From May 17–June 25, 2018 , I went on an international mission trip with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ). I lived in Quito, Ecuador to partner with local campus ministries, pastors, and students. If you missed my earlier posts about this you can find them on the blog at “Ecuador, Here I Come!” and “Ecuador: Greeting the Mission Field with a Kiss.”
The following Q&A is an edited version of the notes I used to talk about my mission trip on my campus ministry’s Summer Missions Panel. My prayer is that these answers will inspire others to go outside their comfort zone and share the Gospel.
1. What’s your name, year, degree? Where did you go, with who, and how did you hear about it?
Hi there! My name is Alysha and I’m a college senior in the Public Relations program. During Summer 2018, I was on mission in Ecuador through Cru with six other young women from University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) and Kennesaw State University (KSU). We were led by three Cru staff members and accompanied by their two young children.
How I found the trip is a little interesting. I knew I wanted to go to Ecuador; it was just the place God had put on my heart, even though I knew very little about the country and had no connections there. So, I found the trip online. I went through Cru because I wanted to be on a team of other college students.
2. What was the purpose of the trip? How did you see God work as you went?
The purpose of our trip was to share the Gospel and disciple students on four college campuses in the capital city of Quito. The process was very formulaic. That is to say, we had a lot of good tools to share and solid training on how to walk someone through the basics of the Good News of Jesus.
Each day when we got on campus, we prayed and God pointed us to people to talk to. Over six weeks, we had 153 conversations, gave 83 gospel presentations, and saw 6 students accept Christ. When we met Christians, we connected them to local students to be discipled or continued meeting with them ourselves.
I saw God work in so many ways. I change my answer to this question every time because there wasn’t just one way. He certainly provided for us and gave us everything we needed to complete the mission successfully.
3. What obstacles did you have to overcome to go? How did you overcome them?
My big obstacle was simply deciding to go. It took me years to actually consider it seriously, so part of it was the push of this being my last summer in undergrad. I didn’t know what God’s will was and was intimidated by the cost and length of the trip. That’s my normal hinderance: being indecisive and trying to make sure I’m doing what God wants down to the letter.
It took an outside push to get the ball rolling. My mentor encouraged me to just apply and I told God that if He wanted me not to go then to use a denial of the application. The next thing I knew, I was talking to one of my team leaders on the phone and over the moon excited.
The time between applying in February and leaving in May went so fast that I dropped the ball a lot on support raising, so that was probably the next obstacle. God provided though. I paid for some of the trip myself. I also received a couple of un-expected donations while I was gone. At the time I was frustrated with my lack of planning, but now that some time has passed I see how God worked it out anyway. Any cost that came from me isn’t worth missing. And, as a disclaimer to others, it’s easy to be fully supported if you make the time to ask people to partner with you.
A final obstacle was wrapping my head around the idea of staying with strangers for a summer. Everyone on the team was from Alabama or Georgia. I’m a Michigan girl. That in itself is a culture shock.
God must have done something cool because I didn’t overthink this and was, with His help, really brave in stepping out anyway.
4. How did your experience change your walk with God?
Spending a summer in Quito gave me a chance to be obedient to God, even when I had to do it alone and it cost me more than I wanted to give.
I think the “do it without someone else” aspect was what changed my walk with God. It’s easy to say “yes, God” when your best friends are right beside you the whole time. That was how my past mission trips were, both in Guatemala and Cuba. This was the first time I had to say “yes, God, it’s just me and you” and be okay with that.
This challenge was unique to me too, as everyone else on the trip had another person from their school there and knew one another from Cru’s regional conferences. Even though they were welcoming—even to the point of giving me an honorary adoption to UAB—at times I was missing home and lonely or really needing time alone, sometimes both at once.
The best news is that feeling lonely or people-tired was a chance to creatively take time to delight in God and do restful things or to grow as a person and do things I traditionally don’t have energy for as an introvert.
When hard things would happen back with my Michigan people, I really felt my powerlessness and had to trust God with it more. One of my teammates and I made a habit of praying for the friends and family we left behind. This not only grew my relationship with God, but gave me a good friend on the trip.
Now I know that God can ask me to do anything or go anywhere and I can do it.
5. What were two highlights from the trip, both fun and ministry?
My fun highlight from the trip was going up to one of the top points of the Pichincha Volcano. There’s a cable car called TelefériQo that you can ride up and see the whole city below. It’s stunning.
We went up as a team and then I went with a couple other girls to hike higher. It was not the easiest hike because the elevation is already crushing in the city—even more so on top of Pinchincha with a backpack full of stuff. It was so hard to breathe and so tiring, but the view was worth it and I felt accomplished for overcoming the obstacle.
Ministry-wise, my highlight was probably the last couple days before debrief and departure, when we were saying goodbye to the Cru students and the few people we had discipled consistently over the six weeks.
We had a lot of little ministry victories along the way, but saying goodbye and giving parting thoughts is what really caused the impact to sink in and got me to think about the importance of the relationships. I’m not gonna lie, the day to day of ministry was hard and getting out of bed in the morning was hard, but in the end I looked back and said “I’m so glad I was obedient to God in the little things, every day.”
On summer mission, a really great relationship starts with getting out of bed in the morning, then leaving the house on time, then talking to people when it’s awkward, working through the language barrier, then sharing the Gospel when they might laugh at you for it, then planning to meet up and dealing with scheduling and interruptions. In the moment it can be so hard to do what you know God commissioned and purposed for you to do, but then the last week hits and you’re crying thinking about how much you’ve grown and the people you met have grown.
6. What would you say to someone who is questioning if they should go on a trip?
If you’re questioning it or even thinking about it, I honestly just want to tell you to go. You can make up a list of obstacles all day and drive yourself crazy trying to discern what God wants exactly. But in reality God just wants obedience and Matthew 28:19–20 is right there in the Bible telling us to share the Gospel both in our home and beyond it. If you have an opportunity to do that for a few days or a week or a summer or a semester or a year or a lifetime in place that isn’t here, take it. And in seasons where you truly do have to go to class or work locally, take those opportunities to share the Gospel here.
Also, remember missions is literally just you in a different place. You go, you obey God moment by moment, you accept His grace when you mess that up, and you love people like Jesus. You don’t get some super power by signing up for a summer mission, but you do get a dedicated chance to grow with God in a season where you’re less weighed down by earthly obligations than you ever will be again.
I’ve got Christ as my Savior. I’ll be glad to do anything He wants, go any place He sends me.
Clarence Wesley Jones ??
Next Steps
- Consider a Summer Mission or another trip to share the Gospel! Be willing to give more time than you are comfortable with or go to a place that will stretch you.
- Share this article with a college student who might be interested in spending a summer on mission.
