University of Wisconsin Madison student Xavier Miller (back row, right, in glasses) attended the Adventist Christian Fellowship Institute in Aug. 2025. Here is pictured with other students, including his campus Bible study partner Slava Cherempei (back row, second from left) and Wisconsin Public Campus Ministry Coordinator Joshua Guerrero (back row left).
Debbie Michel
August 19, 2025His friends abandoned him. “So like 10, 15 friends I had already made – they’re all gone. They weren't just unfriending me — they hated me… They were really hostile.” People he’d trusted now avoided him, even yelling at him to get away from them. He felt crushingly alone.
Two weeks later, while walking through the bustling campus center, he noticed a table set up by the Adventist Christian Fellowship (ACF) ministry. They eagerly enticed passersby to spin a wheel for a prize. “I’m pretty much one to stop for anything,” said the biochemistry major. That quick stop turned into a friendly invitation to join them for food and Bible study. “What could be better than pizza and the Bible?”
What hooked him wasn’t the pizza — it was the follow-up. Slava Cherempei, a sophomore chemistry major and ACF leader, began checking in almost every other day. “Hey Xavier, this is Slava again. Just wanted to ask and make sure you’re coming to the Bible study this Friday.”
His first study was on Ecclesiastes. “The whole idea of life is vanity. It's like why chase after money, why chase after this if it's gone and you die? What even is the purpose to everything?” It so happened this was a topic Xavier had begun pondering on his own. He showed up religiously every Friday evening and the Bible studies scheduled for two hours, sometimes stretched into five.
Back in his dorm, Xavier who had attended the Mormon Church as a child would watch videos about Christianity until 3 a.m. One verse stuck with him considering what he was experiencing — that God will never give more than we can handle. “I felt like I got hit, just shoved down in life when this [rumor] happened. I suffered, but I suffered long enough to realize that I needed God. And almost instantly I had people again — people who were encouraging me toward God and helping me see who He is.”
Through ACF, Xavier began exploring prophecy, the Sabbath and Adventist beliefs with Slava and another new friend, Johan Jaeger, a young professional from Madison East Seventh-day Adventist Church. By Dec., Xavier was attending their church and had decided to keep the Sabbath, even at his campus janitorial job.
When winter break came, he searched for a place to worship in his hometown of Beloit, some 45 minutes from Madison. Without transportation he wondered: “Should I just go to the Mormon church across the street and call it a day? Or if there’s an Adventist church so I can practice Sabbath and everything?” He found one just around the block from his house. “I didn’t realize I passed it on the way to [high] school every day.”
By summer, Xavier sensed God urging him to make a decision. He attended the Adventist Christian Fellowship Institute (ACFI) held this year at the University of Washington Seattle, joining prayer walks and small group prayer times. “It just gave me initiative to pray. I want to pray — it’s something I desire. For some reason it doesn’t happen daily in my life, but in a group, it flows naturally.”
The thought of baptism had been in his mind since May, but he had been taking time to study Adventist beliefs. At ACFI, the opportunity came. “I know I believe in Jesus. I could be baptized now, and it was like, ‘yeah, I’ll take it.’” On Sabbath, Aug. 2, 2025, Xavier publicly giving his life to Christ in baptism surrounded by his mentors, including Slava and Joshua Guerrera, Wisconsin’s public campus ministry leader.
Baptism, for Xavier, was also about service. “I wanted to take the extra step for the ministry too… get baptized and start trying to take a more active role, take some weight off of Slava’s shoulders because he knows he's going to be busy with school this next semester.”
Now, the friends he’s made through ACF are more than companions — they are fellow believers walking with him in faith. “It doesn’t matter if others believe you… Before, I was trying to be the best person for worldly reasons. Now, it’s because I’m looking up to someone better —Jesus.”
From losing friends in the fall of his freshman year to finding Christ and a faith community less than a year later, Xavier sees God’s hand in it all. What began as a season of isolation has become a calling to love and to serve.
Debbie Michel is editor of the Lake Union Herald.
