Alumni Spotlight

Andrew & Stefanie Bambrough (1992-1998)

To say that our experience with XA at OSU was life-changing would be an understatement. Through our involvement in XA we met and eventually married, made life-long friends and discovered a relationship with God previously not imagined.

Prior to coming to OSU we had both been raised in Christian homes and had strong bible-based foundations. What we both lacked, however, were relationships with people our own age who shared our beliefs. Having gone to small churches during our upbringings we generally had few people our own age at school or church with who we could identify. Despite this we were able to maintain our relationships with Christ, albeit feeling as if at times we were each on an island.

Although we arrived at OSU a couple of years apart (Andrew-’92, Stefanie-’94) we had similar experiences when finding XA. We discovered a large group of people our own age who were on fire for God and were the friendliest people we had ever met. Additionally, we were being exposed, for the first time in our lives, to challenging preaching, teaching and bible study relevant to us and our lives. We found ourselves being challenged to grow, questioning our level of commitment to the cause of Christ and opening ourselves up to the accountability of our peers. We were also able to develop friendships whether through going out for pizza after Thursday night service, getting together to just hang out or going to one of the many retreats. All the while being encouraged by the faith of those we were getting to know, growing to the point of encouraging others and making the best friends we would ever have, including each other.

Following graduation we were married by Rodney Fouts (our original XA pastor) and started our own family, but XA has never left us. We have continued to support XA financially and with our prayers. We have been blessed to be able to remain in Stillwater where we get the opportunity to remain connected, even visiting services on occasion despite the fact that they invade bed time. Since XA has played such an integral part of our lives we hope and pray it will have the same impact on the lives of our kids.

Looking back at our life’s journey we will always remember our time in XA in one way — Life-Altering