Go, Serve, and See: Finding God Around the World

Shawn Tyler: Good morning,
LCU.
Well,
this side's awake. I don't know about this side.
Hi,
my name is Sean Tyler, and I teach over in the Bible building
some of the core courses,
intro to Old Testament, New Testament,
and missions,
missional engagement classes.
I'd love for you to be a part of that if you could.
In 1867,
Mark Twain embarked on a five-month voyage to Europe and to the Holy Lands on the steamship, a steamship called Quaker City.
That five-month trip gave him the material to write a book called The Innocence Abroad,
which was published in 1869.
In the conclusion of that book is the following passage.
Travel is fatal to prejudice,
bigotry,
and narrow-mindedness.
Paraphrasing a little bit more,
Twain said,
Broad, wholesome,
charitable views of humanity and cultures
cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one's lifetime.
Mark Twain was convinced that travel was important to expanding our own education and our view of other people.
I think that's true. It's been my experience as well, having lived overseas for 30 years and traveling for the last 50 years.
I'm here today to encourage you to consider travel as part of your educational experience here at LCU.
There are a lot of opportunities.
The university provides numerous ways in which you can engage in some kind of travel within the United States or even abroad
to help enrich your understanding of different places and people and cultures
and maybe even to provide some opportunities of service along your skill sets and field of study.
I know, and we've seen slides up here about the study abroad program in Avila, Spain.
I would encourage you, if you can, please take advantage of that.
We also have trips.
I think they're advertising one for Poland in May.
That would be a great thing to do, as well as trips to Peru and Honduras and other places.
I want you to consider that.
I myself travel every summer,
Lord willing,
to East Africa, to Kenya and Uganda,
and I love to take students with me.
And there are just a lot of things.
Mission Link, for example, where we are in the Bible building,
We can connect you with your interests and your skills to organizations that can provide places of service and training and raising funds,
maybe even help you with travel arrangements and give you a good orientation to help maximize your experience.
This summer,
we had some LCU students that traveled.
A lot of them traveled.
Three of them in particular are going to be up here.
And they're going to talk just a minute,
just briefly, about their past summer experience.
And then at the end of this video,
Zane,
who is with Herald of Truth,
is going to give you an invitation as well.
Let's listen to what they have to say.
Donovan: What's up, guys? I'm Donovan. I'm a sophomore with a business major and a minor in missional engagement.
Philip Henderson: Hi, my name is Philip Henderson.
I'm a junior biblical text major here at LCU.
Avery Nealon: Hello, my name is Avery Nealon.
I am a junior missional engagement major.
Donovan: This summer, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in Zambia, Africa.
While we were there,
we joined the communities in serving them.
We got to hear their stories,
pray with them, and simply share the love of Jesus.
Avery Nealon: Over the previous summer, I spent a month in Thessaloniki,
Greece,
working with refugees and doing children's ministry in the evenings.
I did this through Contact Mission,
which is a European missionary group based out of Germany.
So if you have any interest in European missions,
short-term or long-term,
They're people, they've got contacts everywhere,
even some countries not in the EU,
but still on the continent of Europe.
Philip Henderson: And this summer I had the opportunity of going to Kenya,
Africa for a month.
One of my favorite things about being in Kenya was definitely just the people there.
There were two people specifically that I really bonded to.
Their names were Mark and Richard.
And as soon as we met them,
I really bonded with them.
It was fun that every time we would get on a bus,
they would make sure to save me a seat
so that we could sit together.
And every single moment that we had,
we tried to spend together.
If you would also like to take a trip to another country,
you should definitely come and visit Sean
and the whole Mission Link team down here at the CDC.
Donovan: One of the biggest things I learned in Zambia
was that we weren't bringing God there,
he was already there.
He was there long before he arrived.
We just had the privilege of joining him
and what he was already doing.
Avery Nealon: It was a life-changing experience
getting to work with people who weren't there to seek a sort of words or any kind of ministry
in the traditional sense, but were there for healing,
for acts of love and kindness.
