{"id":263128,"date":"2024-03-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/?p=263128"},"modified":"2025-06-08T10:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T16:20:05","slug":"the-contagious-power-of-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/blog\/the-contagious-power-of-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Contagious Power of Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before his junior year of college at Cedarville University in Ohio, Caleb Kanoy could feel his world unraveling at the seams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Larry
Larry Matthews (left) and Caleb Kanoy (right) at Cedarville University in Ohio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a lot of hurt and pain, and because of that, I had completely rejected God in my heart,\u201d Caleb says. \u201cBut I was still able to put on the facade of a Christian young man. So I played that game for a couple of years, but behind the scenes I relied heavily on alcohol, women, and drugs \u2014 everything that did not glorify the Lord in the least bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alcohol had quickly turned from something fun into something to get by, and his breakup with a long-term girlfriend felt like the final straw. Unsure of who to turn to, Caleb called Larry Matthews<\/a>, a Navigator at Cedarville whom Caleb had been meeting up with over the past year. Larry encouraged Caleb to pray and hold onto the Word of the Lord, and suddenly, everything started to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the Power of Transformation Happen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot tell you when or how it happened, but my heart was changed,\u201d Caleb remembers. \u201cI found a Bible that I hadn\u2019t touched in years and I just started reading \u2014 I couldn\u2019t get enough. I knew there was something going on inside of me. I wasn\u2019t the same person. But what I didn\u2019t realize is that other people could see that I was different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Caleb had been involved with The Navigators for a couple of years, that fall semester of his junior year was radically different. Around Thanksgiving, he felt called to share his testimony with a Navigators Army Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps (ROTC) Bible study. To the other cadets, Caleb explained how he had been living a double life and shared how God had transformed him. Little did he know that the Lord would use his story to spark a chain reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCaleb sharing his testimony about what God was doing in his life at the Bible study that Sunday night broke everything open,\u201d Larry says. \u201cIt was like turning on a light switch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately after sharing his testimony, two students shared with Caleb how they similarly struggled with living double lives. \u201cI said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s meet for lunch,\u2019\u201d Caleb recalls. \u201cSo I started meeting with those two weekly. And then I shared my testimony again at another Bible study, and two more people asked if they could start meeting too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Sharing Your Testimony Displays God\u2019s Power of Transformation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More and more students started to notice the changes in Caleb\u2019s life and wanted to see the same kind of positive changes in their own lives. \u201cI started meeting with as many young men as I could possibly fit in a 24-hour day,\u201d Caleb says. \u201cSoon, through prayer and testimony and time, five men became 10, and 10 became 20. Now, there\u2019s a Bible study of 40 young men meeting on Saturday mornings, all struggling with the same things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Larry, who has worked with The Navigators for over 38 years, seeing Caleb\u2019s heart change and the impact on the students around him was a rare sight. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for a long time, and this doesn\u2019t come around very often,\u201d he says. \u201cTransformation, yes, but how other students responded to Caleb was probably the most visible work that God did!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as Caleb wraps up his time at Cedarville as a senior, he continues to meet with other students to empower them and walk alongside them in their walk with Christ. Whether it is in college or beyond, he hopes that the Lord will continue to use his story and life to lead others to Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is to glorify the Lord, serve Him, and spend time with Him.\u201d Caleb says. \u201cI want to be someone who loves the Lord with all my heart and loves to serve others, and that is going to be incredibly important for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How To Prepare Your Personal Testimony<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sharing how you came to know God personally is one of the most powerful ways you can help friends grasp how much God loves us. This resource outlines the power of your story and how you can share Christ with others in an authentic way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DOWNLOAD NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caleb Kanoy, a college student at Cedarville University in Ohio, experienced the power of transformation through Jesus. Discover how his testimony led many students to Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_pro_status":1,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6337],"tags":[1483],"mission":[150],"topic":[46],"class_list":["post-263128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry-impact-stories","tag-disciple","mission-navigators-collegiate","topic-evangelism"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/032624-Article-Web.JPG","author_info":{"display_name":"The Navigators","author_link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/staff\/thenavigators\/"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266938,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263128\/revisions\/266938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263128"},{"taxonomy":"mission","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mission?post=263128"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=263128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}