NGU students go on mission but need ordinary help
Logan Pinalto, Contributing Writer
Students at North Greenville University want to take big steps of faith, but they don’t always have the financial means to do so. When students take a big step by signing up for mission trips, their missions are made possible by ordinary people back at home who took small steps of obedience to serve an extraordinary God.
Crystalyn Wyatt, Mobilization Coordinator of Campus Ministries and Student Engagement at NGU, said that there are goers, givers and senders and Christians are called to be all three. Wyatt said that giving is just as important as going and Christians must be faithful with the resources that God has given them.
Wyatt recognizes the reality that the students who are sent on the trips are on the frontlines of the mission work, but she encourages people to give money towards mission work because they would not be there if they were not sent. Wyatt said that those who give money to support missions are a part of what God is doing there. She wants people to see that a team of people are involved in each mission trip — and that those who donate money are a part of that team.
This year, NGU students are being faithful to go to Ecuador, Kosovo, the Middle East and Los Angeles. For years now, students have been sent to Kosovo, and among the students who went last year is Embre Todd.
Todd explained that in Kosovo, Wyatt was one of her team leaders, and they spent a little over a week there. Todd explained that their group partnered with missionaries in Kosovo, who are associated with the Greater European Mission, and they were able to help the missionaries serve the community in ordinary ways.
She explained that they hosted a carnival in a local park to build relationships with kids and families who would then be able to hear the gospel from missionaries partnered with an English Center. Todd explained that since there are so few Christians in Kosovo but a large team of NGU students, they were able to host the event that the missionaries could not have done otherwise. Donations from people back home make it possible for communities across the world to be blessed, and for missionaries to be encouraged in their ministry.
Todd explained that in Kosovo, it is not legal to share the gospel with children under 18-years-old unless the children ask questions about it. The role of NGU students was to make connections with kids there and point them to the English Center where the kids can hear the gospel.
Todd said, “We weren’t doing all this glamorous stuff. We were doing the heavy lifting to give the missionaries a boost.”
Todd explained that on the days that they were not hosting the carnival, they were playing games with the kids at the English Center to continue building relationships with the hopes of showing God’s love to them. Avenues for the gospel to be shared with people who have never heard it are made possible through donations to missions.
Students were also given the opportunity to do heavy-lifting work by partnering with a local church and helping clean up the church. Todd explained that the congregation was made up of older folks who benefited from young students helping them through physical labor.
Todd explained that she did not know what to expect going into the trip, but she looks back and sees how God used their hard, unglamorous work to glorify Him and serve full-time missionaries.
Wyatt gives advice to Christians who don’t know how they can reasonably give or if their giving has a true impact.
She said that people must ask themselves, “‘Where does the Lord want us to give that [paycheck] money,’ and then be willing to let that go and trust that as we let that go, the Lord will provide for us. He’s going to take care of us. It might not look like what you expect that to look like, but He will.”
Wyatt recognizes that college students do not have a lot of money, but she encourages students to think about their future.
Wyatt said, “Create habits now so that when you have more, you have established what your habits are with money.”
An article called “8 Shocking Church Giving Statistics” was posted by Thomas Costello on Reach Right Studios (July 20, 2023). According to Costello, “Christians are giving at 2.5% of income; during the Great Depression it was 3.3%.” This statistic compares how much money people tithed in two contrast economies, and it shows that tithing is lower now than it was when the stock market was at its lowest.
Wyatt gives a practical plan for college students as she recognizes that many students study at coffee shops and usually buy a drink.
She said, “What does it look like to give up one coffee a month or two coffees a month to financially help your church, support missionaries or help those on the streets who need help?”
If you give up two coffees that cost $5.40 each week, you could sponsor a child who is impoverished and help provide them with their needs every month. The organization that allows people to sponsor these children is called Compassion, and according to their website, the benefits include, “malnutrition monitoring, regular medical checkups, individual mentorship and love, education assistance and skills training, the opportunity to receive encouraging words and support from you, and an introduction to God’s love.”
In the Bible, Mark’s gospel shares a story about giving offerings to the Lord. While some offered large sums of money, a widow only offered a couple coins because it was all she had. Jesus responded to this, saying that she put more into the offering box than the others because “… they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had” (Mark 12:44). This is an example of giving from the heart.
As Paul puts it in Acts 20:35, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
If you are interested in giving to missions, you may reach out to Crystalyn Wyatt and find opportunities to support students at NGU.
