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[This cluster of articles describes some of the struggles Black students face as they become part of the InterVarsity family. This first story is from the past; the responses that follow are from the present. We hope to explore similar issues for other ethnic minorities in future issues. Every InterVarsity chapter and minority culture is different. Everyone’s story is unique. We’d like to hear from you; you can reach us using contact information provided at the end of this cluster.]

Rita Carson Kendagor’s Story:

When I was a freshman at Wichita State University in 1972, there were only four black women living in the dorm where I lived. Coming from a history of all-Black schools, I was nervous and more than a little uncomfortable. That is why when two long-haired, jean-clad white girls knocked on my door one day and invited me to a prayer meeting, I immediately put up barriers. But, I smiled and said, “Sure, I’ll go.”

There is something you need to understand here. Not only was I from a segregated educational background, but religiously I was steeped in the pentecostal tradition. I was told repeatedly before I left home, “Stay saved; watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing; no one goes off to college and comes home saved.” So I had two types of built-in defenses resulting from negative racial experiences and religious legalism.

Nevertheless, I went to a 7:30 a.m. prayer meeting. Everyone there was white, and everyone there had on jeans. I was wearing a skirt and knee socks (believing that any woman who wore pants at all—especially to a prayer meeting!—couldn’t possibly be saved). I had a totally new experience in worship that morning. True, I was skeptical, but I knew it was worship. There was peace, sincerity and quiet-spoken prayer. There was a sense of calm boldness in approaching the Lord in prayer. I did not understand everything on that day, but I was compelled to stay and thus learn very valuable lessons from these “strange Christians.”

That was my first experience with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I spent the remainder of my freshman year attending morning prayer meetings, fall and spring conferences, a Bible & Life conference and a winter conference in the mountains in Colorado. I was like a dry well being filled with new and fresh water, because in my church I had learned the basic gospel message and a lot of emotionalism. Having never been taught how to study the Bible, I never grew past “Jesus saves” and the endless list of “don’ts.”

So it was really through InterVarsity that I was liberated spiritually. The inductive Bible Study method opened up the Scriptures to me in a way that I had never before experienced. And I learned for the first time how to sit still and talk to Jesus, and how to wait quietly and listen to him.

Yet even through this spiritual awakening, I still had a void in my life. It appeared as though I was leaving a lot of the richness of my African-American cultural heritage behind. The music in I-V was white, the speakers were white. I greatly appreciated my new learning in prayer and Bible study, and the way I was learning to truly walk in the Spirit on a daily basis, but suddenly I had become culturally detached. And one day I emerged confused. What was I to do with this richness in spiritual growth and my rich cultural heritage? Did they really mesh?

Unfortunately, the students in the I-V group were not very sensitive to what I was going through. I think they wanted to be, but did not know how. I spent hours talking with my closest I-V friends. I distinguish InterVarsity friends because it was as if I had two lives. I had my Black friends and my I-V friends. Many of my Black friends were Christians, but after attending one or two meetings with me, they no longer wanted any part of InterVarsity. It probably would have been fine if I could have tolerated two different sides of life, but I wanted it all combined. I wanted everyone to get to know each other and, though differences did exist, to eventually recognize and appreciate the similarities. I was in for a rude awakening. Some of my I-V friends sincerely wanted to help. They also wanted the meetings and conferences to be integrated. But at that point it seemed as though there was some resistance to incorporating “blackness” into the “regular” meeting.

I prayed. I approached members of the executive committee with a list of potential African-American speakers. At the same time, I was beginning to meet more and more Black students who desired some sort of Black Christian fellowship. An entire semester went by and still there had been no action on the list of Black speakers I had given the executive committee. A friend and I had been spending more and more time talking and praying about a Black Christian fellowship. We decided to stop talking and do it. Before long, “The Group,” as it came to be called, was meeting on Friday nights. Once again, I belonged to a Christian fellowship that believed in prayer. That was one of the most exciting things about The Group—being able to see prayers answered consistently. One interesting outcome of The Group is that today more than half of the members are or have been involved in full-time ministry, ranging from pastoring to overseas missions.

The Group also helped me to deal with my anger toward the InterVarsity chapter. They prayed for me, and together we prayed for InterVarsity. In December 1976, The Group did something I will never forget. They paid for me to attend I-V’s Urbana missions conference. I had had no intention of going because I had been to Urbana ’73. But they presented me with the money one Friday night and told me, “You’re going to Urbana.” That conference changed the course of my life.

“Declare His Glory among the Nations” was the theme for Urbana ’76. I can still feel the excitement and unity of that convention. And though I cannot remember very many specifics about the speakers, I do remember one thing that was said to me. During the fellowship of Black students attending the conference, I found out that Blacks in InterVarsity all across the country were having similar experiences to mine. I felt even more angry that a Christian organization appeared to be systematically alienating minorities on a nationwide scale. At that time, there were only two Black I-V staff in the U.S. One of them listened to me pensively as I expressed my feelings. Then he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye and said, “Rita, InterVarsity needs you.” I laughed and declared that I would never work for InterVarsity. But five years later, I was preparing to move to St. Louis, Missouri to pioneer Black Campus Ministries for—you guessed it—InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

God’s hand was so apparent in this appointment because the St. Louis staff team included one person who had been a member of the Wichita State I-V executive committee, plus two others who were WSU I-V alumni. The former executive committee member and I even presented a workshop entitled “What Went Wrong at Wichita State” at a student conference. Even though we were supposedly sharing this information with the students, it really turned out to be a two-way conversation where we openly shared our hurts. It indeed proved to be a time of healing.

Even though I was a student in I-V more than twenty years ago, I still feel those emotional rumblings. I will never forget my prayer partners or small groups. I still remember studying Romans in Rick’s group, and it seems like only yesterday that Jim and I met once a week to pray for the group we were leading. Yet it was such a divided time for me. I am afraid that through my own pain and confusion, I may have hurt some people. No doubt, like me, those I-V students at Wichita State between the years of 1972 and 1976 have bittersweet memories. Yet the Lord did a miraculous work in my heart during that time. He was preparing me for cross-cultural experiences I never even imagined. During my time on staff, I went to Kenya, East Africa, and met my husband-to-be. I was married for eight years to an African man, until the Lord called him home in 1993. If there is one thing I learned in my cross-cultural marriage, it is that while some things matter, many things do not. Cross-cultural experiences are still a very significant part of my life. It seems that the Lord continues to lead me into various situations, allowing me to utilize the learning from my college years.

What Black
Students Wish
White Students
Knew and
Understood

Now What?

Poem:
Full Spectrum

Today, InterVarsity groups across the nation are still struggling with the same issues I faced and these issues need to remain up front. Racism is still a hot topic in the world as well as on today’s campuses. There is a lot to be learned through struggle. But there comes a time when we need to listen to the peace of unity in the body of Christ: “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

At the end of that chapter Paul says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way” (verse 31b). As he continues with the description of love in chapter 13, I can vividly see what I learned from that group of Black students at Wichita State. As I shared with them my anger, they lived out 1 Corinthians 13:6–7: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Although I did not realize it at the time, The Group taught me how to continue in the love I had shared with InterVarsity through their persistent prayer, their uplifting hope, and their gentle way of prodding me back into the midst of a struggle.