by Marshall Dobson

“In the first few years, I began to waver in my faith, and look more like the world in the way I acted, talked, and thought. The problem was that I wasn’t truly giving myself over to the Lord. ”

In 2018, as I was going into my senior year of high school, my family moved to Midtown Baptist Temple. I had just been accepted into K-State’s architecture program and it seemed like my whole life was changing in front of me. Before getting into my ministry at K-State, it is important to provide some context. I was in school to earn my master’s degree in architecture, which is a five-year program. The school had a great reputation in the architecture world, and as I felt that I was in a growing and changing stage, I was curious to get out and see the world. Moving to K-State was the biggest decision I had made in my life at that point. I had no idea what to expect; I was excited but also wanted to be careful and keep my walk with God as a top priority. I wish I could say that all five of those years were profitable spiritually, but that is not the case. In fact, it wasn’t until my final year that I was truly effective in my ministry.

In the first months of college, I faced a ton of struggles. Though I had tons of freedom, I quickly felt alone, confused, and anxious. The stress of architecture school added to this. I quickly learned that our professors expected us to eat, sleep, and breathe architecture. It brought a new level of challenge in school I had never faced, and I began to struggle in my walk with Christ. My new college friends added to this. Very few friends that I surrounded myself with were faithful Christians. In the first few years, I began to waver in my faith, and look more like the world in the way I acted, talked, and thought. The problem was that I wasn’t truly giving myself over to the Lord. I had begun discipleship and then dropped out. I would attend various campus ministries, but most were shallow in teaching or differed in doctrine. It was not enough to support me, and to be honest I didn’t want the support. I fell into various struggles, each semester offering new temptations and distractions. When I would come back to KC for breaks or weekends, I would always feel awful, repent, and get fired up for the Lord thinking this would be the time I would go back to school and change. But what I had truly determined in my heart was that I would never be committed to the Lord as long as I was away at K-State.

“We prayed for my lost friends, and I remember specific times crying out, begging God to save each one of them.”

It wasn’t until just before the start of my fourth year that I was convinced to reconsider discipleship. I knew I was going through an endless cycle that needed to be stopped. I restarted discipleship, purposing in my heart that I would follow the Lord this time, despite all of the worldly influence around me (Dan 1:8). That fall semester I was a mess, feeling the war of the flesh against the Spirit. I wouldn’t let go of the people and things holding me back. A big verse for me was Proverbs 24:16, which explains that even a just man falls seven times, but the difference between him and the wicked man is that he rises up again. When I would get back up and seek the Lord, I would see some small opportunities to minister to friends. I would pray with my discipler, Seth Harper, who was so incredibly gracious with me. We prayed for my lost friends, and I remember specific times crying out, begging God to save each one of them. Yet I would turn around in the same weekend talking and acting just like them. I even made some of the biggest mistakes in my life in that semester. What would happen next truly changed everything. I received an eight-month internship in Tampa, Florida that would take the place of my spring semester and summer located in Tampa, Florida. I chose this location because of the church plant we had there: Living Faith Tampa. This is a story for another day, but God changed my life there.

“I wanted to see the campus as Jesus did when he saw the lost as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them (Mark 6:34).”

In the fall of 2023, I returned to K-State from Tampa for my final year; this was when the ministry truly began. I had been away from the bad influences long enough to truly see where that life would take me. I had time to get discipled and truly find myself addicted to the ministry (1 Cor 16:15). God had changed my heart in Tampa, and the way that I saw him work there was something that I wanted to bring back to K-State. I learned a lot about ministry and gained a ton of biblical knowledge to equip myself more to be ready to give an answer for my beliefs (2 Tim 2:15, 1 Pet 3:15). I had also gained a ton of insight through the Friends of Internationals ministry that helped me feel equipped for a variety of cultures and religions. Finally, I went into it understanding the value of evangelistic Bible study, specifically the discovery Bible method. As I stepped back on campus, I felt as though I had new eyes to view the field. I wanted to see the campus as Jesus did when he saw the lost as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them (Mark 6:34). This is the first takeaway: To have a heart for the field, you first need to have compassion for the people of the field. I began by praying, hoping that any opportunity would lead to an open door. I won’t lie, at times I overwhelmed myself with the weight of it, but God was good to walk me through that and give me specific direction. He had to show me that the weight of “saving K-State” was not on my shoulders. The second takeaway: It’s not your job to be the savior. While this was not my responsibility, I would very soon realize that God would put the exact people I was meant to reach into my path.

