Wayland graduate beginning year of ministry in Kenya

PLAINVIEW—When Wayland Baptist University graduate Jessica Young walked across the stage last month to accept her college diploma, she already had her future mapped out—at least for the next year.

Young has moved to Mombasa, Kenya, where she will spend 2009 teaching Old Testament, computer and English classes to high school students. She is serving through an appointment process related to Go Now Missions, the student missions program of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

For Young, ministry runs in the family. Her father, Clint Young, is pastor of First Baptist Church in Dimmit , and her grandfather, Jerold McBride, was longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in San Angelo and a past president of the BGCT. But she wrestled with what she believed was God’s calling.

“My whole family is in the ministry,” she said. “I think that is part of the reason I didn’t really want to get into it.”

Still, Young felt called to the ministry as a junior high student at a time in her life when her relationship with God was admittedly “one dimensional.”

“I was trying to work God’s plans into my plan,” she explained. “I used to think I was going to be a homicide detective.”

She entered college at Howard Payne University as a criminal justice major. A year later, she transferred to Wayland where she continued to major in criminal justice.

All the while, her relationship with God continued to grow as she witnessed people her age and younger with a true passion for Christ. As a preacher’s kid, Young had to go to church, and she said she never really saw the kind of passion that other people have for worship and for seeking God’s will.

“It changed my whole view on what Christianity is and where my spirituality should be,” Young said. “I realized this is an exciting thing, not just a set of rules I’m supposed to follow. I knew that, but I had never really seen it. I needed to see it.”

As a junior in college, Young decided to truly follow God’s will, dropping the criminal justice major to focus on earning a degree in religion.

She also felt drawn to the foreign mission field as she became involved with Invisible Children, a group dedicated to serving the children of war-torn Uganda. Young wanted to join the group and be a part of the work in Uganda. But no matter how hard she tried, contacting various missionary organizations, her path to Uganda was blocked at every turn.

She began having discussions with Rick Shaw, director of Wayland’s missions center. He invited her to join a group that was scheduled to travel to Kenya last summer.

“I wanted to go to Uganda, but that didn’t work out, so I ended up going with him and two other people to Kenya,” Young said. “As soon as I got there, I knew that was where I needed to be.”

In Kenya, Young met missionaries from Uganda and discussed their work and possible opportunities for her to join them. Again, her path was blocked as the only opportunities were either short term, or not really what she wanted to do. However, Young and Shaw also spoke with members of the Baptist Convention of Kenya who were excited at the prospect of having Young join them. Their biggest need, they said, was someone to teach high school.

“I thought that was odd and not my thing,” Young said.

She struggled with the decision and continued to second-guess herself. But after a lot of prayer and “freaking out” during the decision-making process, she finally completely turned the decision over to God and felt at peace.

“I know that is where I need to be,” she said.

In Kenya, Young will work independently teaching classes at the high school. During her time off from school, she will work with orphans and people who are HIV-positive. But rather than feel apprehensive about her assignment, if anything, she fears Kenya is “too safe” for her tastes.

“I’m not scared by countries that are in turmoil. I feel drawn to that,” she said. “I really want to live in a hut.”