Spring 2019

Patrick Rothfuss said, “It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story
makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” The quote came to mind during my conversation with Ethan
Strangway.
Ethan has been a leader with FAC’s youth community since last September. “Back when I was in high school,” he recalls, “I would
come here on Saturday nights to hang out with friends. My dad (is) a pastor … We never had very many high school or junior
high kids (at our church). My siblings and I would make the trek to FAC to have some Christian community that was our age.”
“I grew up with this understanding,” Ethan says, “that Jesus is real, God is real. I was taught that. When I was maybe 4 1/2 years old
I remember my grandma telling me what it means to follow Jesus; praying that prayer of accepting Jesus into my heart.” Looking
back, it was a genuine act of childlike faith. But growing up a church kid, never mind a pastor’s kid, can have a numbing effect …
Sometimes you can be surrounded by all the right knowledge, go through all the right motions – going to church, serving – and
still never take that childhood faith to a relational level. In Ethan’s words, “It never sunk in. The older I got, the more my internal
world failed to line up with everything I was taught.”
While high school missions trips piqued some spiritual self-awareness, his first year as a student at Ambrose University
awakened him to the reality of who God is and what it means to be a person of faith. For the first time, Ethan connected with
peers – fellow Christians his own age – who, like him, were wrestling with questions and doubts. For him, Ambrose was a
new environment where others freely shared their stories and their struggles – and accepted him in spite of his own. Their
acceptance hit home in a way he didn’t expect.
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