Geneva College has always been a familiar place to me, despite the fact that I grew up almost 1,000 miles away and never visited the college until I was in high school. I grew up in Kansas as an RP kid. Many members of my extended family attended Geneva, going back multiple generations. We prayed for the college. We gave financially to the college. We attended Geneva basketball games in Kansas City when the team made it to the NAIA national tournament here.

In my junior year of high school, I visited my older sister, a freshman at Geneva. During that brief trip I stayed with a group of guys in a student house next to campus. My lasting memory of that weekend was our midnight decision to hike up the hill to the Big G, a Geneva icon visible from miles around but difficult to get to. With only the moon and stars to provide light for our journey, we navigated around trees and rocks, barely aware of where the trail was headed, but finally arrived. We sat for a time looking at where we had started and the path we’d taken, gazing upon the Beaver Valley and the classic architecture of the college campus on the other side of the river. It was picturesque in the moonlight. We got into bed sometime after 2 a.m. This image came back to me when picking a college, and I was confident God was directing me to this good place for my education.

Between academics and campus life at Geneva, I made some of my best friends. We have stayed close over the years. I was actively involved in the sports information office as a student, and I met Van Zanic, who was hired as the sports information director during my junior year; he would come to play an important role in my future. He is now the athletic director at Geneva.

Geneva is also where I met my wife, Colleen McCready, who I married a few weeks after graduation in 2000. We returned to Kansas to start our life together. Colleen was getting her master’s degree at the University of Kansas, and, as a Kansas kid, I always felt it was home. It didn’t take long, however, before I started longing to be back near Geneva and to be an active part of its Christian mission and vision. At first, I attributed it to missing the college life, but, as the longing persisted, I started to wonder if there was more to this. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at the time, so Colleen and I bought a house in Kanas and we began to settle in. Our Geneva experience prepared us well for our careers; I worked in IT and Colleen in speech therapy.

A year later, I received an unexpected call from a Geneva friend who was hiring for an IT position at a company in Pittsburgh. One of the factors in deciding to apply and eventually to accept the subsequent offer was that it would bring us closer to Geneva.

That winter, not sure what lay ahead, we packed up our belongings and headed east. Not long after we settled in, I reconnected with Van and began assisting him in small ways in the athletic department. I worked with him in the broadcast of Geneva men’s and women’s basketball games on the radio for a number of years, along with various statistical functions within the department. We talked about my interest in being at the college full time, particularly in the athletic department, if the fit and opportunity were right. Colleen, who had run track at Geneva, served for a couple years as an assistant coach on the track and field team. That meant we were often around Geneva in some capacity.

I envisioned something at Geneva opening up within a few years after we moved back, and there were a couple of opportunities over those early years; but they were never quite right for our family. Instead, I waited and worked in the IT field, thankful for the stability of my job but never passionate for the computer world. Some of my coworkers would often spend their evenings experimenting with the latest technology on their multiple server networks at home, but I preferred to head home to spend time with my family and enjoy other interests.

Fourteen years passed after Colleen and I returned to western Pennsylvania. When we had arrived in 2003, we did not have any children. Fourteen years later, we had five, and the dynamics of our lives had changed considerably. Over that time, I wondered about God’s plan and wrestled with this desire I had to work at Geneva, this RP college that God used to change lives and prepare many for service. Were my part-time roles in the athletic department all the involvement at Geneva He intended for me? My prayers even began to shift from praying for something to open at Geneva to praying that God would take away this interest if it was not something in His plan. My interest never dissipated, yet I learned to be content where God had called me.

After this long season of patience, my situation started to change. My department at work was undergoing a reorganization, and I was asked to move into a new role that did not seem like a good fit for my skills. I received a phone call from Van in September 2017 letting me know that the sports information director position was open and asking if I was still interested in applying. For the first time in 14 years, my position at work seemed uncertain just when the position I most had my eye on at Geneva was open.

After discussions with Colleen, it was obvious that I should pursue the position. I enjoy numbers, writing, and sports, love Geneva, and, most importantly, love the Lord; this position seemed like a great blend of all of those things. I didn’t know if this was the opportunity the Lord was preparing for me, but it seemed right. That didn’t mean there weren’t complicating factors. We knew that accepting a position with Geneva would likely mean a move to College Hill for reasons of cost of living and commuting time. Yet we loved the church and the community we lived in and knew that leaving them would be terribly difficult.

The interview process took almost a month, but God opened the opportunity. I started in November 2017, and this past July our family moved to College Hill. Relocating was difficult for our family; we left behind a deeply loved community of believers at Grace (Gibsonia, Pa.) RP Church. We were in attendance at the first church service of that congregation 11 years ago, and our love for that body is great. But we are so grateful for the Lord’s clear direction and provision over the past eight months.

Dr. Calvin L. Troup, the president of Geneva College, and the person our family sat behind in the pew at Grace RP Church for years, often says that we have good work to do here at Geneva. I believe that fully; so while the work is hard at times, and often requires long hours, God has blessed me with the satisfaction of doing what I love in fellowship with coworkers I love.

I am grateful for the many brothers and sisters in Christ from various denominations who serve with us in doing Geneva’s good work. We need them and could not do it without them. My prayer is that others within the Reformed Presbyterian denomination will have that same desire to come and serve as well. There is good work going on here, with much left to do, as we labor and are used by God to transform hearts and minds for His kingdom purposes.

I appreciate Geneva’s commitment to maintaining a faithful Christian witness and ministry to both our students and the community around us, particularly in a time when holding fast to the Christian faith is viewed as a challenge by many institutions. To be part of this ministry to students during their few, but foundational, college years is a privilege. In this RP mission station, my work in athletics is designed to produce fruit long after students leave the athletic fields of Geneva College.

I have always found great reward in playing and following sports when those are balanced with other aspects of life. I want to see Geneva’s athletic programs achieve excellence, demonstrated both in winning and in what goes on beyond competition. I don’t want our programs to be excellent for the glory of the athlete, the coach, the staff members, or even the college. I want us to be excellent because we serve an excellent God. When we do things well, as people and as a college, it reflects well on our heavenly Father.

It is a particular grace when the Lord allows you to look back over the years and understand His timing and His working things together. It is not always a grace we receive this side of heaven.

That journey up the hill to the G on my first visit to Geneva College comes back to mind. You can miss the beauty of the trip when dodging trees and rocks while climbing through the dimly lit forest; it is the perspective of looking back that brings God’s plan into stark relief in all its wonder.

There are times when we simply have to trust the God who created us, sustains us, and ultimately sent His Son to save and redeem us, to work His good purposes in our lives. I am very grateful for the past 14 years of patient waiting, because now I can look back and see the Lord’s timing, even when in the moment it didn’t seem to make sense.

Chris Mathews is the sports information director at Geneva College and a 2000 graduate.