Student missionary blogs tell stories of changed lives

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Multiple students have written online reflections about serving in missions assignments on different continents, but they all have one message—being used by God to share his love.

A $93,000 three-year grant to the Baptist Standard from the Christ is our Salvation Foundation of Waco created communication opportunities for student missionaries. Those include blogs that provide a first-hand glimpse into their ministry serving with the Go Now Missions program of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Al Johnson from the University of Texas at San Antonio is serving as a Go Now missionary and a student missions correspondent for the Baptist Standard in Kenya. (PHOTOS/Go Now Missions)

Jon Garcia, a student at Del Mar College, has been serving in Vancouver, Canada, where he “had an opportunity to show love” to an elderly man asking for money. Garcia had no money with him, so he gave the man his leftover food from dinner.

“It’s because God tells us to love one another. And if we love one another, we love God. Because God is love,” Garcia wrote.

Another blogger, Jared Brimberry, a student at Baylor University who has been serving in Guatemala, also used love as a common theme to minister.

He wrote a blog about his week in a Guatemalan orphanage where he “enjoyed speaking truth into these kids lives—by telling them they are loved by us and more importantly by God, by encouraging them to dream and study and play and live.”

Brimberry saw children who had been hurt and rejected, but when he spent time with them, they did “not stop filling up on the love that they are offered.”

Stephanie Grissom (right) of West Texas A&M University, served as a Go Now missionary in the Middle East with Nicole Gilcrease (center) from Mississippi and Vasti Ortega (left) from North Carolina.

“They are completely vulnerable but completely able to love and be loved,” Brimberry wrote.


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“Has Christ not done more for us? Why do we flatter ourselves into thinking we are above desperately needing his love?”

Students not only showed their love, they also told people about God’s love and how to receive his gift of salvation.

Andrew Lancaster, a student at Wayland Baptist University who has been serving in Kenya, saw God work in the lives of those around him.

“All the men in the room became saved through God’s grace,” Lancaster wrote.

On a different occasion, seven people came to faith in Christ, he said.

God also worked in the lives of people in the United States.

Ruben Rodriguez, a student from the University of Texas in Arlington, has been serving in Hispanic outreach in New Jersey.

He helped prepare a Bible club for local children where he “noticed the Holy Spirit just taking charge.”

More than 20 people attended the event.

Jake Diggs of South Plains College served as a Go Now missionary with Infinity Sports, traveling across the United States teaching in sports camps.

“We had three kids accept Christ during the club and were very pleased with its outcome,” Rodriguez wrote.

Angela, whose last name is withheld for security reasons, attends West Texas A&M University and has been serving in South Asia.

She worked in an HIV clinic where she met a woman serving on staff who had the virus.

The woman experienced tough times, Angela said, but “the Father has proven faithful in her life over and over.”

“If you ask her about her life with HIV, she will tell you, ‘I am so thankful for HIV/AIDS, because without it, I never would have met Jesus Christ,’” Angela wrote.

Natalie Neesley, a junior at Texas A&M University, served at World Relief in Fort Worth, where she helped refugees.

“Our main purpose was to show the love of Jesus to refugees by welcoming them to America and helping them with everyday tasks,” Neesley wrote.

Neesley and other volunteers helped a woman from Somalia by setting up the woman’s apartment, showing her around and taking her to the grocery store.

“As I saw the refugee woman, I just wanted to show her the extravagant love that my Heavenly Father has given to me,” Neesley wrote.

Read the students’ full blogs here.

 

 


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