In the Field: Leaving a Legacy

It started with the usual Tuesday night routine. The van pulled up outside and was swarmed by a small group of people. They grabbed speakers, instruments, storage containers, music stands, and cords and carried it into the building. Most of it stayed in the auditorium. The storage containers full of flyers, markers and blank name tags passed through and stopped in the lobby. A sign was carried to the front of the building, directing the student body to Mizzou Chi Alpha's first service of the year.

The staff and set up team members laid the flyers in order on the table. Two greeters took their positions at the door; two sat at the table, armed with Sharpies. Students started trickling in - sophomores, juniors, and seniors returning to the group they called family. The trickle grew quickly.

But this was no normal Tuesday night. Within an hour, Memorial Union South had been flooded with students. A line three and four people wide stretched from the table, down the hallway and out the front door. By the time the band finished practicing and the auditorium was opened, it was like opening the doors to a dam. A flood of students rushed in.

In previous years, Mizzou Chi Alpha had never seen more than 90 people at a service. That night, more than 100 first time visitors came and experienced the love of God.

"I just cried when the first service came and we had people waiting from Jesse Wrench all the way out to the doors," Missi Trask recalled. "Maybe we didn't see every single person come back, but we definitely saw the ministry at least doubled in size that year."

Mizzou's Quad

In May, Tom and Missi Trask will complete their twelfth year at the University of Missouri - Columbia and their fourteenth year of campus ministry. They work with Chi Alpha - an organization with groups on campuses all over the world. Chi Alpha is similar to a church for college students. Students attend weekly services, are able to engage in small group Bible studies, and be discipled regularly. The service Missi describes as her favorite memory from her work with Chi Alpha was the start to their seventh year at Mizzou.

When Tom and Missi married in 2003, they knew they wanted to become missionaries. They planned to work with Tom's uncle in Asia, but when illness caused him to return to the states, they began praying about other options. While working for the Assemblies of God district office in Springfield, Missouri, Missi met the campus pastor at Missouri State University and found out he was looking for some new staff members. Missi went home and began talking to Tom about the possibility. That fall, they were on campus at Missouri State.

"We both messed up our witness to people in college," Missi said. "We knew the way. We knew the truth, but we didn't do a good job of helping our friends be better Christians. We kind of felt like this was a way for us to redeem that and give back and help future generations from falling into the same kind of stuff that we did, whether it's Christians coming into school or people who don't know Jesus."

Tom encourages his students to remember "ebenezer moments." The term comes from 1 Samuel 7 when the prophet Samuel set up a stone to remind the people of God's help in battle. Tom explains to his students that ebenezers are moments and places you can go back to remember what God spoke to you.

For Tom, one of those moments came during a late night drive. Earlier in the year, they had visited Mizzou to learn more about how ministry was done on other campuses. During their visit, they found out the pastor would be leaving for California and was looking for a replacement. Tom and Missi visited several times more but still were not sure of their next move. Then, late one night, Tom was praying as they drove home to from Columbia to Springfield. As they rounded a sharp turn, he felt peace that they were supposed to become the campus pastors at Mizzou.

Tom and Missi believe one of their purposes at Mizzou is to raise up future ministers. It was a call they already felt, but that was strengthened during the first World Mission Summit. During their first year at Mizzou, they took their students to a conference where students are able to meet missionaries from all over the world. It was at that summit that national Chi Alpha began encouraging students to "give a year and pray about a lifetime" of missions.

"We took that seriously, even from that very first one, even if there wasn't major fruit there, at that point," Missi said. "We took that mandate seriously, so we've done everything we do with that in the back of their minds."

Tom and Missi worship at the third World Mission Summit
*Provided by Tom and Missi, taken by Kim Boley

The World Missions Summit has happened three more times since then - once every four years so that each student has the opportunity to attend, and Tom says the third, in 2012, was his favorite memory. "The Bible makes it clear, sometimes it takes a while for fruit to bloom. We had a good amount of people go, but we also had an even greater amount of people respond." He had to hold back tears as he remembered. "It was in that moment, the work and the time and effort and sometimes the tears were finally paying off. We began to really see the fruit begin to develop.

"Even that moment, as great as it was, it was the beginning of greater things yet to come. For so many years, we didn't see a whole heck of a lot of fruit, or even any. Even at that moment, things were turning a corner. God was going to be able to really use the ministry," Tom said.

