NOBTS students participate in Fall Break Mission trips
During this semester’s fall break, three different groups of NOBTS students went on mission trips around the world through the seminary’s Global Mission Center (GMC).
More than 20 students served on mission trips in New York City, Peru and the Horn of Africa. Each separate trip took a collection of college students, doctoral students and female students to engage with the location’s unique culture.
The trips partnered with other Southern Baptist entities like Send Relief and the International Mission Board, and 2 decisions for Christ were reported out of the trips.
Greg Mathias, director of the Global Mission Center and associate professor of global missions, said every single trip the GMC organizes has a Gospel focus.
“We want the focus of every trip to be the primary aspects of the Great Commission like evangelism, discipleship, training and teaching,” Mathias said. “We really want to position our trips so that they’re not just for missions students or those considering future full-time missions. The trips really are for everyone.
“We would love to see every student, and even our faculty and staff, going on mission trips. We were able to see all different kinds of students go on these fall break trips, and we had non-missions faculty serving as leaders on these trips. These are big wins, and we would love to see more of these things.”
Mathias explained the GMC’s partnership with Send Relief, the IMB and local churches in each location was essential for the success of the trips.
“We want to make sure for every trip we are partnering with longer term ministry presence on the ground there,” Mathias said “This can mean local churches, missionaries, other SBC entities and more.
“We love our other SBC partners, and we really can do more together than we can apart. We want to expose our students to these entities and hopefully help give them connections they can use at their churches.
“Also, we hope some of our students would consider going to the mission field long-term. I think these partnerships are healthy and they help us with ministry connections as we go on these trips.”
Mathias explained that GMC staff meet with every single student who signs up for a trip to hear about their desire to missions and as a training opportunity.
“Whoever is receiving our students on these trips, we want them to receive a high-quality, Great Commission-committed team,” Mathias said.
There are many different things students do during fall break, and Mathias is proud of the students who choose to go on these trips and bring what they learned back to their local ministry context.
“We want students to put feet to their faith and engage in missions as part of their education,” Mathias said. “Additionally, many of our students are already, or will be, leaders in their local churches, associations and communities. We want them to be able to experience these trips and realize this is something they can replicate in their ministry or leadership context.”
“For these students to say yes to these trips during their week off really shows that they’re prioritizing what God is up to and around the world and wanting to be a part of it.”
Below is a brief summary of each of the three trips:
New York City
A team of 10 Leavell College students, led by NOBTS professor Jeff Audirsch and NOBTS staff member Cody Moore, engaged New York City with the Gospel during their fall break trip.
The group ministered in neighborhoods around south Bronx, where the diverse community primarily consists of Dominican and Puerto Rican residents.
The group partnered with Graffiti 2 Baptist Church and Graffiti 2 Community Ministries, a ministry connected with Send Relief.
Students ministered to the homeless by providing food and hygiene products, served the local police department by offering them fresh meals and volunteered at a local elementary school’s ESL program. Students additionally helped build an entire computer lab for the school.
Each of these opportunities provided a chance for students to share the Gospel with those they were serving.
“The trip was enjoyable and a huge success,” said Audirsch, professor of biblical studies.
“The students enjoyed engaging and ministering in an urban environment that was diverse. The Bronx, though different from New Orleans, shared some similarities with our current ministry setting in the metro-New Orleans area. There is great need for the Gospel and the love of Christ in New York.”
Audirsch said the trip was a unique ministry context for the students to experience.
“Domestic mission trips like this expose students to a broader understanding of the missional task outside our local ministerial context,” Audirsch said.
“Working alongside ministries like Graffiti 2 Community Ministries introduced students to partnerships for Gospel proclamation and Christ-centered community involvement. Such opportunities present students with ‘real-life’ ministerial training and education that curate an environment that puts education into praxis.”
Horn of Africa
Cory Barnes, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew and dean of graduate studies, led a group of three doctoral students on a fall break trip to the Horn of Africa.
The group of Ph.D students worked alongside a group of IMB missionaries who are serving amongst an unreached people group.
These students did theological training with the few believers this unreached people group does have.
Because of the nature of the trip, the teaching the students offered focused not just on telling the basic stories of the Old Testament, but explaining in-depth how the Old Testament narratives reveal the Gospel story and the metanarrative of the entire Bible.
“Our students were teaching believers who were already familiar with the stories of the Old Testament and helping show them the connections between those stories and how they point to the Gospel,” Barnes said. “All of the students were able to engage and teach these believers in their own culture and context.
“The highlight of the trip for me was watching our students teach with clarity and seeing what is being studied in our doctoral seminars spread among the nations.
“For me as a professor, it validates what we do at the seminary. We do what we do so that we can see the glory of God go out as we proclaim the Gospel among the nations. I think anytime we are sending students on mission trips, we are fulfilling all parts of our mission statement.”
Barnes hopes even more students will consider going overseas to provide theological education to others.
“There is a tremendous need among the nations for theological education,” Barnes said. “I really want to see it become a normative thing for our students, whether in a short-term trip or their whole lives, to be able to go out among the nations and provide theological education for the growing Church there. Our goal as a seminary is that our students would use their gifts for the nations.”
Lima, Peru
Tara Dew, wife of NOBTS President Jamie Dew, adjunct professor and director of the seminary’s Thrive program, helped lead a trip of more than 20 women to Lima, the capital city of Peru.
The trip was a partnership between NOBTS and the IMB, and nearly half of the 26 women who participated were from NOBTS.
The group featured women representing multiple SBC entities. In addition to Dew, the trip also featured Michelle Chitwood (wife of IMB President Paul Chitwood), Paige Mathias (wife of Greg Mathias) and Ann Iorg (wife of SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Jeff Iorg).
Among the 26 women on the trip, 9 different states were represented and almost every woman represented a different church congregation.
The main focus of the trip was partnering with local churches and the IMB missionaries serving in Lima.
Lima is the headquarters for the Americas IMB affinity group. There are 26 women serving as career missionaries for the IMB in the city, and seven of those are NOBTS graduates.
The trip featured a variety of ministry opportunities including setting up a medical clinic, prayer-walking around various neighborhoods, volunteering with local ministries and hosting a women’s conference at a local church.
Many of these activities provided evangelism opportunities, and two women reportedly made a decision to follow Christ.
Dew said the trip started as just an idea she had several years ago.
“About three and a half years ago, God put it on my heart to bring women on mission,” she said. “I think I got inspired to do this from the Abide Conference, because we got to serve women from smaller churches and see them all come together for something big and beautiful that they couldn’t do on their own.
“We really wanted the ladies on this trip to get to know IMB missionaries, and so we wanted to go to a place with a great IMB presence.
“The whole trip ended up being a beautiful picture of cooperation. I think women can be real influencers in their churches and they have a history of being involved with SBC missions for many years. This trip gave these women the opportunity to continue this history of going on mission together. NOBTS and the IMB have a great partnership. Our students got to put into practice everything they are learning in the classroom.”
The trip also included a special service that the group put on for the “ladies of Lima” that serve as career IMB missionaries there. This retreat featured times of teaching, testimony, worship and prayer.
“It was really neat to see some of our NOBTS people going into hard places and doing hard things for the Lord,” Dew said. “These ladies said NOBTS prepared them so well for where they are serving in ministry now. We wanted them to know they are not alone, and we are so proud of them for serving.
“It was so encouraging for us to be with them, but it was also encouraging for them to know we are training up even more people who will be sent to the nations.”
For more information about future GMC trips, click here.
