The following is an interview with Andy Brunette, a Youth Ministry major and Psychology minor, as part of the Starting the Conversation series.

Q: Were you raised in a religious household?

A: “My mom was Catholic, my dad kind of wasn’t really involved with the church at the time, so he was kind of looking for a church. But my mom, whenever I was born, started to go to a non-denominational church and so that was the church upbringing I was put in.

“I was brought into this kind of non-denominational Pentecostal setting. I consider myself to just be a child of God, because that’s really what I am. I’m a Christian – more emphasis on the ‘Christ’ part of it because there’s a lot of Christians, but it’s hard and it hurts seeing that Christian is just a title for some people.

“For me, it’s more like I’m a child of God. I would say if I could go by one title, it would be ‘a son who is loved by his father’ would be the title, and that just has so much signifcant meaning to it.”

Q: Are there any significant events in your life that helped bring you closer to your faith?

A: “The biggest event of my life was the passing of my father definitely, it was very tragic and it was very sudden and unexpected. Right before my father passed away, I rededicated my life to Christ – I was like “okay, I’m definitely going to follow Jesus… this is what I’m going to do,” and literally like two months after that, unexpectedly, my father passes away.

“That was a very hard time for me because in my mind… I just rededicated my life to Christ and then this happens, so what do I believe now? I didn’t want to go to God with what I was struggling with because I didn’t really now what to think. But I’ve experienced God’s love through people… and there’s a difference between God taking somebody and God receiving somebody – God doesn’t take people, God receives people.

“He would never do anything to hurt me. I also realized while growing in my faith that there is another force at play here – what Satan likes to do is he likes to do kind of attack and kind of slither away back into the corner and try to make it look like God is the one who did all this.”

Q: How has Waynesburg helped you grow in your faith?

A: “This being my fourth year, it’s made me see just a lot of different perspectives of what people have concerning Jesus, concerning faith, concerning the Bible.

I’ve seen a lot of different perspectives of people… and it really helped open my mind to different questions. I definitely will say that one man here that has really helped me a lot is Josh Sumpter – as silly as it sounds, just his posture and his approach to talking to students – like he actually wants to invest me and actually what’s to not what’s going on.

“He actually wants to walk with me through, not just college, but my walk with Jesus, and that means a lot to me because that’s exactly a spitting image of what Jesus will do.”

Q: Is it neccesary for you to share your faith with others?

A: “It’s exetrmely important, it’s extremely neccesary I should say, because put it this way – it’s my job. I’m not just saying that because I want to go into ministry, I’m saying that as a Christian, it is like the job to spread the news of Jesus Christ.

“This is how I see it, everyone you look at, every single person you pass by – there’s only two places they’re going – they’re going to Heaven or to Hell, there is no inbetween.

That’s just how it is, that’s how it is outlined in the Bible, that’s what it says and that’s what I believe. My mission, I see it like this… [Jesus] came to destory the worst of the Devil, as well as to give us salvation. How I see that is my mission isn’t to get to Heaven, because I believe in the finished word of Jesus, I know where I’m going. It’s to destory Hell for a living. When I leave this place, everyone I know, I want to see come to know Jesus.

And it’s not easy, because there’s some people that just won’t have it, but that’s where prayer comes in, and prayer and faith and a hundred percent committing your life to Christ and giving your whole heart, that’s where that all comes in.”