During a sermon in December 2014, Tom spoke to the students about leaving a legacy. He told them how many people had made the decision to give their lives to Christ while He and Missi have been at Mizzou: 323. Then he issued a challenge to them. "Beat me!"

And they've got quite the legacy to beat. The number of people who have decided to follow Christ has grown. Mizzou Chi Alpha owns a house just across the street from the campus, and if you go upstairs, you'll see a map. It's surrounded by pictures of all the students and alumni who have gone on to give at least a year in missions, who are pastors, or who plan to be ministers. Students who have been taught by Tom and Missi have gone on to become missionaries in Japan, Egypt, Thailand, the Philippines, Las Vegas, Southeast Missouri State, and Atlanta. They have become pastors, youth pastors, children's pastors. Not to mention their beautiful daughter, Taylor, whom they are raising to love and serve Jesus.

Missi, Taylor, and Tom Trask
*Provided by Tom and Missi, taken by Amber Moya

"As of this district council [this coming April], we'll have 25 people who came out of the ministry that are credentialed ministers with the AG. And a ton more freaky excellent Christians who bring Jesus into the workplace every single day," Tom said. "That's what I'm talking about. That's my heart, my desire. I think God's pleased."

Prayer request from Tom and Missi:
"God’s brought us so far in the ministry. We almost feel like there’s, not next level, but a next step, that God has for the ministry as a whole. And I don’t know what that is right now. I don’t know if that means more growth. I don’t know if that means expansion for another building. Whether that means we do more. We’ve been encouraged to do a CMIT internship with Chi Alpha. National office has called us multiple times. You know? We’ve got the worship team that’s got their album out. We just feel like things are really enlarged, and we don’t know what the Lord has. Just that we will be obedient to His will as a ministry and do whatever He wants. It’s exciting, but at the same time, we don’t want to get outside of His will. Bad things happen when that happens. Just that next stage in ministry, to go where God wants us to go."

If you want to learn more about Tom and Missi's work , you can visit mizzouxa.com.

By This...

"Did you see that?" a friend of mine asked as we walked through the mall.

Considering how non-observant I was that year, especially when I was with a group of my friends, I figured I had missed something pretty strange happening. "No. What?"

"Those people we just passed. They were staring at us." Okay, apparently it was once again my group of friends that was out-of-the-ordinary. Except, for once, we were acting fairly normal. No one was hula-hooping in the middle of the store. (Granted, there were no hula hoops nearby.) No one was turkey calling or making a llama face. No one was attacking each other over cookies. We were just walking and talking, killing time until movie night at my place.

"It's not normal to see a group like us," my friend remarked.

That's when I figured it out. There were five of us. Three girls, two guys - fairly normal for a college town. Three of us were white; one was black; one was Chinese. As soon as my friend pointed it out, I knew what she meant. But I never would have noticed it.

These people were my family. In fact, my "family" that year was probably the most diverse group of friends I had ever been a part of. People from Indonesia, Latin America, Japan, China, all over the U.S., and more. It was normal to me. I talked to people from different races and cultures on a daily basis.

But I learned something about the body of Christ that day - something I had known but never really understood the way I do now.

Jesus told His disciples, "By this, everyone will know you are My disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). He told this to a group of people that included a former tax collector (considered a traitor by Jews because they worked for the Romans) and a Zealot (someone who would stop at nothing to see Rome's rule in Israel overthrown). It was a group of men who had to clearly see the work of God to believe that Gentiles could accept Jesus as Lord.

As the years went on, a common belief in Jesus was able to unite Jew, Greek and Roman. It was able to unite fishermen, doctors, tentmakers, farmers. It was able to unite men and women, slave and master, ruler and subject, rich and poor. They were able to lead people to Christ because they were able to see past their differences and be brothers and sisters to each other.

The same is true today. The body of Christ transcends cultures. It transcends race, age, status, wealth, and power. It transcends political viewpoints. It transcends national origins. It makes a family.

People will notice. They notice unity in a world divided about every possible opinion. They notice friendship between races when people are being killed because of the color of their skin. They notice when a Democrat and Republican can have a civil conversation instead of blaming each other for the country's problems. They notice when we love one another.

And eventually, they'll have to ask. They'll have to know and understand the difference -- Jesus.

