Chris Mills said he feels like he says this every year, but every year he’s more excited about the group of students who are scattered across the nation and world as summer missionaries.
“We just seem to get a better and better group of students serving, so I’m excited about the stories we’ll hear from what they’ll get to see and do,” said Mills, student missions mobilizer for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
During REACH weekend in April at WorldSong Missions Place, 106 Alabama college students were commissioned at First Baptist Church Pell City to go to South America, the Middle East “and everything in between,” Mills said.
“A number of them will be in Paris for outreach events leading up to the Olympics,” he said. “Some are headed to Indianapolis to be involved with Crossover before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, and some are going to Alaska to be involved with churches and ministries Alabama Baptists are partnering with up there.”
‘Compelled’
The theme for REACH weekend was Compelled, drawn from 2 Corinthians 5.
“We challenged students to see that it’s not just a calling that we have but that it’s God’s love for us that compels us to be part of what He’s doing across the globe,” Mills said.
Ben Edfeldt, director of the SBOM office of collegiate and student ministries, said sending out students “is a culmination of years of discipleship between families, churches and Baptist Campus Ministries.”
“It results in developing a biblical worldview in the students that will benefit the global church,” Edfeldt said. “It’s what Alabama Baptist churches prioritize and our office is honored to lead in. REACH weekend is a picture of one of the most important callings God has placed on Alabama Baptist churches and their BCMs.”
Willing to go
Mills said the hurdles that students are facing today are great, ranging from purity to financial obstacles to parents who struggle with the idea of their children serving overseas.
But he’s encouraged to see students willing to go no matter the cost.
Mills said another one of the “greatest encouragements” for him in recent years is to see students who have served as summer missionaries taking the next step of commitment to missions service.
“When the International Mission Board holds its next round of training, there will be four students I know of from the University of Alabama who are going out as Journeymen,” he said. “I’m hearing more and more of those kinds of things.”
For anyone interested in praying specifically for students as they’re serving this summer, there will be a daily prayer prompt at facebook.com/onemissionstudents.
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