Students minister to Boston through SEND initiatives

During fall reading days, Ashley Allen, assistant professor of women’s ministries and assistant to the president, led a group of four female students to Boston where, in order to get an idea of what life as a full-time missionary might be like, they acted as volunteers in service to Send Relief’s Boston Ministry Center.

While in Boston, Kristen Patrick, Nietalii Vero, Mimi Asita, and Lynne Brisco* participated in and experienced personal growth through a variety of volunteer activities and acts of service centered around three “initiatives” created by the Send Relief, whose stated mission is to “respond to crises and strengthen vulnerable communities around the world by meeting physical and spiritual needs in Jesus’ name.”

The first was the “Friendship Initiative,” the goal of which is to build friendships with those experiencing homelessness in the area, starting with a meal and moving into constructive conversation, hopefully leading into the transformation of lives through fulfilling relationships. Patrick, a Master of Church Music student, enjoyed helping support this initiative, not just in the organization of it, but in the execution as well.

“We got to go to the park, and we met some really cool people,” Patrick said. “I really enjoyed that their goal for those types of outings or outreach projects, it’s not just to hand out as many things as you can, but to actually make a genuine connection with somebody and start building relationships in the community.”

Vero, a Master of Worship Leadership student, said she and another team member had gone out to meet the homeless in the area and had encountered several individuals. However, when the day came to hand out food for the ministry, there were none to be found. After looking for some time, they stopped to pray.

“‘God, if somebody is hungry, just let them come to us,’” Vero said they prayed. “And so we decided to go to a fountain and when we went to the fountain, there we saw it full of homeless people. So, thankfully, God answered our prayer and we were able to give out the sandwiches and all the stuff that they needed.”

She also spoke of an encounter with a man who asked them to pray over his friend, which Vero said was her favorite part.

The second initiative the volunteers learned about was the “Beloved Initiative,” which acts as an effort to serve human trafficking and sexual abuse survivors.

The “Geneva Initiative” mobilizes churches to receive refugees and international families in healthy and loving ways, inviting them into a supportive community and connecting them with opportunities in their new home country. The team from Southwestern had the opportunity to connect with a family from Venezuela who had only arrived in the U.S. a couple weeks before.

Members of the team were also able to meet with the owner of “The Well” coffee shop in the heart of downtown Boston, one of Send Relief’s main points of outreach in the city. Vero was inspired by the mission of the shop and the boldness of it operating in what could be a hostile environment towards Christianity.

“It was very encouraging how they work,” Vero said, “to minister [to] the people who come and get coffee. So, it was very, very encouraging … in a coffee shop, in the middle of the downtown and preaching the Gospel, like the boldness they have really encouraged me to be more bold and be more confident.”

Concluding, Vero said enthusiastically, “That trip kind of changed me. … I really learned a lot going there by sharing the Gospel and also getting more ideas on how people are doing it.”

Patrick said the trip opened her eyes to all the work that could be done in her own backyard.

“I think my favorite in that aspect was working with the refugee initiative or the Geneva initiative,” Patrick said. “I didn’t realize that there’s a World Relief Center in the Dallas area. And so just thinking about that and how the Metroplex is massive, I’m certain that they’re refugees here that would benefit, anybody would benefit in getting connected with the local church. But I think a lot of that’s definitely opened my eyes more to how I might be able to bring that to my local church, or even, just like campus, finding a group of people that want to help some of those people.”

Patrick noted, “Being in the seminary bubble–I work on campus, I live on campus but remembering that there’s other people and there’s still a need in the area, I think is really important.” She encouraged all students to consider themselves potential missionaries.

For more information on Send Relief, visit sendrelief.org.

*Name changed for security reasons and to protect future mission work.