GAINESVILLE–When college students arrive at Baptist Collegiate Ministries at University of Florida each year, they learn quickly about the opportunities for international mission trips.

It is actually a stated goal, said Eddie Gilley, who has been the BCM director there since 2002.

“We want every student to spend two weeks of their college career in a cross-cultural environment sharing Jesus,” he said. “We have a pretty robust plan for that.”

It’s their robust plan that has helped make them tops in the nation in sending short-term missionaries on international trips through the International Mission Board.

The UF BCM sends out 18 to 24 students each year on mission trips, the majority of those traveling in small groups for six-to-eight-week trips during the summer. For example, 18 of the students participated in the longer six-to-eight week trips this past school year, while six did a short-term trip.

Students must apply in the fall to be part of one of their Global Outreach or G0 teams that travel to other countries, usually one trip within the 10/40 window, a term used to describe the area of the world between 10- and 40-degrees north latitude where most of the world’s unreached people groups reside.

“It’s usually somewhere in a difficult environment. We typically let other people go to the easy places,” Gilley said. “We challenge our students to go to places where evangelism might mean just moving boulders out of the way. You might not even get to plant a seed; you’re just moving rocks, moving barriers from people to even hear the gospel.”

The teams typically go to cities in Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe. In the past they’ve gone to China, Turkey, Japan, Africa and even Australia. “Other than Antarctica, we have sent a team to every continent,” Gilley said.

Planning, training and raising funds

John, who asked that his real name not be used, is a former UF BCM student who now coordinates all of their mission trips, which includes vision-tripping for future trips as well as communicating with current long-term missionaries around the world and

assessing their need for assistance from college students.

Working with the IMB, the organization sends students to assist current missionaries who are already working with college students in their countries. This makes it easy for BCM students to go on college campuses and use English as a platform, teaching English or offering conversational English opportunities to other students and forming friendships, which can lead to gospel conversations.

“This is a lot of entry-level evangelism and discipleship,” John said. “Everything is geared toward building relationships with lost people. Students can be a seed to those who are interested and leave those relationships with the long-term workers to follow up with.”

All students who sign up for the summer trips go through extensive training to prepare them for the mission field, including evangelism training, missions education and general church doctrine studies. They also learn about sharing across language and cultural barriers, contextualization issues, security issues and border patrol. The goal is to have them ready to work before they leave so no extra time is needed once they reach the mission field.

“By the time these students get to the field, they have already failed so many times that they’re really well-prepared,” John said. “They have failed in a safe constructive environment, and the hope would be that training is harder than the actual thing. We want them to seamlessly fit into the long-term strategy and be a blessing not a burden, and not a security risk.”

Several years ago the training helped a team that got stuck in the Singapore airport for five days when they were unable to get to their destination. “They had to find a hotel and try to work everything out, and they had to do it onsite,” Gilley said. “It’s like ‘Amazing Race’ for Jesus, you know. That’s kind of what they had to do to get there.”

In addition to the training, each team member sends out about 100 mission support letters to help raise funds for their trip. With a goal of about $4,500 per person, they are raising a total of about $100,000 each year. While some individuals may not make their goal, each team has always been successful.

The right time to go

Going on mission trips during your college years is the best time to go, Gilley said, as students are more independent from their parents, don’t have a career yet and have the freedom to travel.

“There is no other time in their lives when they are going to have the freedom to be able to go like they do in college. It’s the perfect time to utilize them, to encourage our mission force around the world and to change their perspective,” Gilley said.

And gaining a new perspective about mission work is huge as it impacts the way the students see missions for the rest of their lives, especially those who have experienced the longer trips.

“What we know is not every student who goes will go long term, but every student who goes will come back different. They will always know what it’s like whenever they hear Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions stories in their church. It means something else to them because they know someone who benefits from that on the field. They know what it’s like to be in a place where you toil for the gospel day in and day out and may not see anyone come to faith in years. But they are still faithfully there and faithfully serving.”

From a student perspective, John said the biggest obstacles that keep many from committing to these missions are their academic careers – as in time away from completing courses and internships – and their parents, especially Christian parents who either forbid their students to go or convince them into coming home for the summer and doing something safer, like working at camp.

“Parents are well meaning, but unfortunately they can often be obstacles to their students doing what God wants them to do,” he said. “Often the students are more motivated to go than their families are.”

‘Put your yes on the table’

Being named tops in sending students on mission is humbling, Gilley said, because there is so much more to be done around the globe. “We could send thousands, and it would still not be enough as the need is great all around the world.”

Gilley said BCM students are always challenged to say yes to serving God on mission, whether that means being part of one of their GO teams overseas, going on a short-term trip with their local church, staying in the U.S. and supporting others, or serving long term in another country.

“Put your yes on the table and let God say where, when and for how long,” he said. “If you’re willing to say yes, God will direct where you’re supposed to go.”