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28

In the Field: The Gospel in Arabic

"Yik yak! Yik yak!" It's 2 p.m. in Cairo. Metal plates bang together. The tea man must be coming again. Honking, always honking. It won't stop, not even at night. The call to prayer, fives times a day - the first at 3 a.m. and the third coming soon.

These are the sounds of Ashley's* mission field. These are the sounds of Cairo, Egypt. She'll learn later that "yik yak" man is really asking for people to sell things.

When Ashley was 13 years old, she attended church camp, where she heard an Iranian pastor speak. He prayed that for students at the camp to become missionaries, and since then, Ashley has wanted to work in the Middle East. As a teenager, she planned to attend the United States Naval Academy, thinking the military would be her path to the Middle East. But a brain tumor derailed her plans. Instead she attended a state school where she joined a campus ministry.

In her junior year of college, she attended The World Mission Summit with her campus ministry. Leading up to the conference, she felt God telling her to go to Africa. Like every other attendee, she was given a book with a list of countries where she could be a missionary. She turned to the the section for Africa and prayed over every country. "I felt nothing for any of them. It was all sorts of terrible," Ashley recalls. "I couldn't picture myself there, had a really hard time feeling passionate about the people. Then I realized, that North Africa is included in Eurasia." So she turned to the section for Eurasia. The first thing she saw was a map of Africa with an arrow pointing to Egypt.

"In an instant, my heart broke, and I got a small taste of the deep passion that the Lord has for Egyptians, and I wept all night. I was so overwhelmed with love and that God gave me a piece of His heart for those people," Ashley says. "It was really sweet too, because I knew if He loved Egyptians that much, He loved me that much." So in 2015, Ashley packed her bags and headed to Cairo, Egypt.

Islamic Cairo

Ashley is one of a team of missionaries in Cairo. (And by the way, the tumor that derailed her original plans for getting there, it's been healed in answer to prayer.) Although being a Christian is not illegal, Egypt is still a closed country. Pastors will have their visas denied, so the people who go there as missionaries have secular jobs. In the case of Ashley's team, they teach English. Because the missionaries in Egypt are not pastors, they go through training once they arrive. A typical day includes four hours of Arabic lessons, half an hour of team prayer, free time to spend on homework or ministering to the people they have met, and three hours of teaching English.

In her Arabic class, Ashley's teacher tells her, "If you don't remember your homework, then God can't use that when you're in front of an Egyptian." And God does use it. Because their lessons focus on Christianity, the missionaries are able to share the Gospel as they ask their Egyptian friends to help them learn Arabic.

After six months in Egypt, Ashley shared the Gospel in Arabic for the first time. One of her good friends, Farah, came to visit at her apartment, and they discussed why it can be hard for people who aren't Christians to understand the Bible. Because of her classes, Ashley had memorized a verse in Arabic from 2 Corinthians 3. She was able to explain that only through Jesus can the Gospel be made clear. "The really cool part was that there were some words I didn't know, but the Lord gave me the Arabic for it," she says. "She [Farah] didn't have any questions, and there wasn't any language barrier. It all worked, and God really spoke to her."

The view from Ashley's apartment. The tower
is where the call to prayer comes from.

If you were to enter Ashley's Cairo apartment, you would find a tea tray set up with sugar, nuts, cookies and other snacks. Anytime a friend visits, Ashley and her roommate are prepared hostesses. "Everything in Cairo centers around food," Ashley explains. "You can't do anything there without eating." A shopping trip will always end with Ashley and her friends sitting down to eat. Having a friend over means serving an appetizer, two meat dishes, dessert and fruit, "because fruit doesn't count as a course, but you have to have it," Ashley says.

It was after a meal at Ashley's apartment that Farah started another conversation about faith. Ashley's parents were visiting during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. They had prepared dinner for Farah to break her fast, and during clean up, she asked Ashley about prayer. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time to seek God, so Ashley and Farah prayed that Jesus would reveal himself to Farah through a dream or vision. "They firmly believe that God speaks through dreams, so they expect Him to," Ashley says. "It's really cool because almost every Christian that I know that's converted has converted because they've had a dream or a vision of Jesus."

In Ashley's experience, Egyptians are very open to hearing the Gospel. They want to understand Christianity, but it takes a long time for them to accept Jesus. "To become a Christian, if you're a Muslim, you literally give up everything," Ashley says. "To be Arab is to be Muslim." That, to Ashley, is the hardest part of witnessing to Egyptians.

