On Campus: The engineering, football-playing minister

newscut_jordy.jpgThere’s a lot riding on Jordy Nunez. The Miami, Florida native is the only one of 13 children in his family to go to college, and now he’s got a difficult decision to make: Pursue a football career, become an engineer, or enter the ministry.

“I’ve been praying hard so the Lord directs me where to go,” he told me during News Cut’s stop at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington on Wednesday where I talked to several students about how the economy is affecting their lives.

“Anything yet?” I asked.

“Not yet,” he said.

Nunez was recruited to play football in Worthington. That and academic scholarships are his ticket to an education. “I have more of an education in mind than trying to make it big,” he says.

Southwest Minnesota has been good for Nunez, who says it’s good to be away from the violence of Miami and the “worrying you have just walking down the street.” The downside, however, is that there’s not a lot to do in Worthington, which gives him a lot of time to think about his three options for the future, and the economy is certainly playing into it.

“If it’s ministry, it’ll be hard. There’s not much money, but I know money’s not going to be an important thing,” he says. “Engineering? If there’s no money, there’s no need for engineers. There’s no building. It’s going to be rocky because the economy is low right now. Hopefully when I graduate, the economy will be better. If I choose football, I’ll have fun during college, and I’d pursue a business degree. I’d like to own my own business and maintain myself and my family.”

He’s leaning toward the ministry, but he’s still got choices to make. If it is the ministry, he plans to attend North Central University in the Cities and take up world missions. If it’s engineering, he’ll head for Florida International University. And if it’s football, he’ll take a scholarship offer to play Division 2 football at the University of Minnesota Crookston. It doesn’t offer an engineering program, so he’d pursue a business degree.

“Once you go into ministry, you’re going in expecting that you’re not going to have money,” he says. “Your main goal is not money; it’s to reach as many people as possible and giving yourself to the Lord. The Lord will always provide if you’re doing his will.”

“If I didn’t have all those doubts about my future, I’d just dive head first into ministry. But then you have all these outer influences telling you about money. I do keep those other two choices open just in case I do change my mind.”

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