We hung out with them a lot—talking, watching the World Cup games, and even horseback riding. Our host family was excited at the quick friendship because they have long hoped to start a cell church in the neighborhood. They wanted us to help start it.

After a month, we realized that even though our neighbors knew we were Christians and came to Venezuela to talk about God, we had never shared the gospel with them.

To remedy this, we recently began the first service of a cell church in the neighborhood. We welcomed three neighbors—two unbelievers and one believer. My partner, Julie, and I shared our testimonies and the host family shared the gospel.

Initially I thought our guests were uninterested, but then I noticed the intensity with which they listened. Normally stoic, one of the guys even shed tears as he said, ´Yes, I want to accept Jesus as my Savior.´ Both of the unbelievers prayed that night to become Christians and were excited to receive Bibles.

Later, we helped host a neighborhood game night. Between a treasure hunt and charades, we shared the gospel and 19 youth prayed to receive Christ. Many were excited to hear about the cell church and said they will attend the service.

It is exciting to see God glorified in an entire neighborhood. Now, we are praying for someone to disciple our new brothers and sisters.

But the Bible clearly states that if you are still, and know that God is who he says he is, you will see that he is being exalted all around you, and you are invited into it.

I wish we had listened when people told us that this summer we were going to be attacked—hard. From the beginning, we’ve had team members get sick, go to the hospital, get in fights, get unbearably homesick, lose friends and family, and deal with other tough issues back home. I’m not going to lie; it’s been a rough ride. There have been several times when all of us have just wanted to give up and go home. And, yet, God has been who he said he is through the entire summer.

When I have stopped to truly sit in God’s presence and to allow him to refresh my spirit, he has shown me his power in this summer—eight kids coming to know the Lord, one man in his 80s coming to Jesus, one co-worker recommitting his life to Christ, and countless numbers of relationships formed where people have been able to see the power of God working through us. Who am I to question why we were all called here this summer?

One of the dramas our creative-arts team performs is called “In the Words of Satan.” It’s a song about the lies Satan feeds us on a daily basis to try to bring us away from the love of our Lord. But he will not tell us about the God of heaven who loves us, who yearns for us and the freedom of the truth and forgiveness that God offers. Why is it so easy for us to buy into these lies?

I’ve been praying that God would reveal to me the lies that I buy into each day so that I may know what is of Christ and what needs to be pushed out of my life, and it’s rocked my world. God has shown me through revealing the lies in my life the different lies that others around me believe in, too. It breaks my heart. That’s why God wants us to know who he is and to believe it and know it on a daily basis, because we are not up against anything that will go easy on us—not by any means.

Emily Gerloff,  a student at the University of Texas at Austin, is serving with Go Now Missions in Orlando, Fla.

The company he works for is an immense pharmaceutical giant. And here he is, sitting across from me.

We initially met at Starbucks. I was drinking my overpriced Japanese coffee, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw him holding a piece of paper with Kongi and English. This provided an opening to begin conversation. As we began to talk, I soon found out he soon would travel to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to close deals for his company. Nobody sends a low-level operative to represent your company in America. He was so delighted to talk and interested in my story that he offered to take me to dinner in the future.

We got together for a meal at a local Japanese casual restaurant, and it is here the mystery of the gospel was presented to him. As we dove into the topic of religions, I knew my work was cut out for me. Most Japanese do not believe in a religion, but many believe there are 8 million gods, and everything around you is a god. And that’s not to limit the amount of gods, for the “8” stands for infinity. That’s essentially what this man believed. So, after intently listening to his thoughts and views, I begin to layout a case for Christ.

We discuss a multitude of topics, from the historical accuracy of the Bible, to the nature of God, and to the differences between Christianity and other religions. But as I found through personal experience, numbers of manuscripts and theological philosophy will not fully capture the image of Christ to those who are lost. The most personal and powerful story of the gospel is not found in an academic book or in statistics—it is found in us. It’s the story of how Jesus’ good news saved and changed us.

As I began to pour out my life, telling how Christ changed me, I could see true understanding in his eyes. My friend was not bored with the story. I quoted the end of the beatitudes in Matthew where Jesus calls us to be salt and light in the world, to let our light so shine before men that they will see our works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. I told him how I want my life to be different.

