Heeding the Call

Going on Mission in North America

This year, four BMC students dedicated a portion of their summer to serving God across North America. From children’s ministries to a Muslim people, nonprofit organizations to summer camps, the students were able to use their unique gifts and passions to spread the Gospel.

Victoria Kinsey went to the Appalachian region of Kentucky and West Virginia with GenSend, a group that, according to Victoria, “teaches kids to live missionally.” Eager to share Jesus with those who have never heard, she went to a high-poverty area with a low level of Christianity. The team helped with VBS’s and spent time with children from broken homes. Victoria specifically remembers a little boy with whom she was able to share the Gospel several times. By the end of their trip, he was still asking questions about God and was even able to answer some.

Abby Keathley spent her summer in Hamilton, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, Canada. The team, also organized by GenSend, worked mainly with a housing ministry, but each member was given time to help in areas that interested them, which for Abby was children’s ministry. A major highlight of the trip was befriending a Muslim woman on the public transportation and sharing the Gospel with her; the group was even able to stay in contact with her later. Abby stated that this has given her a desire to continue to share the Gospel with Middle Eastern cultures, and she hopes to explore that calling further by going to the Middle East in the near future.

Katelyn Ford went with GenSend to Montreal, Canada, where she worked with a local church and several nonprofit organizations. She developed a strong relationship with the pastor and his wife, as well as a heart for the people of Montreal. A special memory is of a free night of barbecue in one of the parks, where she enjoyed seeing children come and have fun.

Lauren Mott spent several weeks at Camp Livingstone, a Christian children’s camp in Quebec, Canada. Each week she was responsible for a cabin of nine girls, teaching them how to do “outdoor things” and sharing the Gospel with them. The summer was difficult for a number of reasons, including being sick for two weeks and having to use a translator to communicate with the French-speaking children. But she went on to share that her time made up “the best weeks of my life, even though they were absolutely crazy.” Working daily with children helped her learn a great deal about God’s patience towards her, as well as gain a better understanding of what it means to truly rely on Christ.

All four women enthusiastically stated that they would do their trips over again. Each of them was changed in some way and grew in her relationship with God. As Abby Keathley asserted, “[Summer missions will] bend you, it’ll be difficult, but how rewarding it is to just see the fruit of that and grow so much through that.” The women’s summers can hardly be described as relaxing, but for each of them, the sacrifice was well worth the reward.