Name | Jamie Schabowski
Hometown | Hebron, Ind.
Undergraduate Program | Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible
Class of | 2010
From the Word
Though Jamie Schabowski was raised in a Christian home, her life took quite a detour through the movie industry in Los Angeles. While living and working in LA, caught up in acting auditions and parties, Jamie received God’s call to a new path.
“I was in fruitless relationships and I was doing all the running I could just to stay in one place,” Jamie remembers. “[Fortunately], the Lord mercifully intervened.”
One day, on a street in LA, Jamie ran into a Christian friend she hadn’t seen since high school. Concerned about Jamie, her friend returned home and began praying and fasting—along with members of her church in Chicago—for Jamie’s salvation. Several months later, Jamie was at a Hollywood VIP party when her best friend came out of the bathroom with a bloody nose; she had been completely unaware of his cocaine addiction.
“I was horrified!” she remembers. “I [suddenly] realized how sad, vacant and empty everyone around me was. When I got home, I got on my knees and seriously repented.”
To Life
That week, Jamie quit being an actress, found a sales job and joined a church in LA, immersing herself in the worship ministry for two years; however, God’s call for her life required more knowledge and discipline.
“I knew that I needed the Word of God to prepare me for ministry leading worship in a world evangelism setting,” she says. “I did research and found that Moody is the best place to learn the Word of God.”
At Moody, Jamie is majoring in Bible, receiving the training that worship leaders need. She appreciates how her Bible classes have enriched her knowledge of not just God’s Word, but also God himself.
“Studying the Bible [at Moody] has really helped me with my personal knowledge of [God],” she says. “It has made my worship so much deeper, because now I know Who I’m talking about.”
Moody is also preparing Jamie to lead worship in other cultures.
“[My] foreign missions and anthropology classes teach about different cultures and help to contextualize the gospel,” she says.
Jamie also cherishes her Practical Christian Ministry assignment, in particular because of the double blessing it offers her. Not only is she doing what she loves—leading worship—she is doing it for the youth group at the church where years ago strangers prayed for her salvation.
As for her past life, Jamie has no regrets, though she left behind a lucrative career and an independent lifestyle that certainly did not include dorm living!
But, “living on campus and eating in the dining hall [at Moody] provide freedom to focus on the Lord,” she says. “It’s wise to cast off these distractions and focus on getting to know Him.”