There are moments in a person’s life that quietly set everything else in motion. For Zach, one of those moments happened at 16 years old inside a church service, and it changed the entire trajectory of his life. What nobody knew yet was how much was riding on that moment—for Zach, and for thousands of students he hadn’t even met yet.
Growing up, Zach attended church regularly, but the life he lived outside those walls told a different story. Caught in a cycle of partying, drinking, and struggles that left him weighed down by shame, Zach knew something wasn’t right. He called himself a Christian, but he wasn’t living like one. Then, during that pivotal church service, God encountered him in a way he couldn’t ignore. That day, Zach made a decision: he was going to truly pursue Jesus.
A Burden for the Midwest
Zach chose to attend North Dakota State University, where his faith would deepen in ways he never expected. During a short-term mission trip as a college student, God gave him a revelation that he couldn’t shake: the Midwest needs Jesus.
Zach threw himself into prayer and worship in his dorm room, night after night. What started as a solitary pursuit didn’t stay that way for long. Four other students noticed what he was doing and asked to join him. From those humble prayer meetings, something much bigger began to grow.
From a Dorm Room to a Ministry
Out of those dorm room gatherings, Zach and his fellow students launched a campus ministry they named True Love—drawn from 1 John 4:10: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
True Love’s foundation was built on prayer. From there, students started showing up to nights of prayer, worship, and shared meals—and when they gave their lives to Jesus, the leaders of True Love made sure they didn’t just have a moment. They connected them with local churches so their faith had somewhere to grow.
Then Zach went beyond the campus and brought True Love to the streets of Fargo—evangelizing, serving the homeless, and feeding those in need. The same Gospel that had rescued him was now reaching every corner of his community.
The Link Between Generations
As True Love grew, Zach felt God calling him to go even bigger. He approached NDSU’s Assistant Director of Leadership about renting the Sanford Health Athletic Complex to host a large-scale Gospel event on campus.
What he heard back stopped him in his tracks.
The Director told him that a student had done the exact same thing at NDSU—same vision, same venue, same burden for the campus—twenty years earlier. That student’s name was Nick Hall.
Zach was then able to connect with Nick, who invited him into Pulse 100, Pulse’s evangelism training program for young leaders. Since then, Zach has been getting equipped, mentored, and sharpened in his calling as part of a community of more than 500 young evangelists Pulse has trained and sent. Together, these leaders have reached up to millions through their networks, campuses, cities, and digital platforms. Zach is one of them, and now he’s bringing everything he’s learned back to the place where it all started.
Pack the SHAC Marks a New Chapter
Now, two decades after Nick Hall first felt the pull to share Jesus at NDSU, Pulse Evangelism is partnering with True Love to bring that vision back to the very campus where it began. On April 10, thousands of students are expected to gather for Pack the SHAC—a student-led event featuring live music with Walker Hayes, worship with River Valley Ages, and Gospel messages delivered by Nick Hall and Zach Van Batavia together.
Zach and Nick recently sat down to discuss what this event means and why April 10 carries so much weight.
Watch this clipBut the event is only the beginning of what happens that night.
Every student who responds to the Gospel that night will be connected to a 15-week follow-up pathway where they’ll be personally paired with a live responder who walks them through the basics of faith—who Jesus is, how to pray, and what it means to follow Him. Then they’re matched with a local church so their faith can grow even more.
This is exactly what Pulse 100 was built for. The program trains one hundred young evangelists per cohort, and more than 500 have already been through it—carrying the Gospel back to their campuses and reaching millions across their networks. And on April 10, one of those evangelists is further stepping into the calling God placed on his life to Make Jesus Known.
If you’d like to be part of a legacy to help this generation know Jesus, consider making a gift. Your generosity helps fund the event and follow-up pathways for every student who responds to the Gospel. Whatever you give, you’re investing in something that outlasts one night. You’re investing in individual students whose lives will be forever changed from encountering the Gospel.
