Moving away from home for the first time was a very stressful, but exciting time for me. I remember being worried about how everything that I was used to and comfortable with was going to change and all of the friends that I had known for years were about to go off to different schools and I would not have them to rely on anymore. And I knew for me that making new friends was not going to be easy. I knew that I was going to have to find a place where I felt like I belonged and for me that place was in Tide 4 Christ.
From the moment I walked into the Central Church of Christ I could tell that there was something very different about the students in T4C as well as the members of the congregation. I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of the group. I was coming from a church where the youth group was not very close and so I never had many close friends at church and I wanted that to be different in college. I knew that at a public university such as Alabama that it was going to be difficult for me to stay strong in my faith without a church group to lean on for support. The adopt a student program that Central offers to its college students was definitely helpful whenever I was missing my family, because I was given a “mom”, “dad”, and “sisters”, that became a family away from home for me and they were able to make the entire experience less overwhelming for me.
At a school with as many students at the University of Alabama I was so fortunate to have found such great friends so quickly. That’s the thing about Tide 4 Christ, it is made up of so many different types of people that there is a group that everyone can fit into, but even though you have your close friends in the group you could go to any member of the group and they would be more than happy to help you at any time. The support system that I found in the members of this group is definitely the best part of my experience thus far, because even though I went through some very difficult things my first year at Alabama I never had to go through anything alone. There was always a friend right there by my side to help, encourage, and help keep me on the right track and this is why I am a part of Tide 4 Christ.
Rachel Townley
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