2 students grow in faith at Langston -- 100 years of Methodist campus ministry

‘God changed my life’

Last fall, Trevon McNabb transferred to Oklahoma’s Langston University from Los Angeles.

"I was looking for a church home when I first moved to Langston. I didn’t want to stop my walk with God. I saw the Wesley Foundation across the street," he said.

It was a Sunday morning. When United Methodist campus minister Cecelia Brooks arrived at the center, she invited McNabb to enter.

Since that day, he has been active at the Wesley center and at Mount Vernon UMC in Crescent.

At the center, McNabb leads a ministry for boys in the Langston community on weekends. At Mount Vernon Church, he teaches adult Sunday School. After worship and lunch, he goes back to campus for athletic practices; he’s student manager for the LU men’s basketball team. He travels on the road with them.

He also maintains a 3.7 grade point average and is a Langston University Regents Scholar.

On Feb. 27, McNabb gave his testimony during the Wesley center’s evening worship. He had played basketball since he was 2 years old and was a star athlete in junior high and high school. Then he fell to a very low point in his life.

"Nothing was going right. I wasn’t in college, wasn’t working, wasn’t playing basketball," he described.

Using Isaiah 41:13, he told the students, "Never have fear in life because God will take care of everything. God changed my life. Enjoy every moment and see the big picture."

In 2014 McNabb hopes to be back playing basketball, "but whatever God wants, that’s what I want."

Global adventures

Through the Wesley Foundation at LU, Wannie Scott DeBouse got to travel far, sharing her faith.

"My life in college was made infinitely better by being a part of campus ministry," said the LU graduate who now lives in Oklahoma City with her husband and children.

"The Wesley Foundation at Langston University was a safe place, where I could grow my faith and my sense of being a young Christian without fear of seeming weird because I loved the Lord. It was a place of refuge, a place where I could see the mercy of God in action. I made friends, became active, and served my community. Rev. Brooks pushed us to be better, to work harder."

As a student, DeBouse participated in the Oklahoma Annual Conference. She shared her faith through song in Southeast Asia, chaired the Commission on the Black Church, and served as a summer camp counselor in Ohio through a General Board of Global Ministries internship.

"None of this would have been possible, and my world would be so much smaller, had it not been for my relationship with campus ministry," she concluded.

(This continues a Contact series marking 100 years of campus ministry.)

McNabb, this year

DeBouse, 1999