Learn how the Lord has guided the steps of this fashion-loving and faith-filled young woman to devote this season of her life to reaching students on a college campus.
Read MoreHeather Kepuraitis | Apr 8, 2017, 18:46 PM
Learn how the Lord has guided the steps of this fashion-loving and faith-filled young woman to devote this season of her life to reaching students on a college campus.
Reliant missionaries Wendy Standinger and Kathy Jackson interviewed Heather for their newsletter, "Beauty for Ashes", here's what they learned.
Growing up in a Christian home, my parents’ wanted us to know Jesus. I remember my folks looking me straight in the eye to ask me if I knew that Jesus died for my sins. I knew the way to get into heaven was through Christ. I knew God loved me, but Christianity seemed like something from a history book. It wasn’t personal. As an eighth grader I became curious of what a relationship with the Lord would look like and asked God to show me. He answered my prayer when shortly afterward, I awoke in the night and saw an object in the shape of a person in my room. I rubbed my eyes to make it go away and it stayed. I was terrified so I prayed for God to make it go away. At that exact moment, it vanished. This started my journey of realizing God is alive and active and wants to be near to me.
As I prepared for college, I had my heart set on attending Illinois State University. Although my GPA and test scores were better than some of my friends who were admitted, I did not get in. I could not understand at the time, but later I could totally see the Lord’s hand in this. I attended Olivet University in my hometown and God broke me in big ways. I still wanted to attend ISU, so I decided to transfer at the start of my junior year.
During my last campus visit to ISU, I attended Cornerstone Church with a friend from high school. The student testimony really spoke to me and afterward I sensed confirmation from God to transfer. The week before classes started at ISU, I jumped in to help Cornerstone by meeting new people! I wasn’t even part of the church yet and here I was reaching out to others as I tagged along with my friend. But, I loved it and immediately dove into the church. I grew in my faith even more over the next two years and graduated in May 2013 with a degree in Fashion Merchandising.
I had been a leader at Olivet, but I wanted to see how Cornerstone worked before inching into leadership. Eventually, one of the pastors asked me to consider “Corner Leadership” which is basically a small group leader. I was excited to do this; but since I was already ending my junior year at this point, he also asked me to consider if I wanted to go through all the work of training to be a Corner leader if I was going to leave the following year after graduation. Then, a staff member suggested the possibility of staff and the seed was planted. Others began to mention staff as well. Shortly after, I was elected as the president of the Cornerstone Student Board. The goal of this board is to strategize ways to draw more students into the church. I loved everything about Student Board! This is when I seriously began to consider vocational ministry.
Considering staff was frightening so I sought the Lord a lot. The thought of staff would not go away and became kind of annoying. A friend challenged me with the question, “If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do with your life?” My desire to work with Cornerstone was clear. I liked fashion merchandising, but I knew anyone could do that job and not everyone is called to be a campus missionary. Since I was still somewhat new to the church, Cornerstone recommended that I work for a year before applying to staff. This solidified my calling. It also helped prepare me for MTD since my job that year was working in collections. I often got yelled at over the phone, so this made calling Christians for MTD a bit easier since most were at least nice to me! I attended staff training in May 2014.
At New Staff Training, we are told that it is rare to get many people to say “yes,” but I did. However, many who joined my team initially were coming on at $10 or $15 per month. The good news is that all of these partners are still on my team. But, at such low amounts, it was taking a long time to inch toward my support goal. From May to January I got to 60% but from January to April no new support came in so that was extremely hard. I felt very distant from the Lord and nothing seemed to help me connect with God.
The 2015 Collegiate Staff Conference was a turning point. As I sat in a room of over 200 Collegiate missionaries, I realized everyone had made it through MTD so I could keep going, too. I left the conference ready to hit the ground running but still feeling disconnected with the Lord. My MTD coach was fantastic and we not only lowered my support goal but he also suggested I read The Practice of the Presence of God . This book was helpful and I also felt challenged to go on prayer runs. I despise running but this actually helps me connect with God because all I can do to get through running a mile is to pray!
Nearing the end of my MTD goal with only $150 per month to go, support seemed tapped out in on particular town. I got one more name in that city and with help from my MTD coach, I decided to go for it. During the appointment, I asked, “Are you in a position to give $150 per month?” To my great surprise they shrugged and said, “yes” on the spot. The wife and I both cried. Fifteen months after staff training, I reached my goal. What a great way to finish raising support!
During MTD my boyfriend (now husband) was also raising support as a new staff member. We dated for two years and much was long distance during MTD, which was a challenge. We were engaged in December 2015 and married in May 2016. After much prayer (and after getting multiple job offers), Alec decided to pursue a career as a teacher. He volunteers at Cornerstone as much as possible.
We have to work hard to keep our relationship a priority and continue to communicate how we feel and listen to each other. With Alec traveling an hour to work each day, his time is limited so I’ve had to adjust my expectations that he would be able to be more involved in the church. I have also struggled to know our roles and to discern when I am his co-leader versus his volunteer coordinator, and when to just be his wife.
I love meeting with seven women for one-on-one discipleship each week—this is the favorite part of my job. It is a joy to be involved in their lives and to be part of their spiritual growth. It has also been fun to co-lead one of our “Corner” groups with Alec and to pour into our apprentices together. It’s been a hard season with a lot of turnover in our student leadership. We had to challenge some students to take a step up and start making right choices. The good news is that we are beginning to see fruit from these difficult conversations.
As mentioned, going for prayer runs has been helpful. Also, one of the pastor’s wives is good at holding me accountable. It helps to I know she is going to ask me how my times with Jesus were this week and I love when I can share what I’m learning. Wednesday mornings I keep open to sleep in and spend leisurely time with God. I also have been trying to read a Psalm every morning and night. Additionally, our staff team has been challenged to take one day per month from work to spend time with the Lord. This has been fun!
I never wear the same exact outfit twice. I always try to change things up somehow with shoes, a scarf or other accessory. This is part of my creative outlet and I also feel if I wear it exactly the same, it feels “old” and I like something new.