Stephanie Michael
Hi! I’m Stephanie Michael, the leader of Women’s Ministry at CSF. I graduated May 2004 from Indiana University with a B.A. in Classical Civilization and in Anthropology. I spent my four years as and undergrad very involved with CSF, but did not figure that I would end up working with CSF after I graduated. As I am continuing to learn, God has a sense of humor that I sometimes don't find funny right away!
My story begins with my kindergarten teacher doing a unit on dinosaurs and I became so interested that I found out everything I could about them. My interest in dinosaurs and paleontology expanded to ancient cultures and people. From that point on, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. From an early point in my life I also felt that God wanted me to serve Him through missions, but for many years I told God that I knew what I was going to do (archaeology) so missions was out of the question.
The summer after my freshman year at IU, I went on a mission trip with CSF to Venezuela. During the last sermon I heard in Venezuela, the speaker challenged us to figure out what was in the way of our relationship with God and what was hindering us from moving forward. It hit me right there that God did want me involved with missions at some point in my life. Once again, I was stubborn and thought that I would do missions only after I was an archaeologist. I believed my profession would provide me access to countries that are hostile to missionaries. I was set. I knew what I was going to do – and I had let God work in my plans! Or so I thought. My junior year of college, I kept feeling like there was more that God wanted me to do. I felt that He was wanting me to do missions earlier than I had planned, but it was something that I didn’t want to think about, so I pushed that thought aside hoping that it would just go away. No such luck. If you ignore God, He’s gonna chase you down until you have to face Him! October of my senior year I was trying to fill out graduate school applications when I felt very strongly that this was not something that God wanted me to do at this point in my life. After much prayer and tears, I finally admitted that God was telling me that the time for missions in my life was now, much sooner than I had planned.
After accepting God’s timetable, I felt so relieved. I talked with my campus minister, Paul Steiner, and I told him that I felt so unprepared for the mission field abroad. He asked hypothetically, if I would be interested in doing an internship at CSF. I knew that CSF had been wanting a female intern for awhile, but it was still in the preliminary stages. Hypothetically, yes, I would love to work and learn at CSF and give back to the ministry that had helped me out so much during my time at IU; I love CSF and want to see it grow and the students’ relationships deepen with each other and with Jesus. I knew that an internship was not possible, but God made it very clear that I was supposed to be an intern at CSF. Within a month after that conversation, I was approved by the CSF board of directors to be an intern for two years. I completed my internship in April of 2006 and began working full-time in May 2006.
