Students double as missionaries in Mexico
By Angela Tiffany
It’s 7:28 a.m. and the sound of doors opening and feet scampering can be heard throughout the house. At the bottom of the stairs sit two people, yawning, and struggling to fully open their eyes. Others rush down that same set of stairs hoping to make it by the 7:30 cutoff.
This is just another morning in the dormitory of Engage in Missions in Guadalajara, Mexico. Students, some ready for the day, and others who are getting a later start, walk down those stairs ready to give the day, their needs and the needs of a city over to God in prayer. In their jeans and T-shirts, or sweatpants and hoodies, these appear to be your normal, everyday college students. They are, but there is a catch, they are also missionaries.
After morning devotions and prayer, these students will be off to different activities. Some will head to Spanish class at a local university; others go online trying to catch up on New Testament homework and video lectures delivered from Southwestern University, Valley Forge Christian College or Central Bible College; while others head to a local college campus to be involved in a Bible study. Every day is slightly different, offering numerous chances for these young adults to be involved in outreach to this city of 7 million people.
By 8:15 a.m. students are walking out the door to get on crowded buses that will take them to various parts of this sprawling city. Engage students will ride the bus into poverty stricken neighborhoods, the busy downtown area or to a nearby university campus. As they step down from the bus at their distinct stops, they know one thing: they have reached their mission field.
There is nothing easy about an 18-year-old student moving to another country. In between the children’s programs, coffee outreaches, ping pong table battles with 13-year-olds and English classes, there is still a small amount of time to get homesick. Students in Engage are making sacrifices to see what God has for them. They live far from home and have left behind the idea of needing a college degree before they can be involved in missions. They are able to do both things at the same time.
Engage in Missions is a ministry of Assemblies of God World Missions started in 2005 by missionaries Steve and Amy Shoop. The Shoops believe that there is a new generation that needs to be empowered to reach the world with the gospel. They have found a way to help that generation find purpose and direction. They have opened a door for students to fulfill the call that God has on their lives. “Engage exists to empower students to test the call of God in their life while being responsible to provide a quality, accredited education,” Steve Shoop states.
At 11:55 p.m. the house has settled down again. Students are either in bed, finishing up homework assignments or just talking about the day. Each day has its victories and its difficulties, but in Engage, each day is another chance to impact the world for the Kingdom.