Throughout elementary, middle and high school, Samuel Bennett had heard countless times that he was uniquely gifted in ministering to people and explaining God’s Word – so much so that a close friend told Bennett he would one day be a pastor.

Bennett, however, wasn’t quite convinced life would turn out that way, instead focusing on running cross country at his high school and later at Campbellsville University – where he was set to major in accounting.

But, after listening to a sermon at The Vine, an on-campus worship service for the CU community, Bennett knew the Lord was speaking to him as the speaker that night, Adam Russell, shared that someone sitting in Ransdell Chapel was called to mission work but hadn’t answered that call.

“The Lord just literally directly answered,” Bennett said. “Sometimes, you do feel the presence of the Lord, and that was a moment that I definitely did. Definitely, it’s the Lord that’s laying this on my heart.”

Today, Bennett reflects on the impact CU has had on him, specifically the way CU has helped him become filled with hope.

“I think being filled with hope means to be filled with Christ,” Bennett explained. “There’s a lot of passages in Scripture about how not just my hope is in the Lord, but my hope is the Lord.

“And so, you know, there’s this aspect where Christ isn’t just the thing we hope in. He is the one who is hope. And we know that hope is true because we know the promises of God. So, to me, hope means being filled with Christ.”

Throughout his time at CU, Bennett has had the opportunity to serve on mission trips both in the U.S. and internationally, participate in Bible studies on campus and take classes that have helped him in his spiritual development.

“The Lord allowed me to experience a couple of things at CU that really made me realize my hope, my satisfaction isn’t found in a person or relationship besides Christ,” Bennett said. “It’s literally just found in Him.

“I think sometimes it takes literally being just with Jesus to realize that he's the one who is your hope.”

Following his experience at The Vine where he answered God’s call on his life, Bennett decided to add pastoral ministries as another major and become a double major.

On his time at CU, Bennett said, “I’ve seen it direct my life towards actually wanting to do ministry and wanting to go into missions and actually spend my life providing people with that hope.”

Being filled with hope has also reminded Bennett that God will help him move forward in both good and bad seasons.

“It’s going to make me remember God in the good seasons because, you know, hope, the Hebrew word for hope actually has this connotation of waiting, and there’s waiting directly tied to hope,” Bennett said.

“Even in the midst of waiting, that’s where the hope is found. When the waiting is over, that hope is still going to shine brightly because we’ve been having it all along.”

Campbellsville University has also allowed Bennett to impact lives, while others have in turn impacted his life.

“You ultimately get that hope in Christ, but you can see that hope in the faces and the hearts of other people that you interact with,” Bennett shared. “And if there’s anything about Campbellsville that I would talk up to anyone, it’s the people who are here, because they’ve just touched my life in some really cool ways, and God has used me to touch some of their lives in really cool ways.”

In all the places and ways Bennett has served the Lord – from Campbellsville to Los Angeles to Nepal, Bennett has remembered that God is that source of hope.

“We get to carry that in our hearts as Christians, and we get to proclaim that to other people,” Bennett said. “It’s been really rewarding because it's, you know, it's not about yourself. You know, it's about Christ and about who he is.”