I began by meeting my old friends to see if there were any opportunities there. Within the first night of hanging with them again, it was clear that things were not the same. I love these people with all of my heart, but the realization hit me that while everything in my life had been changed by God, absolutely nothing had changed for them. They were stuck in the same things that they were in 8 months prior. While I did get the opportunity to share things that had happened in my time away, it was clear that the door was closing and my ministry was going to be difficult or put in jeopardy if I wasn’t careful. This brings me to the third takeaway: An effective ministry requires holiness. I needed to be set apart, and to realize that I was different because I was a child of God (2 Cor 6:16-17). I still had love for them, but our paths were different.

Many of my architecture peers had also been away on internships, so this was an effective time to reconnect and talk about how our lives were while we were away. One of my friends, Wyatt Beard, had shared with me months before that he had gotten saved after visiting a church while at his internship in Phoenix, Arizona. While we weren’t the closest of friends (at the time), Wyatt and I had kept in touch, and we planned to hang more once we got back to K-State. We both knew we didn’t have the greatest influence of friends at school, and we were both excited about the idea of having some good accountability and support from another believer. After reconnecting, it was clear that we would be each other’s source of fellowship and encouragement as we became unified in our pursuit of ministry. This is the fourth takeaway: Find a faithful friend to minister with.

The next takeaway is: Have a few fishing holes. What I mean by a fishing hole is a spot to find the fish, or people, to catch. For myself on a big campus, I found two initial spots. The campus dining hall was my first. I would go in there and sit for hours, eating, drinking coffee, studying my Bible, or doing homework, typically sitting in the same area every day. Having been at the school for four years already, I knew many people in the dining hall. I figured this would be a good opportunity to connect with people and open the door for conversations. I determined that the basketball court would be my other spot. While I’m not great at basketball, I had found this to be effective in my time in Tampa. During the first week of school, I sat in the dining hall, waiting to see if anything would come from it. One night at dinner, I sat alone and couldn’t focus on my studies because there was an obnoxious group of what I assumed were freshman boys. I didn’t talk to them, but they were loud enough to be noticeable. Later that night, I decided to go to rec courts to play basketball, hoping I might meet and connect with someone. To my surprise, the court was completely empty aside from a group of five dudes. They didn’t have enough for 3 on 3, so they were just shooting around. As I began to warm up by myself, it didn’t take me long to realize that they were the exact same group of dudes I saw at dinner that night. That caught my attention, and I prayed that if there was something to this that God would make it clear. A few minutes later, one of the guys came up to me and asked if I wanted to join their group. Though they were goofy and immature, I had a good time with them and even got one of their numbers. The next morning I was sitting in the dining hall doing my quiet time. All of the sudden someone set their plate down in front of me and before I knew it, I was surrounded by this group of dudes, and they said “Hey you’re that guy from basketball right? Can we sit with you?” From there my ministry to these dudes began. I was able to be their friend and I would share how to survive the new college life, and a few of them were architecture students which made it even easier. They began to sit with me regularly, and after a little while I found that only one of them was saved, and even he was not pursuing his faith at the time. The nice thing about this group of dudes was that they were incredibly friendly and constantly brought new people around to everything we did. One day at lunch, we befriended two international students that were new to the school. They had asked us where they could find the grapes, and this very simple question turned into regularly seeing them and sitting with them at the dining hall. I was quickly making new friends and building relationships. The next takeaway: Be bold — every single conversation or interaction is an opportunity.

“They had asked us where they could find the grapes, and this very simple question turned into regularly seeing them and sitting with them at the dining hall.”

