Finding Time For School
Being a full-time student occupies most of a college students time, especially with finals around the corner. However, school isn’t the only thing on their minds.
Adam W. Jones is a 19-year-old full time student at Washington State University. Not only does he complete his homework and study for exams, he finds time to be a ‘gamer,’ hang out with his friends, and attend various church activities five days a week.
“If I could describe myself in three words, it would be ‘geek for Christ,’” Jones said with a smile.
Jones attends Living Faith Fellowship, an interdenominational Christian Church, at least five nights a week. A typical week at church includes Bible study on Tuesday and Thursday nights, 7 p.m. church service on Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. Campus Christian Fellowship, a WSU youth group, on Fridays, and morning church service on Sundays.
Besides going to the church, Jones finds other ways to worship. On Tuesday and Thursdays, he meets with a group of people on the Glen Terrell Mall at WSU to sing songs of worship.
“He’s an all around good guy,” said Josiah D. Haworth, Jones’ best friend of three years. Haworth said they met in a video production class at Olympic College in Bremerton, Wash. “I walked into our first class and saw a guy wearing a black tee-shirt that quoted a Bible verse on the back” Haworth said. “I went up to him and asked if he was a Christian also, we’ve been friends every since.”
Jones previously attended Olympic College for over two years until he transferred to WSU for its communication program.
When Jones goes home from school, he lives with his family in Bremerton. He gives credit to his family for getting him interested in his Christian faith. “Christianity has always been a center focus in my family growing up and we really feel strongly about it,” said Jones.
Not only does Jones participate in all of these activities, he finds time to volunteer around the community and play anywhere between 15 to 25 hours of videogames a week.
“He is a very serious guy who wants to know a lot of stuff and help out whenever he can,” said Adam J. Ratliff, Jones’ good friend of three years. Ratliff first met Jones four years ago when Ratliff and his fiancé rented an apartment from Jones’ father in Pullman, Wash.
“We started talking and found that we had common interests in technology, computers, video, and Christ” said Ratliff. When Ratliff was getting a team together three summers ago to update the Living Faith Fellowship’s electrical wires, Jones immediately volunteered. “It took about six weeks and we ran roughly 2,000 feet of cable through the floors and walls” Ratliff said. “It was a big team effort”
After all his church activities, school work, and volunteering, Jones finds time to play videogames with friends. He said he would want to play at the competitive level of gaming, but his school work takes up most of his available time and is a higher priority. When Jones plays his favorite videogame, Counter-Strike, he plays on a Christian server. He plays on these servers because they’re curse free and the people are generally friendly. “People who break the rule of no cursing are generally banned from the server” said Jones. Counter-Strike is an online action game where one team tries to eliminate the other. “People ask me questions like ‘why are you playing such a violent game if you’re Christian?’” said Jones. “They question my morals.” Jones says he plays just for fun and entertainment, like everyone else.
Another challenge Jones faces from being so committed to his Christian faith is from people questioning his opinion. Jones says that people sometimes discredit his opinion because they think that all Christians believe the same thing.
Jones does not let people questioning his beliefs get to him. Jones said attending Living Faith Fellowship encourages him to follow his faith.