This was the sticking point—to move into a metaphor of how I wanted my life to be. I heard this example many years ago, and through the years, it has flowed into the context of my conversation—but never before as perfect as this.

“Imagine I am eating a dessert,” I said. “Its just so good—the cream, the chocolate, the little nuts that tie the flavor together. …This is perfect.” (Cue waiter, walking to table beside us with breathtaking dessert.) “But wait, look at that dessert over there. It makes mine look like nothing! Look at the precision, the creativity, the flavors, the artistry. After looking at it, I feel like mine is missing something. I wish I could have that something which makes it different. I want the better dessert.”

God’s perfect timing spurred me on to drive home the point. When people see my life, I want them to see me as the better dessert. I want them to look at their life and say, “What does he have that I don’t?” In this world of darkness and despair, in this world of seekers and sinners, every person is looking for something to fulfill his or her life. As the believers in Antioch who first were called Christians, may we be salt to a tasteless life, may we be light to the dark places, and in a world searching for something more, may we be the better dessert.

Pray for my friend, as I connect him with a missionary who lives here. Pray he will continue to have a thirst and desire to know the one and true God of the Bible.

Dan Black, a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, is serving with Go Now Missions in Japan.

Usually, the pastor or a lady named Nancy shares the gospel. My heart skipped a beat when Nancy told me she wanted my partner and me to present the gospel. Spanish, my major, is the national language of Venezuela. Although I can converse on a basic level, the thought of leading people to Christ in Spanish made me nervous. I feared I would say something incorrectly or not convey the Good News effectively.

As we entered each house and begin sharing with each person, a peace washed over me, settling my nerves and loosening my tongue. God gave me the words to speak, and Nancy and Roxanne filled the gaps of my broken Spanish. Praise God that five people entered the kingdom of heaven that day!  

Two verses from the New Testament have been the constant themes of my time in Venezuela: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Although I feel weak and incapable, God is all-powerful, and his name is being glorified in Venezuela.

We approach people asking them if they would like to participate in a video survey. We explain we are with Inside Out and are looking to understand better the Fort Collins community and how people think and believe. This method allows us to ask spiritual and personal questions without people being too skeptical of what we are doing.

After all, we just want to know what they believe and do not have an agenda of preaching at them. Our queries include surface-level questions about how people spend their time on the weekends to more in-depth questions about their feelings when they hear the words “Christian” or “Jesus” and how they carry out their own spirituality.

The answers we get in these surveys capture the essence of the spiritual condition and the majority consensus of how people think and believe in this area. Openness and tolerance are the most common overlying theme in the way people view the world here. While these could be desirable traits of a peaceful environment, it leaves out room for absolute truth. Many people will acknowledge the possibility of the existence of God, but they believe spirituality to be highly individual and kept personal to avoid conflict. The ideas that we have come across make up a diverse pool of belief systems including but not limited to religious pluralists, New Age enthusiasts, agnostics, Mormons, and even a couple evangelical Christians.

While each interview is eye-opening, one stuck out in particular. We approached a group of teenagers with edgy-style choice in clothing, pierced bodies and dyed hair. Their guitar-playing ringleader looked to be the oldest of the bunch.

In the middle of trying to explain to one of them the video survey we were doing, an older girl spoke up over our shoulder asking what we were doing. We quickly learned her name was Christina . She actually worked with youth at a local church and had come out there to hang out with one 14-year-old girl in particular she had been trying to reach out to, and that the groups of teens that we had been trying to survey were the young girl’s friends.

The group quickly scattered, and Christina explained that it probably was because they had been in trouble with the police already once that day and were avoiding making a scene by being on camera. Christina was trying to meet the girl in her element with the people that she spends most of her time with. After interviewing both Christina and her adolescent friend, we found that Christina could fit perfectly in the type of ministry we have been a part of with Inside Out church. She expressed a desire to talk with Pastor Nate Templin about helping him out. This was such an answer to pray for Inside Out, who had been looking for a college-aged female in the area to help them connect and to be a part of their vision of being the church to the lost and reaching those who would never set foot in a church building.

