Jaderial Staebler

God has called me to help reach the college population. He wants me to reach student athletes who have their identity deeply rooted in how they perform on the field. So often, college students are searching for their identity in all the wrong places. So many people leave the Church when they come to college because they don’t feel anything from the service or are influenced by so many outside things: freedom, hookup culture, partying, drugs. I listened to what the world told me to do rather than what God was telling me to do, which led me to a path of searching for worldly things to fulfill me.

I turned to things such as athletics, organizations at Wartburg College, and academics, but when COVID hit, my life was flipped on its’ head. I qualified for the Indoor National Track and Field Meet, but less than 24 hours before we were going to compete, the meet was cancelled. The goal I was striving for my whole collegiate career became nothing in a matter of minutes. Like many, I had to go home and leave my “identity” at Wartburg. The Lord quickly unraveled the belief that if I didn’t become an All-American, I was nothing. I realized I placed my identity in worldly things, and the world came up short. The Lord showed me that He was the only one who could fulfill and last forever.

As I found my way back to the faith, the Lord has spoken many things to me. He has shown me that I am His Beloved daughter, and I am undeniably loved by him regardless of the things I do or don’t do – the goals I achieve or fall short of.

This is why I am so excited to return to Platteville and continue to be a friend for those Beloved sons and daughters who are searching for the truth. I want to continue sharing the Gospel with the athletes at UWP. I desire to love them and to show others not only who they are but WHOSE they are. That the most important thing they can do in their lives is to know the only true God. Their identity does not come from the things they are involved in, but it comes from being a son or daughter of the Most High King Jesus Christ.