As the semester went on, it got to a point where I would sit and read my Bible and people would stop by all morning. Each morning on my walk to the dining hall, I’d pray and ask God to give me open doors. I would have anywhere between 8-12 people come and go within a few hours. I’d always be sure to leave my Bible sitting out, and this often sparked conversations. I faced both hard and soft hearts, but the gospel was being shared. In addition to the fishing holes, I was engaging in 1 on 1 Bible studies. I had one going with a close Catholic friend of mine, where we would discuss our doctrinal differences and similarities. I’d also do a study with Wyatt after one of our classes. He was still a newly saved believer, so we would jump all around scripture talking about doctrine and foundational principles of our faith. We would even have lost friends occasionally join us to see what we were up to. Wyatt and I also helped with an architecture Bible study that was hosted weekly with architecture students from all grades joining. By the end of our time in school, we had around 15 people weekly attending this study.

It was clear that God was giving us opportunities left and right, so as we moved into the final spring semester, I determined that with the help of Wyatt, and mostly by God’s grace, we would start a group Bible study that would be evangelistic, use the King James Version, and utilize a discovery Bible method. As we constantly searched for open doors and sought to make new friends, we began inviting all of these people we were meeting and hanging with to join us in study. Before long we were averaging 8-10 people in study, many who had never even read or learned to study the Bible before. I began to teach foundational principles to word studies, cross-referencing, and other Blue Letter Bible tricks. There would be lost guys sharing prayer requests, cross-referencing verses, and taking personal notes weekly. The freshman boys, some architecture friends, and even those international friends I mentioned earlier were joining in. Some of the guys would even come to Kansas City with me on weekends to visit MBT. By late March, we had our first salvation, my good friend Chris (one of the boys from the dining hall). It was amazing and all by God’s grace. He had built this, Wyatt and I were just privileged to be involved. This brings me to the next takeaway: It can be challenging without a local body, so plug people in to what is best. But if there is not something doctrinally sound to plug them into, start it yourself. When it comes to relying on God to use you to start an evangelistic Bible study, here’s the final takeaway: Be equipped in the word, and PRAY!

There are many other outreaches we did, including ultimate frisbee, movie nights, and even had some teams come from MBT to do what we call campus blitz evangelism. The point is we were daily praying for open doors, getting connections, and finding fruit (Col 4:2-3). The only thing left to do was remain faithful and finish strong, making full proof of our ministry there (2 Tim 4:5). I’ll end this story with a very cool full circle moment. Within the last month of my time at K-State, one of my first college friends I made years back named Savannah reached out to me. We had gone on different paths and lost touch, but she was aware of my faith. We met up a few times to discuss the gospel and the Bible. She eventually told me that she accepted Christ, and ended up getting baptized just weeks before I left. I couldn’t believe it. God was able to redeem the time. I had been a terrible example of Christ to her in the past, but he was still ready to work in her life. God was faithful to make us fruitful, build lasting friendships, and see souls turned from darkness to light (Acts 26:18).

There are many stories that I wish I could tell, too many to fit in this post. As I’m writing this in 2026, to this day God still provides open doors with old friends from there. In March of 2025, one of those internationals, who originally had simply asked where the grapes were in the dining hall,accepted Christ. A soul changed for eternity because God opened a door. One of the boys from the dining hall is currently involved in campus ministries, and the architecture Bible study still regularly meets. Wyatt moved back to KC after graduation and is now ministering in C&YA with me. I hope this is an encouragement to anyone that reads it. God is faithful to use us when we trust him for open doors and look onto the mission field that he’s given us with compassion. Seeing these people as lost sheep should drive us to want to introduce them to the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). If you’re involved in campus ministry at any level, I pray that you can take some of these takeaways and be effective to students wherever God has you.

To reiterate the takeaways:

To have a heart for the field, you need to love the people in the field
It’s not your job to be the savior
An effective ministry requires holiness
Find a faithful friend
Have a few fishing holes
Be bold - every single conversation or interaction is an opportunity
It can be challenging without a local church - plug people in to what is available. If there’s not something, start something.
Be equipped in the word and PRAY!

Ministry to K-State: 8 Takeaways to Becoming Fruitful on Campus

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C&YA