WEEK OF PRAYER: Collegiate church planters see God do ‘more than we could’ve ever imagined’

5 min read
01 Mar 2026
By Tony Hudson

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – In August, Erin and Ellie were strangers. By October, they were best friends. That’s what can happen when two never-met-before college freshmen get assigned one small 250-square-foot dorm room in which to live.

“We met the first day of college,” Ellie says, “and I guess it was inevitable – we got really close, really fast.”

If Ellie Dunlevy (left) and Erin Chapmond (right) learned anything their freshman year at Purdue University, it’s this: there’s often nothing “random” about being a “random roommate.” When Ellie, a missionary kid, invited her suite mate Erin to a new church plant, Erin heard the gospel for the first time in a way that made sense. “It completely reinvented how I view myself,” she says. “Now, I’m a child of God.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)

Erin Chapmond and Ellie Dunlevy are two of the more than 50,000 students at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., where the birth and growth of almost-instantaneous friendships is an everyday event. That makes West Lafayette, according to North American missionary Jordan Adams, the perfect place to plant a church.

“Students here live this incredibly interconnected way of life,” Jordan says. “They eat together, live together and go to class together. So, when you introduce one of them to Jesus, multiple students hear about it, and the Gospel spreads like crazy.”

For Jordan and Jessamy Adams, Purdue University is the latest stop on a decade-long collegiate church planting journey.

“We both kind of caught the bug when we were students at Iowa State,” Jordan says. “We became part of a local church’s college ministry called The Salt Company, and when we saw students there worshiping and sharing the Gospel and being sent out, we really latched on to their dream of ‘What if this could happen everywhere?’”

In 2016, after the Adams’ church in Iowa launched The Salt Network with the goal of planting a church on every major college campus in the U.S., Jordan and Jessamy moved to Minneapolis to help plant a Salt Network church and a Salt Company collegiate ministry at the University of Minnesota.

“That whole experience of moving to a far-off place and starting something new was kind of scary,” Jessamy says. “It was a lot of change, and change is hard. But it was so sweet to see how God was faithful. He provided everything we needed, and helping plant that church was one of the best experiences of our lives.”

“Moving to a far-off place and starting something new was kind of scary,” says Jessamy Adams. But it was so sweet to see how God was faithful. He provided everything we needed.” Several years ago, Jordan and Jessamy Adams, along with their children Graham and Joy, moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, to plant a church that’s now reaching students at Purdue University. (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)

It was in Minneapolis where Jordan and Jessamy discovered why college campuses are such fertile ground not just for starting a church but a movement.

“I think there’s a perception that college students are closed off to the Gospel, but we found that wasn’t true at all,” Jordan says. “They’re at a really unique stage of life because they’ve been removed from the environment where they’ve been told what to think, and now they’re forced to ask themselves, ‘What do I really believe?’

“That’s how we ended up with a church full of excited, new believers saying, ‘Where are other places that need church plants? When I graduate, I want to go there.’”

In 2023, Jordan, Jessamy and a team of almost 50 people moved to West Lafayette to plant another church – The Chapel – and another Salt Company collegiate ministry.

To Jordan Adams, unheard of things like 38 baptisms in one worship service have become “heard of” for his congregation. Several years ago, Jordan planted a church in West Lafayette, Indiana, to reach students at Purdue University. “Now,” he says, “we’re seeing a movement of the gospel that I’m convinced will change our world through college students.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)

“We brought a church to plant a church,” Jordan says. “We had recent college grads. We had retirees. We had all kinds of people move here to help us plant. They met their neighbors; they found jobs, and when people asked them, ‘Why’d you move here?’ they got to share the Gospel.”

The Gospel is not something Chapmond would’ve described herself as interested in when she first arrived at Purdue.

“I just kind of figured it was great if other people found something that worked for them,” she says. “But for me, I was never into religion or church. Not until I met Ellie.”

Dunlevy, Erin’s randomly assigned roommate, grew up as a missionary kid in Argentina, and, unlike Chapmond, she was “very much into church.” Shortly after Dunlevy started attending The Chapel a few weeks into her and Chapmond’s freshman year, Dunlevy did what any newly minted best friend would do.

Every Sunday, an overflow crowd of Purdue University students shows up to Jordan Adams’ church plant in West Lafayette, Indiana. “It’s blown my mind how hungry students here are for the gospel,” he says. “When we first came, I didn’t imagine auditoriums filled to capacity, I didn’t imagine all the baptisms we’ve had, and how rapidly things would grow. God has done so much more than we ever thought possible.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)

“We’d spent so much time together, and I was curious,” Dunlevy says. “I was like, ‘Do you want me to go to church with you?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be fun.’”

Chapmond’s first time at The Chapel turned out to be more than she expected.

“That Sunday, when Jordan started speaking, I felt like he was talking directly to me,” she says. “I learned that Jesus was an actual person who loves me for who I am, even though everything was broken about me. It completely reinvented how I view myself.

“Now, I’m a child of God.”

Erin is one of 81 people The Chapel baptized in their first year.

Jordan Adams, a North American Mission Board church planting missionary in West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University, says college students are more open to hearing the gospel than some people might think. “I’ve found that they want to talk about Jesus, read the Bible, and are radically open to anything that will give them a purpose for their life.” (NAMB photo by Ben Rollins)

“We had pretty big dreams of what God would do when we came here,” Jordan says. “But seeing what He’s done with students like Erin and Ellie, seeing auditoriums overflow and all these students getting baptized – this has been way more than we could’ve ever imagined.”

The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering^® provides half of NAMB’s annual budget, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the mission field in North America. The offering is used for training, support and care for missionaries, like Jordan and Jessamy Adams, and for evangelism resources.