The nations are the focus during Southwestern’s Global Missions Week

Underscoring its Globally Engaged core value, the nations were the focus of the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary during the annual Global Missions Week, Sept. 2-5, as a variety of events highlighted work being done around the world encouraging all students to be involved in the Great Commission regardless of the academic degree they are pursuing.

During chapel on Sept. 4, Kevin Rodgers, professor of missions, spoke about the Garasene demoniac found in Mark 5, pointing out that once the man had been confronted by Christ and redeemed, then Jesus instructed him to tell others about what Christ had done for him, making him possibly the first missionary sent by Jesus.

“He loves the most unlovable, and He sends the least likely candidates to do the greatest task on the planet for His glory,” Rodgers said, sharing some of his own testimony of being saved in college and later called to be a missionary in Africa.

Rodgers also pointed out that one of the most dangerous thoughts is that of assuming that someone else will share the Gospel, when God might be calling that individual do be the one to go.

“Not everybody is supposed to be a cross-cultural missionary,” said Rodgers. “Not everybody should go to Africa. … If God calls you to stay, stay. But if God’s calling you to go, go.”

In Africa, where Rodgers and his family served for decades, Rodgers said the Gospel has spread greatly and seen much fruit as people respond to the Gospel and churches are planted, but even those believers face struggles such as syncretism and other parts of the world face even greater opposition.

“As important as it is to go where people are responsive to the Gospel, we also have to go where people are not responsive to the Gospel,” Rodgers said. “We’ve got to go to the hard places, to the zero-to-one places. We’ve got to go where people don’t want to hear it. We’ve got to go where it’s going to cost you something to be a witness.”

During the Sept. 4 chapel service, Texas Baptist College student Kenneth Hess shared of his experience with OneLink mission teams over the summer, which trained and then sent him to South Asia for eight weeks. Hess said even the time of training was very beneficial as he realized the importance of Christian community in missions. While serving, he said he gained “a new perspective, a newfound love for people, and a greater passion to live with the Gospel at the center of my life.”

“I don’t want you to hear my story; I want you to ask God to write your own,” Hess encouraged students. “For some of you, that might mean going on a trip with Link teams next year. For others, it might mean supporting those who go or living more missionally right here at home. But whatever it looks like, don’t leave this moment unchanged. My challenge is this—don’t wait, don’t assume missions is for someone else.”

Visiting missionaries spoke in classes around the campus and also were available during lunch hours in the Naylor Student Center as students benefited from these opportunities to ask questions about overseas missions. A Friday lunch Q&A allowed students to hear the missionaries share about professional and personal aspects of their ministries and positive experiences as well as trials they face in the field, such as living in a harsh climate, an oppressive society, or just missing home.

Tuesday evening, the Great Pursuit dinner featured a meal shared with missionaries and a time of Q&A with a panel of missionaries serving around the world, some for decades, as students asked questions about why they are missionaries, how to prepare to serve a country they have never visited, if short-term teams are helpful for career missionaries, and if healthy churches are being planted in their contexts.

“The reason that I went overseas is not because we’re not called to witness here, but it’s because there are no witnesses over there,” said Rees Morgan, who is serving in West Africa with Project 3000, an initiative focusing on reaching the remaining unreached people groups. “And that really hit my heart when I first heard that, realizing that there are many places left in the world where there are no witnesses or access to the Gospel.”

Trey Fleming has served with his family in Japan for the past eight years and said during the early years especially he was humbled in different ways as he learned the language, the culture, and even went through driving tests. But he said that humbling is necessary for missionaries as they serve.

“There’s all these things that I think changes your perspective of ‘I’m going to go and accomplish these great things, I have all these objectives,’” Fleming said. “And God’s like, ‘Take your baby steps first, and trust Me every day.’ And there’s really a plan in that, there’s a design in that, to keep us close to God, because we would just mess the whole thing up if we’re not constantly being humbled like that.”

In the Fireside Room of the NSC Wednesday morning, roughly 50 people gathered to participate in Pray for the Nations. The weekly event normally focuses on one area of the world, but for Global Missions Week it hosted a variety of missionaries serving around the world. Participants included missionaries, as well as Southwestern staff, faculty, and students, praying specifically for the missionaries who voiced areas of need such as for volunteers, encouragement, or spiritual impact in their location.

“Even when you’re called to the ministry, you’re still kind of in a bubble here,” Melana Monroe, director of prayer ministries, said of life at Southwestern. “And coming to this prayer group bursts that bubble. And that’s where the global engagement really connects.”

The Pray for the Nations group meets every Wednesday at 11 a.m. to pray for different areas of the world.

On Thursday, Student Life and the World Missions Center hosted Night of the Nations, an annual event which sees international students and missionaries prepare traditional food from all corners of the globe. Some food and other items like handmade crafts and other items were available for purchase in order to raise money for mission work.

Participants filled the Naylor Student Center’s ballroom as they tasted lumpias from the Philippines, feijoada from Brazil, and cheesecake from New York—an international palette served to bring attention to nations impacted by missionaries and the work of Southwestern.

A School of Church Music and Worship band provided live music in different languages and styles. About $1,200 was raised for upcoming mission trips.

The first Women on Mission meeting of the semester was held during Global Missions Week and included the visiting female missionaries, missionary in residences, and the wives of missions professors who have spent time overseas.

“We are excited for missions, and we are excited for women missionaries,” said faculty wife and former missionary Sandra Sieberhagen, as other visiting missionaries shared experiences of when they saw God working in their missions contexts, such as new believers, churches planted, training nationals to share the Gospel, and circumstances perfectly arranged by God.

The Women on Mission meet each month on a Friday at 11 a.m. in the Women’s Center, discussing a variety of questions and concerns faced by female students preparing for the mission field.