Not only did we make a great connection, but also Christina was excited because the questions we raised in our survey were going to be a great way to open up spiritual conversation with her searching friend. It excites me how God may use Christina to continue to impact that one girls life and potentially many others. I am grateful for this new friend made through what I believe to be divine appointment. Each day is an adventure, as we never know whom God will place in our path.

Student missionary correspondent Amber Cassady, a communications student at Texas A&M University in College Station, is serving in Colorado with Go Now Missions.

Last week offered my teammates and me a welcome change of pace—serving in Vacation Bible School.

The church sponsoring the VBS is the same church that is housing us for the summer, so we already knew the people fairly well. I knew that this week was going to be a challenge—not so much in terms of schedule, but with the children. 



The first day of VBS was pretty exciting as I taught first and second graders. I had a minor freak-out when I thought that my co-leader might not be able to make it, but she showed just in the nick of time. When all the kids were gathered in the big room for the beginning worship rally, my teammates and I were ready to go and super-excited to meet the kids.

After singing a few songs and doing some pretty obnoxious moves, we relocated to the classrooms. The theme verse of the week was James 1:5. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

A couple of the kids who were in my class already went to the church. Others were neighborhood kids who had heard about it from fliers we handed out the previous week. However, all the children were alike in a couple of ways: They all had very short attention spans, and they loved the blame game. 



All week, Anna and I had to fight for their attention. By the third day, we learned how we could get them to listen to us—candy. The fact that a small child can be so enthralled by a tiny piece of sugar and not become completely enchanted by the thought of Christ makes my heart ache. My heart ached last week about as much as their tummies did.

Over the course of the week, we talked about how we are God’s greatest creation and how we can strive to be perfect through him. Each day, we had a Scripture memory verse. And if they remembered it the next day, they would, of course, get candy.

All week, one of my girls, Eve, would recite the verse perfectly without any help or having to pause. On the last day, we were asking if anyone in the class had any questions about Jesus and what he did for us. We had a couple of our troublemakers raise their hands and say never mind, but other than that the room was quiet. We went to the final worship rally and sang all the songs that we had learned all week.

When we finally dismissed and started walking outside to return the kids to their parents, Eve walked up to me. I could see her mom waiting for her with a smile on her face, but Eve didn’t seem to mind. Eve gave me a huge hug and thanked me for telling her about Jesus. She told me that her mom worked for a pastor at another church, and that she had always been afraid of Jesus. But because of what she learned this week, she was going to ask her mom about she can accept Jesus into her heart.

Hearing those sweet words from Eve and seeing the love and faith in her eyes made my heart stop aching. All week I had been so discouraged because I thought that the kids wanted candy more than they wanted Christ. God had a different plan, a perfect plan.

Caitlin Campbell, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, is serving with Go Now Missions in Philadelphia.

Because the bus doesn’t always come into the rural areas, it’s difficult for the families to attend church regularly. So, we begin the day with a short sermon by the pastor, a few praise songs and a time of prayer. We then begin walking down the dirt road to visit their neighbors.

Two ladies who live there, Nancy and Roxanne, act as our guides. They know their neighbors well—not only their names, but also where they are spirtually. The first time we talked with the neighbors, it was obvious that Nancy and Roxanne had already shared the gospel with them. Many had not yet accepted or were unsure of their salvation.

The pastor boldly proclaimed Christ’s name, and two people prayed to receive Christ as Lord of their lives. I was convicted, thinking about my neighbors back home. Do I know whether or not they have heard the gospel? Do I even know their names? Without even knowing it, Nancy and Roxanne encouraged me to follow their example and evangelize to my neighbors when I return to America.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning, a cookout for lunch, and had nothing else on the schedule. So, we then decided to take quick trip to the beach with our host family’s teenage daughter and son. In Rhode Island, nearly everything is close to the beach!

After catching some huge waves at high tide, we decided to drive down to some rocks that formed a jetty to climb around and collect shells. Our host’s son said he knew where the jetty was, so we ventured to find it, getting lost once or twice. We found ourselves in a small community that consisted mainly of private beach homes. We had a hard time finding a place to park. Then we had to walk down to the beach barefoot and hike across it to the rocks. After all that trouble, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be there anymore.

