Lorrie McCarver* said she knew she was interested in missions when she attended a Go Night event in Tuscaloosa last year. She went to find out more about being sent out, but she still had some questions — she wasn’t sure how to incorporate missions in her life.
But then something gave her a push.
“Someone got up and challenged us to not focus on our fears or anxieties but just focus on what the Lord is doing in our life and how much that is needed in someone else’s life,” said McCarver, a student at the University of Alabama. “I felt very convicted, and I pretty much decided I was going to go.”
She didn’t have to look far for a way. One Mission Students, the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ path for sending college students as summer missionaries, had “ample” opportunities, she said.
106 students in 17 countries, 11 states and D.C.
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McCarver ended up serving in North Africa this summer, and she said the experience gave her a “new lens and appreciation for the goodness of the gospel.”
While there, she and her teammates were able to lead a young girl to faith in Christ, and McCarver still stays in touch with her.
“If someone is on the fence about going and serving somewhere, I would highly recommend doing it,” she said. “I have no regrets. I wish I could still be there.”
McCarver was one of 106 college students from Alabama who scattered to serve in 17 countries, 11 states and the District of Columbia this summer, according to Chris Mills, student missions mobilizer for the SBOM.
They saw 157 people make professions of new faith in Christ.
Students see lives changed, feel calls confirmed
“We’ve seen lives that were saved and we’ve also seen students come back and say ‘I was really wrestling with a call to missions but I’m going to take some steps to pursue that seriously,’” Mills said. “I’m really encouraged not only by the lives of those they served but the lives of the students that were changed by those experiences, and I’m looking forward to seeing how God uses them to make His name known on their campuses and around the world.”
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Jordan Katz* spent his summer in Southeast Asia and said through his experience there “the Lord has definitely confirmed a call to full time missions for me.”
“I know I want to serve Jesus faithfully,” said Katz, a student at the University of North Alabama.
While in Southeast Asia, he and his teammates spent time talking with other college students on campuses and in coffee shops and were able to share the gospel more than 70 times.
“Before we left, we were able to start a group of people who were seeking the Lord,” Katz said, noting that with the religious climate in that country, “the fact that they were willing to meet and study the Bible was amazing.”
Olympics ministry
Abbey Colley, a UA student, spent nine weeks in Paris doing street evangelism surrounding the Olympics. She also led the children’s ministry at the church where she was serving and was able to encourage several believers she met who had no Christian community in the city.
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“I met one lady the day before the Opening Ceremony when I was handing out flyers and an Olympic pin that said ‘I Am the Way’ with a picture of a track on it,” Colley said. “I asked her if she knew who said that phrase, and she started sharing the gospel with me. I was blown away.”
But as Colley talked with her, the woman shared with her that she felt like she had lost her hope.
“She was from Congo and had a lot of battles to fight in her life,” Colley said. “Now she’s in France, and she’s alone.”
Colley was able to share Scripture with her to encourage her as well as connect her with another woman from the church who spoke her heart language.
“It was a summer I was so glad to experience,” she said. “It was out of my comfort zone, but God’s strength was made perfect in my weakness.”
For more information about One Mission Students, visit onemissionstudents.org.
*EDITOR’S NOTE — Names changed for security reasons.
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