SJ Gottschamer

Campus Missionary –
Park University and Maple Woods

My Story

Growing up, I was raised in a Christian household and attended church most every Sunday. Yet despite having regularly stepped foot in a Christian setting, at the time, I could not articulate a desire or understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus.

Upon graduating from high school in 2018, I enrolled at Metropolitan Community College Longview. Like most students, I enrolled with the intent of getting in and getting out so as to move onto whatever came next. Little did I know, the Lord had other plans in mind.

While at Longview, I encountered students who were a part of an on-campus ministry known as Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The more I came to know the students, the more I came to recognize an undeniable joy they had for the Lord. I found myself pondering the question, ‘What is it about these people that makes them so different from others I’ve met?’

Throughout the next couple of semesters, these students, among other individuals, graciously invested in me regardless of who I was or professed to be. They shared with me the truth of the Gospel articulating both who Jesus is and what all He had done in and through His life, death, and resurrection. Upon hearing this, my heart could not help but break over the things in which Christ had both died and rose to redeem me from. Furthermore, it was then that I recognized an innate hunger to chase after the Lord and where He was leading.

Fast forward to the summer of 2019, it was then that I made the conscious decision to repent of my sin and place my faith in trust in Jesus.

The Lord had gotten a hold of my heart. As a result, by His grace, everything changed.

Looking back, before stepping foot on MCC Longview’s campus, I was never fully aware of the truth of the Gospel, much less my sinful state and need for a Savior. I am forever grateful to the Lord for those whose hearts He burdened to then share with me the Good News of Jesus. Having tasted and seen for myself that the Lord is indeed good, I can’t help now but desire to want to share this same message of life changing grace with others, specifically Longview college students whose shoes I was in not that long ago. The Lord has been extremely gracious and presented numerous opportunities, through Collegiate Impact, to make this possible. To know Him and to make Him known, that is the mission.

My Role

As a Collegiate Impact Campus Missionary, my role is to provide organizational leadership and direction to the Park University and Maple Woods ministries to advance the mission of bringing the hope and peace of Jesus to Kansas City students.