It was really life-changing, getting to experience that setting with the children and seeing how
appreciative they were for the small things,
all the little games that we put on for them.
You could see that it really made their day when the sun was going down there.
Philip Henderson: My time in Kenya was definitely eye-opening.
We spent a month there and some of the things that we did were we passed out glasses to
those who don't have easy access to eye doctors,
whatever you call those.
Avery Nealon: And if you're not feeling called to Europe,
there's tons of places throughout the world,
including Africa,
South America, Central America,
Asia,
and even somewhere along the Canada
lines.
Maybe the people up there in the snowy regions need us.
If you're interested in any of this,
come by the admissions office.
It is in the CDC room 100,
just right across from the main Bible office.
Philip Henderson: There in Kenya, we got to go to many early Christian churches.
And what was cool about that was we really got to just see how the history of the church in Kenya started.
And so I think we visited the most early Christian church planted there in Kenya.
And we got to pray there.
And it was just this spiritually fulfilling time there with some of the other brothers and sisters in Christ that we have there in Kenya.
Donovan: So if you've ever thought on going on a mission trip or joining our missions department,
don't feel like you have to be perfectly prepared or have everything ready.
All God asks for is your yes.
Mission Link is here to connect you and equip you,
whether you're going somewhere locally,
short-term missions,
or somewhere around the world.
We'd love to see you and talk to you. Come see us in the CDC at the missions office.
Zane Perkins: Hi,
I'm Zane Perkins.
I'm the VP of Herald of Truth.
I spent much of my time as a missionary kid in South America,
and then my wife and my family,
we lived in San Diego,
Chile for 19 months.
So we have a passion
for ministry. We have passion for missions.
Because of my relationship with LCU,
because I have a son
who went here, and because of other connections with our team,
I wanted to bring to you just two
opportunities to help you guys grow in your impact in the community.
We're thankful for what you're
doing,
but here's just another opportunity.
The first one is we have short-term mission trips.
We'll have about five or six all throughout the year,
but the one I really want to bring in to
mind to you is the mission trip that will be March 2027.
You'll have the opportunity if you would
like to join that team.
They will be going to Honduras and they will be building houses. They
will be passing out food to help with physical needs and they will also be passing out times of
prayer and being with them in those times of prayer to handle the spiritual needs.
But if that's not
you've got a passion for ministry and you speak Spanish,
we also have summer internships in Spanish.
So we can put you with a congregation here in the States that you can have an opportunity to intern
and learn Spanish or speak Spanish in that process.
You don't have to be a ministry major,
but at least you need to know a little bit of Spanish and we can help you get into those
ministries.
So just two opportunities that you guys can participate in and we want to offer to
the student body here at LSU to help continue to grow in y'all's impact in the community.
If you
want to come by and visit, love to see you. Go to visit with you.
Come by the Ling Science Center
shortly after chapel and we can visit all you want to.
Shawn Tyler: I want to say that Zane will be in the science building today,
the Ling Science Building today,
and then tomorrow he'll be in the Bible building in the foyer area.
So if you want to come by and
visit with him, you can.
And one clarification,
Dr.
G.
Yes, Philip Henderson was talking to
Richard Oquera and Mark Filbert who were South Sudanese but we were not in South Sudan okay
just so to make sure you understand that they came over to Kenya to see us I just want to provide
one thing that some of these course some of these trips are for education you know get a chance to
go and experience and see different places and that's important but there are also opportunities
of service,
to travel someplace and to just be charitable in your Christian love for other people.
If you'd like to consider a short-term trip to serve,
don't be afraid of the expenses. I want to
say that also.
The price has changed based on where you go and how long you stay,
and I'm confident
that your church or your family or some friends would be glad to help you and contribute to that,
And if not,
come by and talk to us.
We'll share some tips with you about how you can raise funds where you want to go.
It's a life-changing experience.
So pray about it.
Seek some counsel.
Come by and visit us.
And if you have a passion to go,
we have a place to send you.
Lord bless you.
You have a great day.
You're dismissed.
.