Coming to Fort Collins
Coming to Fort Collins |Citylight Staff, Alyssa Haverdink
January 18th, 2023 | Citylight Fort Collins | Stories
I still remember exactly where I was when I listened to my first Citylight Fort Collins podcast sermon…I was on a run on a dirt road in the outskirts of Battambang, Cambodia. A couple days later, I sat in a cafe down the road as I prayed over my future and sent my first email to my now-boss, Larissa Wach, co-director of the Salt Company at Colorado State University.
To provide context, let me back up a couple of months. I graduated from Missouri State University in December 2021, where I was actively involved in the local Salt Company there. The Lord did a great work in my heart during my college years, giving me passion for Himself first and foremost, but also for the local church, for college ministry, and for the nations. During my time there, I learned a lot about the vision and mission of the Salt Network, which seeks to plant a healthy church and college ministry in every major university town in America and overseas. As my time at MSU came to a close, I, like many other college graduates, had no idea what I was going to do with my life. So naturally, I went overseas to buy time in making a long term decision.
I spent six months doing missions in Eastern Asia, and in that time the Lord started speaking to me about going back to America to do college ministry in Colorado. I was confused at the time, because I had been expecting the Lord to call me overseas long-term. Instead, He was laying my favorite state, and a type of ministry that had changed my own life, heavily on my heart? It felt too good to be true. The more time I spent in prayer, the more confident I felt that this was where the Lord was leading me.
I began looking into college ministry opportunities in Colorado, and that’s when I remembered that there was a Salt Network church plant in Fort Collins. I reached out to the staff at Citylight, and asked if there were any open positions in the Salt Company there. I know now that they get requests like this all the time, and responding to my email was a unique and rare situation. I had no idea that God was paving my way, providing favor and opening doors for me. As my time overseas ended, I came back to America with a renewed sense of purpose in pursuing college ministry state-side, and quickly began the interview process.
Within a month of coming back to America, I headed to Fort Collins for a vision trip, and just two short months after that, I was driving out again, this time with all my belongings crammed into my little Camry, ready to dive into my new position as a Salt Resident with Citylight. The Lord was incredibly faithful to provide everything I needed, every step of the way. My position with Citylight church is support raised, which means that my salary is provided entirely through the generous donations of the people around me. Normally, it can take 3-6 months to raise the financial support necessary for a position in full time ministry, but within 25 days I was 100% funded and ready to begin working on CSU’s campus in time for the Fall Retreat.
In this whole process, the Lord’s hand has been evident throughout. He blessed me so much by cultivating within me a heart for the people and place that He would call me to in Fort Collins, long before I was actually released to move here. He also financially provided in a way that only He could, as it doesn’t make sense from a human perspective to raise that much money that quickly. And since I have moved, the Lord has continuously been faithful to provide friendships, community, a home, and spiritual fruit in my own life and in the lives of the students I get to interact with every day. This job is one of the biggest blessings in my life, and I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work with Citylight church here in Fort Collins!
To provide context, let me back up a couple of months. I graduated from Missouri State University in December 2021, where I was actively involved in the local Salt Company there. The Lord did a great work in my heart during my college years, giving me passion for Himself first and foremost, but also for the local church, for college ministry, and for the nations. During my time there, I learned a lot about the vision and mission of the Salt Network, which seeks to plant a healthy church and college ministry in every major university town in America and overseas. As my time at MSU came to a close, I, like many other college graduates, had no idea what I was going to do with my life. So naturally, I went overseas to buy time in making a long term decision.
I spent six months doing missions in Eastern Asia, and in that time the Lord started speaking to me about going back to America to do college ministry in Colorado. I was confused at the time, because I had been expecting the Lord to call me overseas long-term. Instead, He was laying my favorite state, and a type of ministry that had changed my own life, heavily on my heart? It felt too good to be true. The more time I spent in prayer, the more confident I felt that this was where the Lord was leading me.
I began looking into college ministry opportunities in Colorado, and that’s when I remembered that there was a Salt Network church plant in Fort Collins. I reached out to the staff at Citylight, and asked if there were any open positions in the Salt Company there. I know now that they get requests like this all the time, and responding to my email was a unique and rare situation. I had no idea that God was paving my way, providing favor and opening doors for me. As my time overseas ended, I came back to America with a renewed sense of purpose in pursuing college ministry state-side, and quickly began the interview process.
Within a month of coming back to America, I headed to Fort Collins for a vision trip, and just two short months after that, I was driving out again, this time with all my belongings crammed into my little Camry, ready to dive into my new position as a Salt Resident with Citylight. The Lord was incredibly faithful to provide everything I needed, every step of the way. My position with Citylight church is support raised, which means that my salary is provided entirely through the generous donations of the people around me. Normally, it can take 3-6 months to raise the financial support necessary for a position in full time ministry, but within 25 days I was 100% funded and ready to begin working on CSU’s campus in time for the Fall Retreat.
In this whole process, the Lord’s hand has been evident throughout. He blessed me so much by cultivating within me a heart for the people and place that He would call me to in Fort Collins, long before I was actually released to move here. He also financially provided in a way that only He could, as it doesn’t make sense from a human perspective to raise that much money that quickly. And since I have moved, the Lord has continuously been faithful to provide friendships, community, a home, and spiritual fruit in my own life and in the lives of the students I get to interact with every day. This job is one of the biggest blessings in my life, and I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work with Citylight church here in Fort Collins!
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