By: Pastor Byard Parks
The young senator John F. Kennedy was making his last stop of a long campaign day, visiting the University of Michigan. It was 2 o’clock on a cold October morning, yet 10,000 students had gathered outside in the dark, waiting for this presidential candidate to roll in.
After arriving, Kennedy made a short speech to the students. He didn’t offer them jobs, scholarships or even a handshake. He offered them a challenge to go someplace hard and serve: “You who are planning on being doctors, how many of you are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians, engineers…to go where the world needs help?”
That speech sparked a movement. Within weeks, the Peace Corps was born—a unit not of soldiers, but of servants. Since then, 261,000 students have been sent around the globe on humanitarian assignments through the Peace Corps.
Uniquely, that idea sparked a purposeful movement of empowerment in our own Seventh-day Adventist Church. “Why not send student missionaries?”
It was a great idea. So, in 1967 our school, Southern Missionary College, sent its first student missionary (SM). And since then, a steady flow has followed to create what is indeed an amazing human gift. Southern Adventist University has sent over 2,700 student missionaries in total, and additionally thousands on short-term service trips!
Although mission service is not a requirement, our university has made special provision for students to be able to leave campus and get credit while serving abroad. Many returned student missionaries say, “I got more out of my SM year than the rest of my education.”
When we think of the purpose of education—namely, to prepare us for a productive life—it is no wonder a year of student mission service accomplishes so much. Take, for example, an SM who serves as a teacher and is given a classroom full of 25 children! Suddenly, the university student must do what even a 40-year-old adult struggles to achieve: gaining respect, getting kids to focus, preparing interesting lessons for six hours each day and then, on the weekend, preaching and running a branch Sabbath School.
In addition, one learns to survive using a new language, to navigate new foods and to relate to new people, all the while dealing with new bugs! That kind of responsibility builds character and spiritual muscle. Jesus becomes a closer friend, confidant and ally. Every SM grows immensely.
Of course, not everyone teaches—some are builders, some are media specialists, some run soccer clubs, some are nurses—but they share at least one similarity. They all do work beyond what they thought they could, and as a result, they become heroes in some local child’s eyes.
To help you make your decision, take a look at these 10 surprising reasons why you should consider student missions as part of your university education plan:
1. Frankly, life goes by too fast. Slow down and grow up. Going as a student missionary gives you a chance to grow talents, stamina and your spirituality.
2. Others need you. Good kids won’t have a teacher if no one shows up.
3. Your “future” needs you to go and serve. The gauntlet of troubles that student missionaries face in their SM year gives them superpowers for the rest of their lives. You are more likely to be a leader, stay spiritually active in the church and have a stronger home after serving as a student missionary.
4. You will become wiser. Yes, Student Missions will give you new eyes. You will be surprised at the things you do not yet know when you dive deeply into another culture and way of life.
5. Short-term trips are not the same. Relationships take time to build. Ten days can show you a different world, but true mission is a matter of heart. To enter the heart of someone and to let someone get into your heart takes time—and it is worth it.
6. Your life purpose may show up. Frankly, discovering the meaning of life is something that you can’t seek but you can find. Eight times out of ten, student missionaries come back saying their service year connected a lot of missing dots.
7. Hurrying through college brings you closer to the end of youth. You have the license now to do stuff you won’t have the freedom to do once you are in “adulthood.” Taking a year out to serve makes more sense now than it ever will in the future.
8. You will gain important life skills. Sure, here in class you can gain a lot of head knowledge on a subject, but in the field, you can gain true experience that will take you through life.
9. You could be the answer to someone’s prayer. You know what it is like to have your deepest prayers and desires answered. Imagine being on the other side of that and getting to answer someone else’s deepest prayer and desire.
10. You will expand your reality. Serving as a student missionary will likely be the most rewarding thing you will ever do, because it is a journey that makes your Christianity 100% real. Jesus will show up, as you go. Don’t just wish for the rest of your life that you had done it. Decide and go!
JC (Jesus Christ) and JFK say to you: The energy, faith and devotion that you bring to your Student Missions endeavor will light your life and all who you serve—and the glow from that fire will truly light the world.
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
