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A team of four students from Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences and Chaplain Reynold Acosta spent the majority of their August 2007 school break working in Mexico City, the third-largest city in the world, with more than 20 million people.
What would motivate busy college students and their chaplain to take three weeks away from family and friends during prime vacation time? That is the question I asked Jason Busch, and his response was, “I felt God calling me.” This was a common response with the team.
In 2006, the chaplains challenged our Campus Ministry team to consider the possibility of taking mission trips to a higher level. It’s one thing to go on a mission trip and do a building project. It is another thing to go and preach 18 sermons in a foreign country, using a translator, especially when your greatest fear is public speaking. One year ago when Ashley Skinner was asked to consider this, she immediately said, “Heck, no!” The problem was that she could not get this thought out her mind. During one of her sleepless nights, she decided to put God to the test and step out in faith.
Our college partnered with The Quiet Hour’s college student evangelism program, and ShareHIM, a ministry of the Carolina Conference of SDAs which organizes hundreds of evangelistic campaigns all around the world each year. ShareHIM provides all the sermon notes and graphics, computers, projectors, orientation, training, and insurance. Our team received additional financial sponsorship and resource materials from The Quiet Hour, a worldwide evangelism ministry. This covered almost all of the expenses for the trip except the plane ticket from Florida, which was around $400.
In July, Ashley wrote letters to the faculty and staff at FHCHS and in less than a week had raised $797, almost twice the amount needed. On August 7, the team flew to Mexico City and worked with five local churches that ranged in size from 100 to 300 members. The meetings continued even through Tropical Depression Dean, the storm that had come ashore as a Category 4 hurricane a few days earlier. The attendance at the sites exceeded the seating capacity of the churches and one of our students, Linda Lay, was asked to speak several times on Saturday morning to accommodate the crowds.
What was the response? It was amazing to see our students embraced by their churches. Students who feared public speaking spoke with power and conviction and there were dozen of decisions made for Jesus Christ. By September 12, 2007, there had been 48 baptisms in the churches where our students ministered.
The mission of the college is to “provide an environment where students can develop spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically.” This trip challenged these students to step out of their comfort zones, stretch themselves to do public speaking in an international environment, and most importantly, to share Jesus! |
If you wish to help send a college student to change lives around the world, click here or mark your gift “College Student Evangelists”, and mail it today to The Quiet Hour, Box 3000, Redlands, CA 92373-1500. Our Canadian friends may send their gifts to P.O. Box 22085, St. Thomas, ON N5R 6A1, CANADA. |
