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Said Ramirez, “It’s going to be a community. I think that’s going to
help a lot. It’s going to be a lot of people helping each other — students
helping students as well as instructors helping students. That was my
experience as an undergrad.”
Ramirez works as an instructor’s assistant in the College of Theology,
so she has seen from both sides how the classroom relationships work.
She is a volunteer youth pastor in her church, but her goal is not to go
into ministry — it’s to teach.
The fact that she is on this path is a far cry from what she envisioned
only a few years ago. Ramirez, who was born and raised in Phoenix,
used to go to the mall for a different type of shopping experience: She
was shopping for what she would do with her life.
Every time Ramirez went, she would look wistfully at the Marine
Corps recruiting center and think she wanted to follow in the bootprints
of people from her church who had enlisted. “I would peek in and my
heart would race,” she said.
But as time went on, Ramirez instead felt a tug from God in a far
different direction, and here she is.
“God obviously intervened,” she said, “because I’m totally where I
should be right now.”
It has been a similar experience for Mahlouji, who grew up just
outside Boulder, Colo., and learned of GCU when the University had
a booth at a Christian concert. Only in his case, he plans to go into
ministry.
“I have found that this is the calling for my life,” he said. “I’ve had
people tell me how talented and gifted I am in communicating the word
of God to them in a way that’s clear and understandable.
“Charles Spurgeon (a famous 19th-century preacher) told his
students, ‘If you can imagine doing anything else with your life other
than ministry, you should do that.’ I’ve found that, of all the passions
in my life, there’s nothing I could imagine doing other than serving
the church.”
And yet, Mahlouji still wasn’t quite sure about his next theological
destination until he heard about GCU’s Seminary plan. It helped that
Dr. Dan Diffey, one of his mentors at GCU and the assistant dean of the
Seminary, was there to advise him and inspire him.
“He was a big influence in my life,” Mahlouji said. “After being in his
classes, and we go to the same church as well, just hearing who he is and
seeing the man of God that he is and hearing that he’s helping to create
the curriculum for the Seminary, I said, ‘Yes, I want to be a part of this.’”
BijanMahlouji, an avid reader, is eager
to share what he’s learning in the
Seminary – he plans to go into ministry.
It's going to be a lot of people helping each other. . . . That was my
experience as an undergrad."
—Annalee Ramirez