talks, the speaker asked everyone to raise a hand if they were there because of someone else in the room. Both of Ava’s friends raised theirs. Afterward, one told Neesa, “I want someone to have to raise their hand next year because of me.”
It’s a picture of our multiplying purpose! A Texas church taught Neesa to share the gospel right where she was; Campus Outreach gave her the skills to do it. Neesa taught Ava the same. Ava reached two more. Those two are already talking about who they’ll reach next.
Ava is graduating this year and heading into the workforce, already connected to a local church and already planning to keep leading her discipleship group as she makes the transition. The CO staff at Stephen F. Austin State University is not worried about losing momentum. It is never about one leader. Neesa shared, thinking of the Campus Outreach mission statement, “It’s about building laborers — and laborers, once built, tend to go build more.”
Encourage someone you know by sharing this story with them.
Please direct them to the blog or click here to print a copy of the story to share!