Taking Time For Plan B
by Liam Corley
I love going on mission trips with college students. Especially short-term ones. The spontaneity, the faith, the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound—ah yes, college students were made for missions!
“Dear Lord, please use us any way that you want. Whatever plans we’ve made—just throw them out so that we can be totally available to you.” I winced listening to Ashley’s prayer. After all, those were my plans she was talking about, prayerfully made plans for our welfare during our Global Project to China. Yet I couldn’t help agreeing with it—I wanted to be available too.
Being
available
For
Ashley, that availability led to many things, including a late night conversation
between her and two very drunk hotel workers in Western China. Although
it definitely wasn’t part of the original plan, the holy openness
of Ashley and a friend in turning those men’s advances into a chance
to share the Gospel led to other conversations and a desire in one of
the men for a Bible. That’s not one of God’s plans that anyone
in the home office could have predicted!
In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion after taking college students overseas for many years that they often have unique opportunities to share the Gospel that career missionaries don’t. Stories may illustrate this better than a list.
The novelty of having a group of gawky Americans playing pick-up games on their courts led one group of NBA hopefuls to challenge us to some friendly five on five—only we were six and they were four! No problem, said Shannon, I’ll play with them. And so she did, finishing every inside pass and lay-up they fed her and then passing the Gospel back to her delighted new friends over soft drinks afterwards.
Summer
surprises
Another
summer, we took a band with us. Knowing that youth everywhere like American
rock, we thought we’d mix some Gospel with the pop. One night, the
band played a song about God’s love to 1,300 listening college students
and Communist party members. Don’t tell me that’s an everyday
occurrence on the mission field!
So if you thought that short term missions experiences weren’t worthwhile or where God wanted you as a college student, think again. It may be just the thing for which He wants you to be available!
As you consider your next step in SUMMER MISSIONS:
- Pray, asking for God’s direction.
- Name 2-3 people and ask them to join you in prayer.
- Seek out a pastor, staffworker or other person you respect and set up a time to meet to discuss your plans.
- Research your options. Look through your Urbana brochures, make some calls, check out the Options Guide.
- Interview two or three mission agencies.
- Pray some more.
- Make a decision.
- Go!
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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