Choosing to Trust on Top of a Ladder
My name is Sandra Griffin! I am a campus minister at Christian Campus Fellowship in Athens, GA! I first served with Mountain T.O.P during Spring Breakout in 2017 and have been back every year! I love to travel and I once went to Honduras and back in one day!
Stretching up with a roller in hand, standing on the top rung of a ladder delicately balanced on a set of stairs, with my spotter below–this is where my relationship with God began. It was that day at Mountain T.O.P.’s Camp Baker Mountain that I felt God asking me to trust Him. That was 9 years ago.
Today, I serve as the Minister of Hospitality at Christian Campus Fellowship at the University of Georgia. There is an honor and a joy that comes with driving through the gates of Mountain T.O.P. with a new batch of students each year, bringing them to a place that measures the passage of time alongside my own spiritual growth; a place of rest, reflection, and renewal. Every year, our week spent at Mountain T.O.P. is full of reflection and prayer. It’s a reminder of where I am, where I want to be, and how to equip our students.
We live in a culture of me and now. The biggest marketing trends are established with the baseline of “treat yourself,” “you deserve this,” and self-love. Most of us have services that will deliver to us in a day or have dinner at our door in 30 minutes without having to take the time to shop or cook. If a video doesn’t catch our attention in the first five seconds, we just scroll right past it. Everything is catered to us.
Despite convenience being around every corner, it often feels like the weight and rush of the world is stacked on our shoulders. Not only has our access increased, but everyone also has an opinion on the “right” way to live. And judgment is not reserved. It can be brutal, and even hateful. Our students bend and contort themselves to check off all the expectations placed upon them, whether that influence is their parents’ definition of success or the world’s. Serving others is not an option if it doesn’t also serve them. Success is not measured by compassion, empathy, kindness, and hard work. It is measured by recognition, stability, and, oftentimes, money. It’s not what is best, but what is logical.
Before this year, there was a decline in students' willingness to sacrifice part of their spring break to serve. It was hard for them to justify the time and cost when they needed a break from the weight of achieving. Not to mention, most of them still had assignments to complete during the week-long “break.” Last year CCF’s Mountain T.O.P. team consisted of only four students. It was a pretty mismatched group. None of them were really friends, as they were all from different years and majors. After two days of service, they were bonded. They experienced it all together: the accomplishment of learning a new skill; the frustration when things weren’t going to plan; and all the moments, jokes, and spiritual highs in between. Following the four-person team’s return to Athens, that was all they could talk about. The excitement was infectious. Their passion led to this year’s team of twenty.
“The excitement was infectious. Their passion led to this year’s team of twenty.”
One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my six years as a vocational minister is that sometimes you have to stop trying to force things and let God work. The most impactful thing that Mountain T.O.P.’s programming allows for is ownership. Once we arrive, I am hands-off. The students lead their own devotionals each morning, they lead worship, and they are the ones who are hands-on, solving the problems on their projects. This empowers them to serve. They get to witness the direct impact their faith can make because they see it in their peers. That is why we bring our students back. No matter how small the group, they each have a moment like mine on that ladder 9 years ago: a meeting place for them and God.