During her 20 years as an instructor in the College of Education at Grand Canyon University, Dr. Sandi Van Lieu maintained her passion to spend time with young adults and write.
She also wanted to connect with those young people through a devotional, but the process took longer than expected.
Her patience paid off recently, when Van Lieu wrote her first devotional for college students, called "Navigating College for Today's Young Woman," which sparked nearly 4,000 downloads on the YouVersion Bible app.
Van Lieu, however, wanted to do more. As a small group coach at Christ Church of the Valley, she talked to her group and shared her belief that it would be effective if young adults shared their stories so she could write a story or devotional on them.
Specifically, she wanted to know how those young adults encountered an issue, and how God worked in their lives.
“It took off once it was published,” Van Lieu said of the approximately 2,500 downloads for the second devotional, "Young Adults + Our Stories."
Van Lieu, the mother of two young adult daughters, was surprised not many spiritual forums like this were available for young adults.
“In most churches, there’s a high school, and then you have adults and nothing in between,” Van Lieu said. “Now that young adults are going to college and starting careers and not necessarily jumping into marriage and having kids, there’s not really a space for them.
“That’s why I was surprised there wasn’t a lot of devotionals specifically for young adults on YouVersion, given how popular YouVersion is.”
Van Lieu’s devotionals have resonated with Nika Solovei, a GCU Honors College student.
“Sandi's devotionals have topics that a lot of authors avoid because it is not something that is usually talked about,” Solovei said. “However, a lot of Christians struggle with the same things, and reading those stories can significantly change their lives as they might have pondered what to do about them but never talked about those things to others because they most likely have been ashamed.
“And reading the stories Sandi shared in her devotionals will help other Christians realize that it is not something to be ashamed of and these people from the devotionals shared their stories to help other Christians overcome their battles and get closer to Christ.”
At the same time, Van Lieu sought a balance between a good laugh and Scripture – especially in the first devotional to capture the attention of her audience.
“I personally love humor, so for the first devotional I wanted to have some humor and wanted to tie in the spiritual aspect without it being preachy.” Van Lieu said. “I love studying Scripture, so I really took some time to really think about which ones I wanted to use.”
Van Lieu also was mindful of the attention span of her audience, so she sought passages that would tie into the theme without being too lengthy.
She thought this would be helpful to her readers, especially those who preferred a direct devotional.
“If somebody wanted to dive deeper into the Scripture, they could with other resources,” Van Lieu said. “I know the girls in our small group are busy and have short attention spans. They like that it’s not going to be fluffy but that it gets to the point. You’re making it engaging, and the spiritual aspect is there, too.”
Van Lieu saw a need for this kind of forum based on her experience in the classroom and as an online professor.
“The young adults would come to me with their issues or whatever was going on in their lives,” Van Lieu said. “I’d hear a lot of mental health stuff and family things, and so that’s why these stories can touch on those different types of topics that are important to them.”
Since the launch of the first devotional, Van Lieu has received many requests from young adults willing to share their stories for the next one.
“I was surprised by the number of young adults who have family issues, so I thought we could do one on that and do one on mental health,” Van Lieu said.
“It’s been neat that all these ideas are coming out of this, and it’s been well received. I told the girls and a couple guys, ‘Those are your stories. Your stories are impacting other people,’ and it’s so great.”
Solovei said, “(Van Lieu) has been impacting young adults in the Valley and how big of a difference she made in their lives because of her kind heart. I cannot wait to see the second part of the last devotional that is coming out soon, as there will be more stories shared by peers that are so incredible and soul-touching.”
GCU News Senior Writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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