But God had different plans.

My team member noticed a man fishing and asked what kind of fish he caught “up here.” He answered, and noticing her use of the term “up here,” asked where we were from. We replied that we were from Texas and are working with various churches in the New England area.

We kept talking to him, mostly asking him about fishing and his life. He grew up in Rhode Island, just graduated from college and owned his own air conditioning and heating business. As a pleasant conversation continued, I began to think, “There is no way to turn this into a spiritual conversation without sounding awkward.” But I felt God prodding me and prayed for it anyway.

Suddenly, the man completely changed topics mid-conversation and began to talk about his spiritual beliefs and religious background, making way for a 30- to 40-minute conversation discussing what he believed and explaining what we believed. We also were able to talk to his father about his spiritual beliefs. We prompted each one of them with questions on their beliefs about God, Jesus, and the afterlife. Although both were nominally affiliated with the Catholic Church, each man’s beliefs were very different. The son had become an agnostic who trusted in science. His father, on the other hand, was very spiritual and so close to the truth of the gospel—just not quite there. Both were very disillusioned with the hypocrisy and greed they saw in the modern church.

While no commitments or radical conversions were made out there on the rocks at sunset, it felt amazing to be used by God to plant seeds of the gospel in such an unexpected way in the hard and rocky soil of New England.

Shelby Newman, a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, is serving with Go Now Missions in New England.

That seems particularly true here in Fort Collins, Colo.  Within this past year, Fort Collins has become a great mission field where five couples have to come to start three church plants.  The Longs Peak Baptist Association is aggressively seeking to reach this culture that sees no need for Christianity or a church.

These church planters are teaching my team and me how to live missionally. We are missionaries in everything we do. We go on bike rides, to parks and to coffee shops, looking for people who are enjoying life in the same way. Because when life is lived correctly—or rather missionally—relationships are unavoidable.

As we establish each relationship, we find out who our new friends are, and they hear about who we are. We do not invite them to church. We befriend them. We care about who the individual is and—we hope—exchange phone numbers to get together another time. After a while, this individual may learn to trust a Christian. If that much is accomplished, sowing has been done.

We were told all this when we arrived on the mission field, and being a missionary seemed easy enough. However, after three weeks of just hanging out, the team had no relationships to show for out time invested. I grew frustrated with our assignment and with our leaders, claiming that it is just not in my natural personality to meet new people and to do so would be for me to be fake. But God waited until this point to introduce us to Brian.

On one drizzly day, we went to an empty park, simply because we did not know what else to do. We shot a basketball for half an hour before a guy drove up and walked to another court. More out of frustration than out of a desire to make a friend, I called out, “Hey, you want to shoot with us?”

He came and played for a while. We engaged in small talk, and then we exchanged numbers. Since then, we have been together regularly. He is kind of shy and keeps to himself, but he is growing more comfortable with us.  I still only know a little about his past, but he is searching for a new type of friend, and we are there for him. I don’t know how far I will get with this slow process of sowing gospel seed, but I have to trust in God, knowing that this friendship is God-ordained and for a purpose.

Jarred Taylor, a student at Stephen F. Austin State University, is serving with Go Now Missions in Fort Collins, Colo.

Kelly’s mom warmly welcomed us. Over a cup of coffee, she explained her husband was not a Christian, and he thought she and Kelly were crazy for going to church.

Kelly soon arrived with four members of her neighborhood kickball team. The pastor shared the gospel with them, and all four prayed to receive Christ as Savior. Kelly was ecstatic and ready to begin discipling the girls.

The next week Kelly threw a surprise party for her mom and invited a few church members, her neighbors, and, of course, her father. Before cutting the cake, each of the girls from the kickball team shared a Bible verse that had become important to them in the past week.

