Leap of Faith: Nursing graduate testifies to God’s provision in her college and faith journey

>>This month, Liberty University celebrates over 32,000 graduates who are ready to impact the world as Champions for Christ. Follow Liberty News for full Commencement coverage and more stories of trial and triumph from the Class of 2026.

Sometimes taking a leap of faith isn’t easy. Sometimes it takes personal sacrifices. And all the time, it takes relying on God to provide for all our needs.

That’s what nursing graduate Kennedy Pazos (’26) learned as she navigated her first semester at Liberty University.

Pazos had begun a microbiology degree when she lived in New York City, but when she moved to Washington, D.C., with her sister, she couldn’t find a school that would accept her transfer credits. So she widened her search and found Liberty’s School of Nursing. She remembered researching Liberty in high school, but that was before she was open to the Gospel.

“Before, I had seen Liberty and thought, ‘Why would I want to hear and talk about Jesus all the time? Why would I want to take these classes in the Bible? And the community is (oriented) around these Bible studies and Convocations?’ It wasn’t for me, at the time.”

But this time, as someone who had just started seeking God, she said it was different. “Not only did I want to do all of those things, but Liberty was willing to take all my credits as is and enroll me straight into the (School of Nursing), meaning I’d be able to finish within two years if I did it right.”

Back in New York, Pazos had lived in a community where drugs, gang violence, and other issues were prevalent, and she had hit the “the lowest point of my life.” To find direction and purpose, she started watching daily motivational videos on social media — the kind “that tell you to make your bed every morning.” Eventually, her algorithm began to include Christian content like Bible verses and sermon clips. That was when she wondered how she could start learning more.

“I asked my dad how to read the Bible, because I didn’t even know how to read it at the time,” she said. “You have a book, and then you have the (verse) numbers, there’s multiple chapters in one book, and multiple books in the bigger book; my dad had to explain that to me. I didn’t know how to navigate verses or chapters. Slowly, I started trying to read it, I think I started in John because someone online had said to do that, and I watched YouTube videos of sermons.”

Pazos felt the Lord pulling her to complete her college education at a place where she could draw closer to Him.

“I was still continuing my faith journey, learning how to read the Bible and deepening my faith, and I knew I was going to learn and grow a lot at Liberty.”

Less than a month before the start of the Spring 2024 semester, Pazos was ready to get back on track to finish her education and enter a career. But her living situation became a question. It was January, and her expensive lease in D.C. didn’t expire until the summer. She couldn’t afford a second apartment on short notice, on top of tuition. But her fervent desire to press on brought her to a temporary solution: living out of her Honda Accord.

“I wanted to finish my degree so badly; I wanted a career,” she said. “With me taking the time off and the different schools, I felt like I was kind of behind mentally, and I decided I needed to get this done, even if it meant having to live out of my car for a few months.”

She removed the passenger seat to have more room and slept in a sleeping bag with blankets. During the week, she showered at the LaHaye Recreation & Fitness Center and used one meal swipe a day at the Reber-Thomas Dining Center. She eventually got connected with the Commuter Food Pantry, which offers a variety of food and hygiene products to students in need. She returned to the D.C. apartment on weekends to collect clothes for the week, about a 3.5-hour drive each way.

“On the weekends, I’d drive up to D.C., wash my clothes, kind of restock, and then come back and do it again,” she said. “I wanted to spend the least amount of time in my car as possible, so I spent a ton of time in the library. It was actually good, in a way, because I couldn’t just sit at home on my couch and lounge around, I had to be studying or eating.”

During those months, she said she had to take on a new level of resourcefulness, discovering the value of a plastic fork from a gas station and learning things about her car that she never had to before.

“I was burned out after a while, but through the whole time, I was praying really hard,” she said. “I remember sleeping on the passenger side of my car, looking up at the ceiling and thinking, ‘All the nights that I slept with a roof over my head, I really took those for granted. Thank you, God, for allowing me to at least have a car.’”

Every night, Pazos said she would listen to Liberty University’s radio station, 88.3 – The Journey FM, which plays contemporary Christian music and encouraging testimonies and messages.

“They would have sermons come on, and I would listen to that,” she said. “I’d pray and say, ‘Lord, I know you’re going to get me through this.’ I knew that once my lease in D.C. would be done, I’d need to find a place in Lynchburg. I didn’t have a job, but I said I’d figure it out, and I knew that God was going to get me through it.”

In the meantime, Pazos dove into her schoolwork with tenacity, getting good grades and soaking up as much as she could, particularly in the Bible courses.

“I was in the library a lot, and I really liked my coursework, and I was so motivated at the time to start school and get it done,” she said. “I took Old Testament Survey and New Testament Survey, like a lot of students do early on at Liberty. I didn’t grow up in the church, I didn’t go to Sunday School, and I had just learned how to read the Bible a year or so ago. While other people were sitting back in class knowing the stories for years, I was wondering what came next.”

“I was also going to Campus Community and a commuter community group, and that community group is where I learned how to pray,” she added. “Academically receiving that biblical knowledge, joining a church, and meeting Bible-believing friends, all of that accumulated like a snowball.”

She was surprised and appreciative of her professors’ boldness in speaking about their faith and encouraging her to grow closer to Christ.

“I’d never experienced professors at the very beginning of class doing a devotional, and it was even more impactful when they would speak about their personal lives, talk about their personal faith, and kind of get real with us,” she said. “They pray over us, and you really see that they have that personal relationship with Jesus. I have this community of truly Christian friends where if we meet and someone needs prayer, we stop and pray, and that’s still mind-blowing to me. Something that other nursing programs won’t offer you is that the (faculty) can speak the truth unapologetically and put it in the context of nursing and our culture today.”

After three months, the Lord opened a door physically and situationally for Pazos to live under a real roof again. She was able to move in with a family member in a nearby town.

“I felt so loved, and I was so grateful to look up at that ceiling … that was my prayer answered all those times I was saying, ‘Lord, please give me a place to stay. Please give me a house, a home.’ Now I live rent-free with my family, who I love. It’s such a blessing. God literally answered my prayers in better ways than I could have ever imagined.”

She felt blessed again when a local church heard about her recent financial struggles and gave her a check for $2,000 and supplies.

“I don’t even know them, but they knew me, and they said they were praying for me. For weeks, these prayer warriors in this one church were praying for me and putting money together to send it to me, and I was shocked.”

Pazos is eager to start blessing others through her job. After graduation, she will join the burn unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. As she prepares to enter the nursing field, Pazos said she looks forward to caring for patients on some of their hardest days.

“I get to have a lot of interaction with people from different cultures, different people, different personalities,” she said. “As a nurse, that is what you’re going to see every day. They’re doing their normal life, something happens to them, they need care, and they end up in the hospital. I think the thing I really like about nursing is using my background, knowing how to communicate effectively across different cultures, and then applying it and feeling confident in that role.”

As she walks across the stage at her degree presentation ceremony on Saturday morning in the Thomas Road Baptist Church sanctuary, Pazos says she knows it will be a moment to celebrate and glorify God for carrying her to this point.

“If I was very dramatic and theatrical, I think I’d drop to my knees and yell out a praise on the stage, but I’m not going to,” she joked. “All the glory goes to God; it was all Him. Truly, God gave me the drive to come to Liberty, and I just need to thank Him. He provided for me every night. I never went hungry, I never went empty-handed, I never was left in need. He provided for every single need. When you just jump, when you take a leap of faith, when you trust in Him, He will show up. He’ll show up in ways that are better than you can imagine.”