Missionaries from all corners of the world were on the North Greenville University campus for three days to interact with students through a global village, lectures and in-between class conversations. From Sept. 10-12, NGU hosted the sixth annual Global Missions Conference, entitled “Mighty to Save.”
Missionary Coley Mull, left, presented NGU president Jimmy Epting with a sword, representing NGU’s involvement and emphasis in missions.The McCaskill Fero conference room in the Tingle Student Center was transformed into a “global village,” where the visiting missionaries set up display tables showing what part of the world they served and how they ministered to the people.
Mick Stockwell, a missionary with the International Mission Board, works in Ukraine with his family. Fellow IMB missionary Darrel Hathcock serves in Belarus with his family, but soon he will be in Ukraine as well. Stockwell said the way to create more churches in Ukraine is to train the national believers to be pastors. “We want to be involved in training our national parties and church planters,” Stockwell said. The International Mission Board works globally with the purpose of planting churches around the world.
Missionaries also visited classrooms and held seminars to share insight into the life of a missionary and to educate students about how they can be involved. Students had the opportunity to ask questions about the specific regions they may want to serve.
Allen McWhite introduced IMB’s Journeyman representative Cindy Nouy.Newlyweds Chris and Ginger Mackey, missionaries with New Tribes Missions, completed four years of training before they were able to enter the mission field. They will be moving to Brazil in January. New Tribes missionaries are taught the different tribal languages of the area where they will serve and also how to build their own houses out of the materials located in that region.
Each missionary organization has a different approach to building these churches. One of the most common approaches involves building a community through bonds established during small group sessions, which eventually grow into a church.
Missionaries also took part in chapel services on Monday and Wednesday. Coley Mull, a missionary from Delhi, India, was the primary speaker. In his messages, Mull said Christians are usually willing to go to the mission field, but not all of them are determined to go.
He said the current college generation is the “tip of the sword” and challenged students to seek God’s call. He asked students to write a letter to God to remind them of what God placed on their hearts. He said not letting God’s call fade was an important part of being determined to go to the mission field.
As part of the ongoing priority of missions at North Greenville, Allen McWhite, director of global missions, is currently planning for future L.I.G.H.T. Team mission trips during this school year.