The first time Brynne Loya experienced the gospel, she didn’t hear it from a sermon.
She saw it.
As a freshman at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Brynne was at the Easter Pageant during rehearsals to help a friend on the makeup committee. Brynne wasn’t a Christian. In fact, she admits she didn’t understand the true meaning of the gospel, that Jesus died and rose again to save us from sin.
“I never knew what the gospel was until Easter Pageant. To be honest, I thought the gospel was the Bible. I thought it was the full Bible. I didn’t know that the gospel was the good news.”
Watching Christ’s crucifixion portrayed on stage moved her in a way she couldn’t explain.
“I remember walking out from the tomb after we’d finished all our makeup stuff, and telling my friend, ‘I feel like I’m about to cry.’ And she said: ‘You can. It’s Easter Pageant. You cry.’”
And Brynne broke down.
“I don’t know what that just did to me, but that was amazing.”
Today, the young woman who first encountered the gospel through the Easter Pageant has come full circle. During her senior year this past spring, Brynne was selected by UMHB President Randy O’Rear to direct the university’s Easter tradition.
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For Brynne, it was much more than a leadership opportunity. It was evidence of a life completely transformed.
Seeing something different
Growing up in El Paso, Brynne experienced significant hardships and abuse as a child. Although she believed in God to some degree, she never had a relationship with him. Eventually, even that small measure of faith disappeared.
“I very much turned to the secular world and a lot of worldly things.”
Trying to fill the emptiness through alcohol and drugs only deepened the void.
“It was this constant cycle of feeling empty, and then trying to fill it, but nothing’s going to fill it, because obviously, Jesus Christ is the only thing that could make me whole.”
UMHB wasn’t even part of her original plan. She intended to attend another university before an uncle encouraged her to look at UMHB. During her first semester, she found a job in Student Activities and quickly noticed something different about the people around her.
“All these people just started pouring into me in a way that I didn’t really realize I was being poured into. To be honest, they all had the joy of the Lord, but I didn’t know what that was. I thought it was fake.”
Instead of giving up on her skepticism, classmates and staff continued inviting her to church, Revival (an annual UMHB spring event), and the Easter Pageant. One friend, Kinsley, who is now her best friend and roommate, faithfully encouraged her with handwritten notes filled with Scripture.
“I have piles of notes that Kinsley wrote to me when I wasn’t a believer, just encouraging me every day.”
But one Sunday evening after returning from spring break, alone in her dorm room, she reached the end of herself.
Seeing something new
“I was so empty and had done things that I wasn’t supposed to be doing when I was home, and so I prayed, ‘God, if you’re real, then I need you.’ No light came down. I didn’t get a personal handshake from God. No audible voice. No trumpet in the background.
“But there was just kind of like a heart posture change, and God just started meeting me in tangible ways. I started to feel this freedom and this peace. Peace was the biggest thing for me.”
Looking back, she credits the people around her for helping prepare her heart.
“Truly, though, what pushed me to want to know Christ were the people who were in my life, and the people at UMHB who work here, who surrounded me as a student. They had this joy of the Lord, and the way that they treated others was very, very real.”
She continued growing through involvement with Global Outreach, serving on mission trips to Alaska, Moldova, Nepal, McAllen, and Beach Reach at South Padre Island. The more she witnessed lives changed by Christ, the more convinced she became that sharing the gospel would become her life’s calling.
“The gospel is transformative. Now, I want to share the gospel with as many people as I can. That is my life’s mission, because I truly believe in the divinity of Christ.”
Seeing lives changed
Her own family has experienced that transformation as well. As she openly lived out her faith, she watched those closest to her begin growing in theirs as well.
“I’m never going to take credit for anything, but I will say, I think that God has worked through me and used me as a vessel to be an evangelist to my family.”
When Brynne was chosen to direct the Easter Pageant, she saw God’s faithfulness woven through every step of her journey. The production that first introduced her to the gospel had become the platform from which she now helped share it with thousands of others.
“What a powerful way to see the gospel. We can read about the gospel, people can tell you about the gospel, but for the gospel to be shown is remarkable.”
Deeply grateful for the people she met at UMHB, Brynne is now working as an admissions counselor, hoping to persuade other students to experience Christian higher education as she did.
“UMHB changed my life. I was reflecting on this last night. I said to my roommates, ‘If I didn’t come to UMHB, I don’t know if I’d be a believer.’ UMHB truly transforms people. It’s so great to see a university that pours into college students every second.”
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