My name is Melissa Silva and I was a partner at The Austin Stone during my time at UT. I transferred to UT as a junior and was glad to find a church quickly after moving to Austin. During my time at the church I served the as a small group leader for 2 years in the Kidstuff ministry. As I desired to grow in my knowledge of the Word I participated in various get trained classes and helped others grow in their knowledge as a table leader. I also desired to see the vision of the church made known to others as I co-led a community group during the vision series.
The Lord gave me a powerful vision at the importance and power of even just one person coming to know Christ. I received my degree in elementary education and at the beginning of the teaching program I went through, the Lord began to show me how as a teacher each year I am going to have the opportunity to pray for at least 20 students by name, as well as show them the love of Jesus. Over the course of just 5 years, that is 100 children that will be prayed for by name!
He pushed me a step further by showing me what could happen if even just 5 teachers prayed for their students. I looked around at my classmates and realized that only 1 of my 18 classmates knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I began to pray for my classmates in the teaching program and started to share the gospel with them. It was evident that the Lord was working in their hearts! I took a step of faith and began a book study on Max Lucado’s 3:16 book. Over the course of a semester, over half of my classmates who don’t know Jesus were a part of the study and were able to hear and discuss the truth about Jesus.
