A team of seven Alabama collegians traveled to Columbus, Ohio, June 7–17 to join with more than 500 students from around the country to participate in ForColumbus, a 10-day extension of Crossover. Crossover is the one-day evangelistic outreach initiative that precedes the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
While in Columbus the team — which consisted of two campus ministers and five students from three colleges — had a “different kind of missions experience” that integrated evangelism with service projects, said Jake Duke, campus minister for five campuses in west Alabama.
Anna Henderson, a senior at Judson College in Marion, described ForColumbus as combining “discipleship and evangelism techniques to really focus on the community” they were serving.
Service projects included picking up trash in neighborhoods, maintaining a community garden, canvassing a neighborhood with door hangers for a local church, disassembling a rock wall to repurpose stone, washing cars, doing yard work and landscaping. They also registered messengers at the SBC annual meeting, according to Gary Brittain, campus minister for Jacksonville State University.
In order to successfully engage people for Christ, the students received training using “3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide,” the North American Mission Board’s evangelism tool to share the gospel.
Alex Hood, a graduate student at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM), appreciated the experience of ForColumbus. “We would talk about and get trained in evangelism, and an hour later we would be evangelizing,” he said.
Accepting the challenge to engage people in gospel conversations, the Alabama team found themselves splitting into groups on Ohio State University’s campus, at an international market and in various international restaurants and places of worship.
One group of girls went to a Henna salon and got temporary Henna ink tattoos on their hands, specifically choosing symbols and art that allowed them to share their faith with the tattoo artist, an Indian woman named Aman. Although Aman was reserved at first, by the time the girls left they had been allowed to pray with her and even got her contact information to give to a local church to follow-up.
Henderson said, “She told us she had never had anyone come in and ask about her family. … It was beautiful how God worked to allow us to so beautifully and so intentionally get to share (our faith) with her.”
And according to Julie Fuller, a junior at AUM, taking the time to “live intentionally” to be “more aware of the lostness of the world” is exactly what each student learned.
Hood said, “It made me think of how many other conversations I’ve had with other people where I’ve left the conversation in a mutually enjoyable spot but didn’t bring up the gospel.”
Chris Mills, an associate in collegiate and student ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions who specializes in student missions mobilizing, encouraged students around Alabama to participate in ForColumbus and personally recruited Hood for the trip. Mills hoped ForColumbus would inspire students to “open their eyes to everyday opportunities” to share Christ.
His prayer for students was “not only to make an impact in their place of service but also that they would bring back the skills, insight and desire to serve their communities.”
Share with others: