Ouachita Stories

The following is adapted from a student testimony chapel in December 2025.

My name is Kyndall Fomby-Bell, and I’m a senior graduating this December from Ouachita. Over my three-and-a-half years here, I’ve been part of the softball team, The Signal student newspaper, Multicultural Student Programs and volunteering through the Elrod Center.

My testimony begins off campus. I come from a family of unbelievers. We never went to church growing up, studied the Bible or attended church camp. My life was often packed with travel softball tournaments and academics. There was no “room” for God in our lives. I never had a personal relationship with Jesus and can only recall hearing about prayer a handful of times. The first time I ever truly heard about the goodness of God was when I stepped onto Ouachita’s campus.

Hearing God in Bible Survey

During the fall semester of my freshman year, I took two classes that introduced me to Christ: Bible Survey with Dr. Viser, and an OBU Connections class with Dr. Hardin.

Bible Survey was the first time I heard God’s story and got to dive into his word. I came to college with an open mind and an open heart, ready to learn from my professors and coaches. God used that openness to educate me about the most important subject in life. Dr. Viser used to say that no one could study God's word without it having an impact on them. He was right!

That truth carried into my OBU Connections class with Dr. Hardin, where we studied the “Seven Deadly Sins.” For the first time, I started to see what I was learning in the Bible and how it showed up in my own life. I gained an understanding of my own sinful nature.

I remember one class we were talking about vainglory, a form of pride, and I just started crying. I didn’t know why I was crying or feeling that way. I tried to hold it together, but it wasn’t working. Afterward, a classmate named Sadie Snow pulled me aside and prayed over me. That was the first time anyone had ever done that for me. I later realized it was conviction that brought me to tears. By pairing these two classes, I learned that even in our sin and shame, God still wanted me. I didn’t have to do anything to earn it. It was a gift available to all.

The Impact of Friends

I went on with my day, including softball practice, but that night my roommate, best friend and teammate, Kodee Batchelor, who had been in that class with me, asked what had happened. I opened up again and told her what I’d been feeling: I believed it was God working in me, wanting to come in, but I didn’t know how to let him.

Kodee opened her Bible and walked me through the Roman Road. On our Francis Crawford dorm room floor, I fell to my knees, I cried out to God, confessed and laid my life down before the Lord for the first time. I was saved that night — September 22, 2022. The warmth I felt in my soul during my salvation is something I will never forget. I am so glad he saved me!

I’m grateful for the classes and professors who shaped my faith and life at OBU. I am just as thankful for the friends around me, from the beginning of my walk, who were willing to pray for me and point me to God.

Coming from a family of unbelievers, I’ve carried that same hope home with me — that my parents and family would become open to knowing God, too. I now see how much they need him, just as I do. I hope the same for anyone with a similar story. Students who don't yet know the Lord, despite what your family does, what you have done in the past or what the world may say: I encourage each of you to have the courage to chase after God yourself.

Thank you, Jesus, for lighting the path during every step in faith I've taken during my years at Ouachita. I now have the chance to carry the love of God with me everywhere I go because of your grace.

My friend Marli Huddleston’s favorite verse is Esther 4:14: “Perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this.” I believe that the Lord allowed me to be recruited to Ouachita for such a time as this; the time I finally got to know the Lord, confess my sins and accept Jesus into my heart.

I know there are so many other stories like mine here — in social clubs, majors, sports, wherever you’re involved. God wants to know you. He’s calling out to you through the people around you, the things you’re studying, your teachers, everywhere. Be open to that. I encourage you to let God in. He wants you just the way you are.

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• Campus Ministries
• Chapel
• Spiritual Life