Ben Edfeldt said there’s something powerful about being in the room with a group of students “who have committed part or all of their summer to take the gospel to the nations.”
Starting in late May, about 90 college students are headed to 10 states and 17 countries as part of One Mission Students, Alabama Baptists’ collegiate summer missions program.
And back in April, Edfeldt was there when they commissioned that massive group during OMS Weekend.
Subscribe to our weekly Highlights email.
Get more news at your doorstep with a subscription to The Alabama Baptist.
“It’s a really powerful weekend that is reflective of six months of prayer, preparation and affirmation from friends, staff and parents,” said Edfeldt, director of the office of collegiate and student ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
During the weekend, students learn about culture, how to travel wisely and how to share the gospel in different contexts. The weekend ends with a commissioning service that is “a beautiful picture of Alabama Baptists coming together to send as many students as they can into the world,” Edfeldt said.
In the months prior to that, SBOM and Baptist Campus Ministries staff were helping them pray and prepare to go.
“We want them to weigh and consider the cost of going,” Edfeldt said.
Chris Mills, SBOM student missions mobilizer, noted that was especially important this summer as two-thirds of the students will be serving internationally and a “significant number” of those are going to countries that are difficult to reach with the gospel.
“That’s one of the most exciting things for me this year,” he said. “We have a great class of student headed out, and I’m excited to see how the Lord will use them and how their lives will be impacted.”
Relationships
Some students serving this year are wrestling with whether God might be calling them to do missions long term, Mills said.
Some of them are also serving this summer alongside former OMS students who are now living on the missions field doing some type of long-term work.
“It’s special for a student to see a recent graduate serving — that allows those students to really wrestle with, ‘OK, I could do this,’” Mills said. “These kinds of relationships often also morph into partnerships down the road.”
Another partnership he’s celebrating this year is a new one with the collegiate ministries of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Four of the students sent out through OMS are from Maryland.
“One will be serving at a camp in Alabama, one with a missions center in Houston, one in South Asia and one in Luxembourg,” Mills said.
He said that as part of the partnership, BCMD collegiate ministry leaders asked if they could send students through OMS since Alabama already has a pipeline in place to vet and train students.
“They joined us at OMS Weekend also,” Mills said.
Training ground
Edfeldt said another training ground for some of the Alabama students this year was Beach Reach, a spring break evangelism project in Panama City Beach.
“Six teams went to Beach Reach,” he said. “It’s such a strategic week for our campuses as they train their students and give them an opportunity to share the gospel in really intense environments.”
During that week, BCM students give van rides to students who are sometimes “at their lowest moments” and need a way to get safely back to their hotels.
“There’s something really powerful about watching our students pray for and prepare and go and sit on the van with spring breakers who are there for different reasons and point them to the grace and mercy of the Lord,” Edfeldt said.
It’s a catalytic experience for many of them, he said, and often afterward students feel that they can share the gospel more freely back on their own campus or anywhere.
“It’s a powerful, powerful trip for our campus ministries,” Edfeldt said.
For more information about OMS, visit onemissionstudents.org/go.
Share with others: