Want to see the difference Cooperative Program makes? Look at changed lives
The following pair of stories are part of a series of
articles to be published in the Baptist Message regarding the Cooperative Program
and how it is at work throughout Louisiana and the rest of the world. Subsequent
articles will appear in the newspaper during the year to highlight Cooperative
Program missions and ministry work.
Note: The following pair of stories are part of a series of
articles to be published in the Baptist Message regarding the Cooperative Program
and how it is at work throughout Louisiana and the rest of the world. Subsequent
articles will appear in the newspaper during the year to highlight Cooperative
Program missions and ministry work.
Week in and week out, Louisiana Baptists across the state
make donations – unselfishly, on good faith, and without reservation –
to the Louisiana Baptist Cooperative Program?
Where do they go?
Do they actually do any good?
As an answer to that question, meet Kevin Celestine, a student
whose testimony tells how he turned his life away from heathenism and toward
Jesus Christ.
Celestines tale identifies one factor as instrumental
in that turn of his life – the Cooperative Program-funded Baptist Collegiate
Ministry.
Born in St. Lutia of the Caribbean, just south of Jamaica,
Kevin has spent the last two of his five U.S.-based years as a loyal participant
in the Baptist community.
But it was not always that way.
“Back home, I went to church every Sunday but I never
knew God,” Celestine says. “I had no relationship with him.
“I got up and went to church because my grandmother –
who was Catholic – forced me to go.”
Celestines mother had been living in the states trying
to make enough money to bring along her family. It was not until she told her
son it was time for him to try to get his green card that he started to talk
to God.
“Thats when I really said, God, if you bring
me to America, I will change my life,” Celestine explains.
Although Celestine did make it to the United States and did
transform his life eventually, the change was anything but immediate. In short,
he acknowledges that he continued his previous habits of smoking marijuana,
going to clubs and leading the party lifestyle.
The first “religion” Celestine actually turned to
was Rastafarianism – a Jamaican-born movement that bases its doctrine on
biblical selections, regarding Ethiopia as the Promised Land and Haile Selassie
as a messiah.
However, for Celestine, the religion meant something else entirely
– “you could grow dreadlocks, smoke weed, and read the Bible,”
he says.
“It was the easiest thing for me, because I didnt
have to give up what I loved.”
But before Celestine could join the movement, his best friend
and partner-in-crime – his cousin – got saved.
“He told me, Man we need to stop smoking,”
Celestine says, looking back on that time. “At first, I resisted, but something
told me to stay with him.”
What Celestine describes next could be a called a modern-day
miracle.
“I was driving home in my car after smoking with a friend
of mine, and I just heard a voice that said, Why are you trying to kill
my spirit?” he says. “I turned around and didnt see anyone,
so I figured I was hearing things.
“Then, I heard it again – Why are you trying
to kill my spirit?” Celestine continues. “I asked back, How
am I trying to kill you? and the voice answered, Youre hindering
me. I want to move in you.”
It was the moment of turning.
“For some reason, God chose that date to pull me in,”
Celestine explains. “Its like all these different things came together
and broke me. Even before I decided to give my life to Christ, all the things
I used to enjoy fell off of me. When I went to a club, I felt isolated. I didnt
want to smoke anymore. Drinking had no appeal for me.
“I just didnt enjoy my old life.”
Meanwhile, Celestines new life entailed meeting Tim LaFleur,
Baptist Campus Ministry director at Nicholls State in Thibodaux. LaFleur met
with Celestine every day for the next two years, discussing scriptures and the
young mans emerging spirituality.
“It was exactly what I wanted,” Celestine relates.
“Ive been working with the Baptist Campus Ministry for three years
now, and so, I know firsthand what it can do. Thats why Im here.
I asked God how I could please him, and the answer is to know him, love him,
and share him.”
Knowing “firsthand” what people can do to further
the mission of spreading the gospel epitomizes the goals the Baptist Campus
Ministry strives to reach, LaFluer indicates.
And when such goals are accomplished – as in the case
of Kevin Celestine – it represents exactly what the Cooperative Program
is all about, state leaders add.
Indeed, the key concept in the Louisiana Baptist Conventions
participation in the Cooperative Program is transformation, leaders explain.
The concept is simple – just as Celestine was transformed
into a follower of Jesus Christ, so is ones hard-earned dollar transformed
into the support necessary to keep institutions like the Baptist Campus Ministry
hard at work.
Having an encouraging spiritual outlet like Baptist Campus
Ministry where students like Celestine can work through their spiritual questions
is important for those beginning their God-seeking journey, leaders say.
Louisiana Baptist Cooperative Program funds allow for that
– directly. Money given through the Louisiana Baptist Cooperative Program
supports other ministry and work throughout the state, as well as five state
agencies. It also is forwarded to support work throughout the nation and world.
So, what is the moral of the story?
It is simple – God may work in mysterious ways, but the
Cooperative Program does not.
So, the next time a person asks where the money is going, perhaps
one can point to Kevin Celestine, as well as the lives who will be touched by
his story and the endless potential for others to repeat his story through their
own experiences.
Perhaps one can talk about how somehow, somewhere down the
line, a couple of dollars was transformed into eternal life for a fellow human
being and beg the question, “How is that possible?”
One knows exactly what Kevin Celestine would say to such a
question?
“Its a miracle, mon.”