“I thought missions was for supermen and women who were like Billy Graham mixed with Rambo that went out to save the world,” says Dixon, who is from Gallatin, Tenn. “I am so very glad I was wrong.”

A business management major, Dixon became active with the GO Trips offered through Union’s Office of Campus Ministries, and it was on one of those trips that he felt the call to missions.

“I’m a normal guy who had one thing going for him – availability,” says Dixon. “If you are available, God will use you.”

It’s that availability and willingness to be used wherever God wills that is the driving force behind many of the decisions Union students make to go into missions work, says Suzanne Frost Mosley (’99), director of student outreach at Union.

“When I was a student, there was a big push to go help the poor people and that’s why we went,” explains Mosley. “Now we go, still to help, but ultimately we’re going because we’re aligning ourselves with what God wants.”

“A student’s desire to involve themselves in missions overseas is driven first by who God is,” adds Todd Brady, minister to the university. “Missions is more about what God wants, than it is what man needs. That’s what drives students.”

With more than 15 students in the last three years committing to full-time short term missions immediately following graduation, one might wonder from where the sudden interest is coming. You don’t have to look far before you find the answer.

“More than 200 students are participating in the GO trips we offer every year,” says Brady. “That’s 20% of our residential students. This past year we offered nine international trips alone, three during the summer – the first time we’ve had that many offered at that time.”

Prior to 1997, Union had organized short term mission trips within the U.S. It is the current vision and mission of Campus Ministries to “meet students where they are in their relationship with God and help them take the next step toward a life that connects fully with God’s global purpose.”

Students who participate in GO trips quickly see their worldview begin to change.

“Students don’t look at a map and see America as the center any more after going on one of these trips,” Mosley explains. “We see other people in a global community – they eat, they go to bed, they go to college, they do the exact same things that we do – it really helps our students realize that there are other people in this world.”

“Students want to be about what God is about!” says Brady. “I really believe that it’s this change in thought, this more theologically-driven approach to student missions, that is the reason for why there has been such a dramatic increase in numbers of students participating in missions.”

Carla Rose (’01), an international business graduate who is now serving in North Africa as a journeyman, got her start in missions through the trips she took at Union.

“My senior year, I went on a GO Trip to the *place where I now live,” says Rose. “After several days of prayerwalking for a people group from a nearby country, I was beginning to see the darkness of this place and even struggled with doubt that He is capable of changing lives here.”

Rose began to doubt that her group would come in contact with someone from the people group they were praying for, but she continued to pray. Standing outside a medical clinic, she soon met a family from that specific country.
 

Serving in her assigned country for more than a year now, Rose continues to echo what Brady and Mosley are trying to pass on to all Union students.

“I’ve come to realize that I do not need to see results – that is not why I’m here,” says Rose. “I’m here because God told me to come, and I trust that He’s at work. I count it a huge blessing that I’m not worthy of to be in this place – only by His grace.”

Having worked in Romania with the Roma for the last eight months, the last unreached people group in Europe and better known as gypsies, Rob Dixon continues to be grateful for his Union education.

“I believe Union is preparing students for the real world by teaching from a Biblical perspective and showing students how to be strong examples for Christ in all aspects of society,” says Dixon. “In the area of missions, I think Union is becoming a sending agency in itself. God has been raising up many from Union in the past several years. People’s eyes are being opened to God’s perfect plan and realizing that He expects us all to be involved in one way or another.”

“A lot of students who go on the GO Trips aren’t going to come back and reside in an international country,” says Brady. “But that’s not what it’s about – rather, it’s the impact they can make on the world. Elementary education majors are going to teach third grade a lot differently having experienced a Union education that involved an international experience.”

* Certain locations have been omitted for security and protection of missionary personnel.