Wand sisters’ love for the nations nurtured at TBC

From Southeast Asia to East Asia to Western Europe to the Mediterranean to the Hawaiian Islands, Stephenville, Texas, natives Mikayla and Jessica Wand, juniors at Texas Baptist College, know the Lord has given them each a heart for missions.

Mikayla and Jessica are two of the three Wand triplets who are students at TBC. Their brother, Brandon, is a Bachelor of Arts in Christian studies student, while Mikayla and Jessica are both enrolled as Bachelor of Arts in intercultural studies students. While the sisters have a heart for missions – and have numerous shared missions experiences – God’s calling to missions and future ministry service looks different for each of them.

Mikayla and Jessica began studying at the Fort Worth-based institution in the fall of 2021 after spending two years discipling girls in Honolulu, Hawaii, through the organization Youth on a Mission (YWAM). Through the organization, Mikayla has served in India, Nepal, and the Philippines, while Jessica has served in Greece and India.

“We went to different countries with them and just focused on discipling young girls who have just come out of high school, mostly,” Mikayla explained. The experience led to each of them “having more of a heart for missions, and through that just kind of had more of a desire for deeper training and theology, theological education, and studying the Bible.”

Mikayla and Jessica Wand, sisters who are Texas Baptist College students, have spent the last several years pursuing God’s call to take the Gospel to the nations. In the spring, the served in Western Europe for six months through the International Mission Board’s Hands-On program.

The sisters recall how the Lord began calling them to Christian service.

Through reading the book Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis Majors, Jessica said during her junior year of high school she was “very encouraged” by the life of the American missionary to Uganda. However, it was not until she graduated from high school and served with YWAM and their discipleship training school that she saw her missions calling “forming.” She and her sister also served in East Asia working with missionaries who ran a coffee shop. For Jessica, who said she had an “entrepreneurial kind of spirit” growing up, the experience helped with “solidifying” the type of ministry she desires to engage. She said it was “also the beginning of me wanting to own my own business one day.”

Mikayla said her call to missions began with “a desire to share Christ with others” and “that heart kind of grew.” She explained this “led to being more missions-minded and whether I was in Texas or having an opportunity to go overseas, it was something I wanted to be faithful with – sharing Christ with others.” Mikayla added that “step-by-step” as she served she realized “the need for more training, education, and different opportunities.”

“I don’t know if it was really like, ‘Oh, I’m going to pursue missions,’” Mikayla explained. “It’s just kind of like God opening those doors [and] showing me those next steps of ‘Yeah, go here.’ Just be obedient.”

Through a combination of her missions experience and time of study at TBC, Mikayla said she is currently “really passionate about refugee ministry” and has a “love” for “working with and meeting Muslim women.”

The sisters spent six months earlier this year working among Central Asian peoples in Western Europe through the International Mission Board’s “Hands On” program. The program allows United States-based students to serve overseas while being mentored by IMB missionaries on the field. During their time of service, they ministered among refugees and also helped with English sessions at a coffee shop. Mikayla explained the opportunity was “cool” because both of the ministry opportunities “align” with how they desire to serve in the future.

An emotional Mikayla said “growing up in a small town” she never “had any exposure to that many other cultures. Being in Fort Worth totally made that an opportunity to just engage people” and have a “heart” for “Muslims and Muslim women and having that chance to engage them here.”

She added that she has learned as she has been in “the classroom hearing from professors who have been on the field and worked with Muslims” and “unreached people and hearing their stories” while she has gained “more competence and being equipped” to minister to Muslims in Fort Worth or overseas.

Stephenville, Texas, natives Mikayla and Jessica Wand have served in various settings all over the world to share the Gospel. Before they began pursuing Bachelor of Arts in intercultural studies degrees at Texas Baptist College, the sisters served two years in Honolulu, Hawaii, discipling teenage girls.

In the future, Jessica said she would like to open a multi-purpose space that is a coffee shop and a co-working space, where her “hope” is “that it will act more of a community center, where it’s really bringing people together” as “a place where both believers and unbelievers both are there and unbelievers are being engaged with the Gospel by the believers who go there.” She also envisions the space as a place that provides “refugee preparation” as people can learn how to engage refugees in the community and provide opportunities for educating in “ministry-based things.”

Jessica said her desire is to “create an environment” that will “cultivate healthy community and ultimately” will lead “people to know Christ and be reconciled to Him.”

Both sisters affirm they have applied what they are learning in the classroom in real time as they minister in Fort Worth.

Mikayla said during her time studying at TBC she has applied her classroom learning to conversations she has with others because “in the classroom, we’re already thinking about it.”

“In our homework and assignments and readings, you’re pushed – you’re challenged – to actually think about these things that people in the world are questioning or want to know about,” Mikayla noted. “Just even learning about different doctrines in systematic theology, it’s really forming you to where it’s not just knowledge in your head, but it’s shaping your own heart and your own life to follow Christ more faithfully, and to know Him more truly so then it really just affects how you are talking and sharing with someone.”

Jessica concluded her classes are “practical.”

“The heart of the professors is that it would be something that’s not just a knowledge thing and it’s not just this academic thing, but it’s practical,” Jessica elaborated. “It’s making its way into your life.”

The Wand sisters, along with their brother, Brandon, hope to graduate in May 2025.