Kelly then shared the gospel in a way I had heard from someone so young. She spoke with a bold, yet compassionate tone with a soft smile. Her eyes lit up as she talked about her Savior and invited the party guests to know him. Everyone repeated the prayer of salvation with the pastor at the end. I have no idea how many were genuine commitments. I do know, however, that I want to have the passion to live for Christ like Kelly—somebody who boldly shares the gospel even when she knows her father disapproves and wonders if her neighbors may laugh.

I want to live like Romans 1:16: ¨´For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.¨´

Many of these broken families live in poverty and struggle with communication, as the generation gap can be at times too great. This is a need that I had never really been aware of before, and I was thankful that God opened my eyes to it.

A few of the families that Namaqua assists had pressing needs that Namaqua could not physically meet in the time they had available.  So, Mike, Jarred, and I had the opportunity to team up with two mission teams Texas and Arkansas also working with Pursuit Church to meet some of those needs.

I was stationed at the home of a great-grandmother who raises her 4-year-old great-grandson alone. Because of her increasing health problems, she had decided to move into a smaller, more manageable one-story house. Her old house was filled to the brim with knick-knacks and odds and ends that had been accumulating for years. There was no rhyme or reason to it. All we could do was pile item after item into boxes to be taken to the new house.

My heart broke for this woman who had been trying to make it on her own for so many lonely years and had little time to take care of the place where she lived. I was reminded that I should not stick up my nose in disgust at the condition of what she had been living in and had to ask the Lord to help me serve without judgment. He answered my prayer and filled my heart with his impartial compassion and a determination to complete the job better than I would even do it for myself.

I was inspired by the excellent attitudes of the youth groups that we were packing and cleaning alongside. They worked tirelessly, even canceling other activities they had planned for the rest of that day. They wanted to fully prepare the house to be placed on the market and move all the woman’s necessities to the new house. I hope that the grandmother and her grandson feel refreshed by a new beginning and that Christ’s love was evident in our efforts. What blessing to meet a need and work together with some awesome teenagers.

Student missionary correspondent Amber Cassady, a communications student at Texas A&M University in College Station, is serving in Colorado with Go Now Missions. See all Students On Mission Blog posts.

As soon as we are introduced as a “GOBA”—Greater Orlando Baptist Association, the mission organization we serve—at Fun Spot, it seems we are put under a magnifying glass, and people are just waiting to see what we do next.

What I find most amusing are the questions our co-workers have asked us: “Do you ever curse?” “Have you ever partied?” “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” “Do you have a curfew you have to follow?” Or there’s my favorite: “Are you actually into things like the mall and stuff?” This last question was asked when a co-worker of mine ran into a couple of us GOBAs at the mall on one of our off days. He said we were the last people on the planet he would have expected to run into there. He thought we just hung out around the camp all day when we weren’t at work or church. You almost have to laugh at people’s assumptions of what Christians are like, especially those of us labeled as missionaries.

People watch. They want to know how we react to different conflicts and situations. They want to know if our lives are really all that different from their lives and if it’s something worth having. No pressure, right?

But, there is good news out of that. Because of the questions we have been asked, we have been able to share with others our past and a lot of the pain that was in it. In fact, many of our teammates have gone through—and are still going through—some tough times and some real hurt. But, we have come to find out, a lot of our co-workers are going through a lot of that same pain, too. So in these conversations, we have begun to show them that there is hope and healing in this world and that it comes from one solid source. And you never have to go through pain on your own.

One of the hardest things to do as a Christ-follower is to admit your past to someone. But God is so good to use that for his glory. When you reach out to someone who is going through a struggle that you have been through, telling your story to them can be one of the best things for them. We’ve already seen kids and co-workers open up about their past and their current pain. One guy at Fun Spot even recommitted his life to Christ because of our stories! It’s not easy to admit that you don’t have it all figured out and that you do have some real pain and loss in your life. But it is necessary to show others that the one true Healer is in your life and that because of that, you have hope and happiness each day.

Don’t be afraid to open up. We’re not going to always get it right, but when we look to God, you will see that he has everything under control. His sovereignty goes beyond my understanding, but I don’t need to understand in order to believe.

Emily Gerloff,  a student at the University of Texas at Austin, is serving with Go Now Missions in Orlando, Fla. See all Students On Mission Blog posts.