Driven to Give: Student has spiritual transformation, travels world helping orphans

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Editor’s note: Every Wednesday, CM Life will publish an in-depth piece, examining different issues.

The old Nikki Steffes never read her Bible, never traveled and never thought about much other than sports, boys and partying hard.

Now the Grand Blanc junior writes a daily verse on her hand, has stamps in her passport and cannot stop talking about the orphans across the globe she misses every day.

The change has blown her old crowd of friends away.

“She is being talked about in Grand Blanc like, ‘Wow, what happened to Nikki?’” said her mother Barb Steffes. “Her heart toward others has changed dramatically.”

Since becoming a Christian in fall 2009, Nikki Steffes said her life mission was clear: To travel the globe helping orphans.

“I think of my life as an adventure every morning,” she said. “I’m excited to see where it’s headed.”

The journey began when she got involved with His House Christian Fellowship her sophomore year and worked in the children’s ministry, His Kids, and discovered her passion for helping children.

Her first mission trip was to Atlanta, Ga. during spring break 2010. She worked with Night Light, a ministry aimed at protecting children in high risk of becoming involved with sex trafficking. The tragedy overwhelmed her, she said, and that was the moment her passion caught fire.

“Seeing a little 4-year-old girl neglected on the streets just broke me,” Steffes said. “I knew I wanted to be a part of changing that.”

She has also spent time working with children in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

“Though there’s little left in their hearts to work with, when you show them love, pieces of their heart come back together,” Steffes said. “And that’s when someone gets to share with them, ‘You have a God who loves you.’”

Grand Ledge senior Marci Westman set up the team that traveled to the Dominican Republic, and said that Steffes’ ability to overcome the language barrier and build relationships with the children was incredible.

“Her personality is really contagious,” Westman said. “The more time you spend with her, the closer you feel to God.”

She is headed to Lakewood, Fla., with His House over spring break and to Gabon with the church again for a mission trip that will focus on AIDS relief for orphans.

Steffes has also illustrated a children’s book, is a leading scorer on CMU women’s lacrosse club and leads Homeless Outreach Ministry Equipping, where one Saturday a month she and others distribute food to the homeless in Detroit.

“The thing that gets me the most is the idea that there are so many people in our community and this world who can go their entire lives without knowing what true love is,” she said.

Steffes said before her spiritual transformation she did not care about those things and she was a party animal, concerned only with who she was on the outside.

“To me, it used to be all about how physical beauty and talent mattered the most,” Steffes said. “I didn’t realize how crooked my view of feminine beauty was.”

Her older brother Gary’s newfound faith inspired her to realize selfishness, not love, drove her life, she said.

Gary said society is built on a social hierarchy that puts immense pressures on women such as Steffes.

“Trying to meet everyone’s approval and please everyone, she hit a boiling point,” Gary said. “It was a weight she couldn’t carry anymore.”

She said she was reborn after she began attending His House.

“It’s been a 180 (degree turn) from there on out,” she said. “I would never go back and I’ve never been happier.”

Steffes’ roommate Megan Dexter said she noticed a big change and that Nikki’s faith has made her like their house mom.

“As much as she has her passion for His House, she doesn’t judge us,” the Mount Pleasant junior said. “It’s a kind of unconditional love.”

Barb Steffes said the dangers of international travel worry her as a mother, but she would never want to hold back a daughter she believes is doing something great.

Barb said people are drawn to her because she is willing to give so much.

After getting a degree in journalism with a minor in advertising, she wants to build awareness for non-profits and inspire a change in others.

“I think inside everyone there’s a little piece of us that wants to make a difference in the world, but we limit ourselves because we think we’re just one person who can’t make a difference,” she said. “I’d like to be a part of changing our attitudes about that.”