Over spring break, North Greenville University sent six student mission teams to points across the globe.
“We had teams in Ecuador, Mexico, Greece, Israel, Thailand, and Romania,” said Allen McWhite, director of global missions at NGU.
North Greenville University students ride elephants in Thailand. Mark Smith, a junior from Greer, was a member of the team that traveled to Queretaro, Mexico. Smith and his team played football and helped run the practices with boys of all ages. “We made some good relationships and had good conversations about Jesus,” Smith said. “A lot of seeds fell on good soil during this trip.”
Smith said his favorite moment was when his team got to share Jesus with their translators. “They did not know Christ before we met them, but through translating the gospel for us and seeing the love of God flowing in and out of us, by the end of the week they were very interested in Jesus,” Smith said.
On the other side of the world, Chandler Patterson, from Charlotte, and his team were spreading the gospel in Thailand. The team split up into four smaller groups. Patterson and his group took pictures and shot video of a women’s ministry called Thai Country Trim.
Patterson said he not only grew spiritually on the trip, but also gained experience in working with media that he plans to use in his future ministry. “I’ve always had a huge respect for missionaries, but seeing them at work really opened up my eyes to the hardships they go through,” he said.
Bill Jones*, from Williston, said he would definitely go back to Ecuador, where he and his team spent their week ministering to children and college students through camps and Vacation Bible School. The team also built a church in the jungles of Ecuador.
“Even though the scenery was great, my favorite part was getting to know the college students who were at the camps where we worked and building relationships with them,” said Jones.
As NGU students showed the light of Christ in the jungles of Ecuador, the same light shone brightly in Greece, where Lindsay Gagnon, from Honea Path, spent eight days playing with street children and helping at a refugee center in Athens.
“We went everywhere,” said Gagnon. “We went to a coffee house ministry at the University of Athens, where we talked to college students. We went up on a mountain where we looked out over all of Athens and just prayed over the city. ”
Gagnon said one of the best parts of being on a mission team is being shown that God is great, yet he still uses humans to carry out his work. “God chooses to use us to reach the nations of the world. It’s just a great thought,” she said. — NGU
(*Name changed for security reasons.)