By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
Approximately 300 students from the state’s Baptist Collegiate Ministries obeyed this summer a simple yet profound one-word command by Christ – go.
Seventeen BCMs commissioned their students earlier in the spring to preach the Gospel from the highways and byways of Louisiana to the mountaintops and valleys of some of the most unreached areas of the world. Yet, each had a unique experience to live and a powerful, life-changing Gospel message to give.
This year students participated in one of the most fruitful summers ever for collegiate missions. Students shared the Gospel in 5 countries.
New this year to the program was the launch of a marketplace evangelism team called GoLA innovators. Through this effort, students go to pre-arranged locations, land a market place job to support themselves on the field and work with local missionaries to evangelize and disciple. Local missionaries take an active role in discipling and mentoring students.
Witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea
A summer ministering in many Louisiana towns was an impetus for a greater spiritual walk for Kennedy Parson, a member of the BCM at Northwestern State University.
As a member of the GOLA VBS team, Parson was part of a group of students who shared the love of Christ with children while helping out churches that had little manpower to conduct such an endeavor. South Louisiana was his team’s primary area of ministry, as they worked in Abbeville, Baker, Boutte, Bunkie, Leesville, Morrow, New Iberia, Plaquemine and Poland.
Before her time with his team began, she shared with them 1 Thessalonians 5:11, a verse that became her theme through the two months on the field.
“I made this verse my goal but I found that I was encouraged by the curiosity and willingness to listen and learn from the children and the uplifting words of the church members,” she said. “I discovered that their encouraging words were a result of my zeal for the Lord which I had been gaining because of GOLA. This summer has been the best summer yet and it’s because the Lord was present, children were saved, and the church was encouraged.”
Throughout her summer, Parson enjoyed instilling in the children lessons of leadership, kindness and the importance of the Gospel. While her stories on the field were plentiful, one of Parson’s favorites was sharing the Roman road – a step-by-step plan of Salvation using verses from the book of Romans – with a young girl. She said the girl seemed genuinely appreciative of what Jesus did for her on the cross.
“In that moment, I knew what I spent my summer doing was entirely worth it,” she said.
For Louisiana College student Josh Boyett, his uneasiness of working with children during a summer of Vacation Bible Schools turned into an undiscovered spiritual gift. Among the churches he and his fellow teams members served at was The Church at Marksville and Melville Baptist Church.
“I went into GOLA not expecting anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “I expected two weeks of regular VBS and nothing more. I definitely underestimated God’s ability to work in my own heart throughout this summer through VBS.”
While he enjoyed churches feeding and gifts to his team, Boyett said the greatest blessing was working with the children. For it was through VBS that God gave him a different attitude and a reminder that all believers can do much more to reach hurting families in Louisiana who are in dire need of Christ’s love.
“He showed me that regardless of my skills or lack there of, I could still be effective,” Boyett said. “We built relationships with them and at the end of every week it was as if we had known the children our whole lives. He reminded me that my preferences did not matter and that reaching people for his kingdom had no room for my selfish pride.”
BCM students participated in May training for the areas they served in as summer missionaries. Submitted photo
In Samaria
Before the summer began, Sabrina Authement and Caitlyn St. Pierre did not know one another. Authement is a student at Nicholls State University while St. Pierre attends Southeastern Louisiana University. However, by the end of their summer as members of a GOLA team serving in Edmonton, Canada, they were anything but strangers, bonded by the mission to share Christ with their neighbors to the north.
While in Edmonton, the team shared the Gospel in various avenues, from festivals to neighborhoods. Authement’s most memorable part of the trip was meeting a woman named Natasha who was working at a Henna tattoo booth during a festival. As she was making a tattoo on Authement, Natasha shared of the pain experienced through a recent miscarriage and asked for prayer.
“She told us that God sent us to her,” Authement said. “I believe we were sent to each other because not only did we touch her life, but she touched ours.
“We met up several times during our trip and got to see her continuously flourish with peace,” she continued. “On our last meeting with her she explained to us exactly what kind of impact we had on her life. I am so grateful God put us on each other’s paths. Even if she was the only person God had planned for us to meet on this trip it was completely worth it.”
A BCM summer missions team was all smiles during their time spent sharing Christ’s love in Edmonton, Canada. Submitted photo
Like Authement, a conversation with another female stood out for St. Pierre. Through a relationship built through frequents visits to a particular neighborhood, St. Pierre met a girl named Shyanne.
One morning, Shyanne had the opportunity to share Jesus over a cup of coffee. The visit resulted in Shyanne saying yes to Jesus.
“I’ve learned relational skills during this trip, and I learned to make connections with the people that live around me which is something that I don’t always do,” St. Pierre said. “I’ve learned such practical skills during this trip that I will be able to put into practice in my neighborhood.”
To the ends of the earth
Miranda Ross spent much of her summer on the university campus – in Spain.
A majority of students in Barcelona and Madrid with whom she visited with every day had never heard of the Gospel. While on the campuses, Ross struck up conversations with the students, prayer walked each campus and used Henna tattoos as a gateway to a conversation.
Ross’ hope was that those seeds planted would one day reap a harvest of souls.
“It was a challenge at first because we were a little nervous to just go up to talk to them but it was also eye opening to the fact that there are lost students on campus at LSU just like there are at the universities in Spain,” Ross said. “If we were able to plant seeds in Spain even with a language barrier, then nothing should be stopping us from having those same conversations about Christ with students in our classroom or sitting by us at lunch on campus. It was a good reminder that every though we are called to go and make disciples of all nations, we also have a mission field here in Baton Rouge.”
When she wasn’t sharing Christ with students in the European country, Ross was developing relationships with families through frequent visits to area parks and inviting the parents to services at a local church. The highlight of her trip was when she was given the opportunity to speak in a Sunday morning worship service through a translator. A time of congregational worship through song followed, with half of the room singing in Spanish and the other half English.
“It was the most breathtaking moment seeing how God is working and God is moving and God is so good even on the other side of the world. In this moment, being able to hear joyful noise of so many different kinds of people singing about how great our God is put so many of us in awe.
“In awe of how wonderful our Lord is as He unites the nations for his kingdom, in awe of his power and His plan that He has for us and for this church that we were blessed to be able to visit,” she continued. “Most importantly in awe of how even from different places in the world, we all have the same purpose and desire of knowing Him and making Him known. “
