PAUL REISSMANN
Michigan Area Communications
The power of invitation at Wesley Foundations can have life changing effects.
Andrew LaJoie is a music education major at Central Michigan University and a member of the Phi Mu Alpha fraternity. He is also the Music Director for CMU’s Wesley Foundation. LaJoie was initially invited by his friend, Sean Griffin, to join the Wesley Praise band in 2014.
In addition to his leadership role at the CMU Wesley, LaJoie began living in Wesley’s leadership residence in 2014. Charles Farnum, director of the CMU Wesley Foundation, said that in the leadership residence students are asked “how have you seen God today?;” for LaJoie this question was often difficult to answer.
Yet, after having a transforming experience in Nicaragua, during a spring break mission trip in 2015 to Rancho Ebenezer, LaJoie gained a new perspective.
During his trip in Nicaragua, LaJoie and the other CMU Wesley students spent three to four hours per day working with the ranchers. Rancho Ebenezer’s services are similar to the Heifer International project in that it raises animals to empower impoverished families, however, Rancho Ebenezer’s efforts are more local and less global, Farnum said. In the afternoon, students would visit markets, preschools, festivals, and local families in their homes for the cultural experience.
Farnum said that LaJoie’s experience came from worship in Nicaragua, talking with the people at the ranch, and through one-on-ones with his peers on the trip. During the trip LaJoie found that he saw God everyday while working with the people, who are poor by American standards. Experiencing people who found joy everyday despite having few possessions was outside of LaJoie’s previous life experience.
Before Nicaragua, LaJoie planned on working as a high school band teacher, but is now exploring a call to ministry.
God is now involved more in LaJoie’s leadership as a result of his trip to Nicaragua. He speaks up in small groups and in Bible study more than he had before. LaJoie has also attended the Exploration conference to further define his call to ministry. He has also found himself praying more and often spontaneously.
During a concert that was hosted by his fraternity, LaJoie led the playing and singing of the French national anthem. Afterwards, LaJoie led the audience in a prayer for the victims and families of the bombings in Paris earlier this year. LaJoie often leads prayer during Wesley worships as music director.
LaJoie is currently working on a return trip to Nicaragua during spring break of 2016 – the first spring break trip through CMU Wesley that is being entirely lead by students. LaJoie is in charge of planning and developing the trip itself, bringing together leaders from CMU and MSU to do fundraising, plan the trip, and help prepare new students for an international experience. Overall, the trip will have an itinerary very similar to the 2015 trip, but will have more opportunities to meet impoverished people and work with them. Ten students are attending, half of whom have never been to Nicaragua.
“College is a time when students can either turn away from their parents’ faith, or when they can truly make it their own,” Farnum said. “Helping Andrew – and others like him – grow from members of a youth group to committed adult Christians is what drives me to recreate the Wesley community year after year.”
~This is the 5th in a series. Wesley: Making Disciples on Campus
Last Updated on December 15, 2023