The Proclamation of Our Community: Amanda

Austin Agape is focusing on spiritual disciplines during the months of September and October. This week, we are considering the spiritual discipline of proclamation.

In light of this, we are asking a question: How has the message of God been proclaimed to you at Austin Agape?

"For me, the answer to this question is another question - in what way has Austin Agape NOT proclaimed the message of God to me?

When I came to UT in 2004, I did not believe in God. I was disillusioned with His church and with his followers and I did not want any part of a belief system that I perceived to be so hypocritical and flippant. Believe me when I tell you that my church up in Fort Worth has only gotten worse in the time since I've been gone, even though they are probably one of the most superficially healthy congregations in the entire Presbyterian Church. The way that God's message was treated in that church turned me away from any real experience of God.

I held out until November of my freshman year. But God followed me. He told me to go to church, that something was definitely missing in my life and that I needed to go seek and find. Having been the recipient of a small barrage of emails from UPC since I'd signed up at the table at orientation, I decided to go check out evening worship. I don't remember that first night, or the next Sunday I came or the next. They all kind of run together in my head... because I stayed. I loved UPC and the message that Ben was preaching Sunday after Sunday. Everyone in the group was not only speaking the message of God in such a heartfelt and honest way, but they were following up on the words they said with action and sincere thought. I kept coming back for more.

Austin Agape, as the group has come to be called, knows how to practice the faith that God taught us through his son Jesus. Jesus had two commandments, which he said were the ones to practice above all others, to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and to "Love your neighbor as yourself". Through ministry with the food pantry, involvement in the University Interfaith Council,awareness of fair trade practices, honest and earnest worship of God, and a wholehearted love of everyone we meet, Austin Agape practices those two commandments.

UPC proclaimed the word of God to me, a nonbeliever, and led me back to the love that I cherish above all others. I owe Austin Agape my faith and all the love in my heart."

-Amanda