A Sam Houston State senior shares how losing his dad, a sermon on Daniel, and mission trips from South Padre to South Asia shaped his faith
Kolton Holt grew up in south Texas, in the middle of the Bible Belt, where there is a church on every corner and just about every kid in school has heard of Jesus. His own family stopped going to church after his fourth grade year, and for most of his childhood the Bible on his nightstand was a children's Bible collecting dust. By the time he was a senior in high school, he was frustrated, searching for a purpose, and carrying a question he could not shake.
Four years later, Holt is a senior at Sam Houston State University who has memorized the entire book of Ephesians, spent three spring breaks sharing his faith on South Padre Island, worked alongside missionaries in New York City, and spent this past summer in South Asia telling people about Jesus who had never had the chance to hear the gospel. His testimony, shared on Students of the Kingdom with host Joshua Mahshi, starts with the loss that shaped everything after it.
A Dad He Never Knew
Holt was two years old when his biological father died of a heart attack in the family's living room. He has no memories of his dad, but his mother and two older sisters do, and he grew up watching what that loss did to them. It also did something to him. He says he never doubted that God existed, but for years he doubted whether God was good and whether God cared about his life at all.
"I don't think there was ever a time in my life when I doubted God's existence. I think I doubted God's goodness and God's care for my life."
Church had ended for him in elementary school, and he is honest that as a kid he only wanted to be there for the snacks, the games, and his friends. The exposure to the gospel simply stopped, and the questions about his dad and his purpose went unanswered through middle school and into high school.
The Fourth Man in the Fire
The turn came during his senior year, when his grandparents, whom he describes as very devoted to Christ, invited him to church. He had not been in at least five years. He enjoyed the Sunday service, met youth pastor Kyle, and started showing up on Wednesday nights carrying the only Bible he owned, the children's Bible from his nightstand. He did not know where the books of the Bible were. He thought the book of Job was pronounced like a job you work at.
What he did know was that something was happening to him. Kyle preached the word plainly, week after week, and Holt would make the 30-minute drive home in complete silence, no music and no podcast, just thinking about what he had heard. Then, on a September night four years ago this month, Kyle preached from Daniel on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fourth man who stood with them in the fire.
"He was talking about how just as Christ was with them, Christ is with us, and Christ is a caring Savior. He's a loving Savior. That really just brought me to tears."
That night, Holt placed his faith in Christ. Looking back, he is careful to say he still does not know why his dad died. What changed is that he stopped needing the answer before he could trust the goodness of God, pointing to Job, Jeremiah, David, and Joseph as men who suffered deeply and still saw God's purpose carried through.
"If I wouldn't have had that hurt and that pain in my life, I might have never sought the Lord, and I might have just been satisfied without seeking Him."
A Book a Day at Sam Houston
The change was immediate. Holt got a grown-up Bible and developed what he calls a strong, unwavering desire to read it, working through a book of the Bible a day and studying two to three hours daily. Prayer followed. Kyle baptized him and began meeting with him, asking hard questions. When Holt arrived at Sam Houston State as a freshman, he knew college would be full of temptation and that he could not walk the lone-wolf route. He found the Baptist Student Ministry on campus, where older students invested in him, modeled what it looks like to follow Jesus, and taught him to share his faith.
He started going out on campus every day to talk about Jesus, watched people come to faith, and began discipling younger students. Now a senior, he is the one doing the pouring in. His childhood loss has become part of how he ministers, because he keeps meeting students who have lost a parent or someone close, and he can tell them honestly that he knows what that is like and what Christ has done with it in his own life.
Spring Break on South Padre Island
Three times, Holt has spent spring break with the BSM at Beach Reach, making the eight-hour drive to South Padre Island while students from across the country arrive to party. The ministry students go to serve, to care for people, and to share their stories. He has seen students come to faith there, including a young man he led to Christ as a freshman, and he says the prayer room leaves its mark on everyone who goes.
"When we see the power of prayer and we see how God uses prayer and moves in prayer, I think it's really taught a lot of us the power of prayer, as we've seen on the island, but even trying to bring that back to our own campus and to our own lives."
From New York City to South Asia
This past May, Holt joined about 15 BSM students for two weeks in New York City, working with Urban Nations Outreach and Global Gates, two ministries built on a simple conviction. God is bringing the nations to the United States, including people from unreached groups and countries that are hard to enter, and here the gospel can be shared freely. The team visited mosques, a Hindu temple, and a Sikh temple, and had extended gospel conversations, including with imams. Holt says walking neighborhood after neighborhood that felt like a new country opened his eyes.
Then came the summer. Through Go Now Missions, an organization that sends Baptist Student Ministry students across Texas, the nation, and the world, Holt spent the summer in a South Asian country where believers are few. He lived out his faith alongside a team and shared the gospel with people who had never had access to it. What he saw there has stayed with him.
"I just saw the amount of lostness that's in the world. So many people are dying without Christ, and many of these aren't people who heard about Christ, had a Bible, and just chose to reject Christ. These are people who never had access to the gospel in the first place."
"What is my life that I would be selfish with it? I just want to go and share with these people who don't have access."
The Question That Drives Him
Ask Holt why he shares the gospel and he will tell you he is simply convinced it is true, convinced there is a God, that sin broke our relationship with Him, that no amount of good works can repair it, and that Christ is the substitute who did. Everything else flows from that conviction. When he hears that someone has died, he says the first question in his mind is whether they knew Christ, because nothing else we accumulate goes with us into eternity.
"I want to be around the throne of God with people who, by God's grace, I've been able to reach and share the good news with. That's the day I'm living for. That's the day I long for."
His counsel to students who do not feel called to missions is that every believer is already an ambassador for Christ, and the starting point is abiding in Him day by day. From there, he says, go where God has placed you, your workplace, your team, your community, and be bold about Jesus. He has yet to meet anyone who regretted it.
"I don't know anyone who's gone out and shared the gospel and who regretted doing it after."
Holt closed with a simple word for anyone listening who does not know Christ. Get to know Jesus. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
About Kolton Holt
Kolton Holt is a senior at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville who is active with the Baptist Student Ministry on campus, where he disciples younger students and has served on mission teams at South Padre Island, in New York City, and in South Asia through Go Now Missions. His testimony was featured on Students of the Kingdom, a series hosted by Joshua Mahshi where college students share how Jesus has changed their lives. Students at Sam Houston State who want to find community and grow in their faith can connect with the Baptist Student Ministry on campus.
You can watch the full episode on Students of the Kingdom's YouTube.