"Almost every day, I witnessed people hearing about Jesus for the first time, or the first time they would hold the Word of God in their hands. Almost every day had that first. It just takes a really long time to make a decision to follow Jesus," Ashley says. "Sometimes, it can be disheartening, because these people that you share with, you love them. You're friends with them because you genuinely love them. It's really hard to know the reason you're there is because people are dying and going to hell. And you love them so much that you want them to be saved so much, and it takes a long time."

Ashley spent a year in Egypt. She is currently back in the United States, but she plans to return to Egypt as soon as possible. Once she has completed training in Cairo, she hopes to eventually move to Haifa, Israel and minister there. She has maintained contact with Farah, who often tells her, "Tell mom and dad hi for me."

Prayer requests from Ashley:

• For her friend Sarah, whom she has not had contact with since returning to America
• For her friend Farah because her home life is difficult
• For the continued transition back to life in America
• For financial support so she can return to Egypt

*Names have been changed for the safety of those Ashley is ministering to in Egypt and so that her work in Egypt is not compromised. If you would like to learn more about Ashley's work or support her, you can email me at nicoleejones14@gmail.com for more information. 

All pictures have been provided by Ashley.

The Great Challenge

I stood near the top of the stands and watched as more than 1,500 students flocked toward the stage. For the past 24 hours they had been meeting missionaries - eating meals with them, hearing stories of the people they were ministering to around the world, asking them questions. Now, they were volunteering. They were joining what the speakers had just called "The Great Student Awakening."

Four years ago, I was one of them. Four years ago, I was one of the students committing to giving a year of my life to missions while praying about a lifetime. While I wait on my time to go to Denmark, it is truly a blessing to watch these students commit to a year of missions as well. It is a blessing to see them and thousands more get excited about reaching the lost on their own campuses and in nations around the world.

When I was in college, I heard one of the greatest challenges of my life:

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."

- Mark 16:15

College wasn't the first time I had heard that verse. I grew up in church. I have the Great Commission memorized in both Mark's and Matthew's words. But college was the first time I was challenged to take those of Jesus' words seriously.

Jesus came from heaven to earth. He taught and healed. He bled and died. All so we could have a relationship with Him. He came to us. He came because His heart broke for us. 

Students prayed for residents
of Indonesia - the largest Muslim
country in the world.

Now, His heart breaks for them. For the Syrian in the refugee camp. For the child dying of starvation in Africa. For the college student in Europe who thinks the church is obsolete. For the gang member in Latin America. For the members of ISIS. For people deep in the jungles who have never even heard His name. For the Americans who have rejected Him again and again. His heart breaks, and He wants someone to go to them.

Just like it cost Him, it could cost us everything. Up to and including our lives.

That is the challenge I and many others accepted four years ago. It's the challenge another couple thousand students accepted just over a month ago.

Students experience what it's like to attend
a religious service in the Middle East
while hearing about mission opportunities
in the region.

And now it's the challenge I issue to you. Be willing to lay down your finances, relationships, goals, and maybe even life to bring people to Jesus. But before you pack up your bags and leave, pray about what that looks like for you. It is an honor to go, but it's also an honor to send. After all, the Bible says missionaries can't go without being sent.

To help you understand both the blessing and the difficulty behind accepting this challenge, I intend to introduce you to different missionaries each month. There will be current and past missionaries. There will be young and old. There will be missionaries from home and abroad. I hope their stories will challenge and encourage you.

Join the conversation: How will you respond to Jesus' command to go? What will it cost you to reach the lost in this world?

God Is...

"He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'" - Matthew 16:15

Jesus was traveling from town to town. Everywhere He went, He performed miracles. He healed people. He spoke with an authority no one had ever heard before. He raised people from the dead. He walked on water. He fed 5,000 men with a meal meant for only one little boy.

And everywhere He went, people asked, "Who is this man?" There were almost as many answers as there were people who asked the question. Some said He was the carpenter's son. Some called Him teacher. Some even called Him possessed. No matter what they decided, their response to Him reflected their answer. Those who called Him the carpenter's son couldn't see past the neighbor they'd known for 30 years; those who called Him teacher listened to what He had to say and moved on with their lives. Those who called Him possessed refused His healing and His instruction.

But a few called Him Messiah. A few called Him Lord. And those few followed Him. They allowed Him to radically change their lives, and through them, the world.

The first time I remember being asked "Who is God to you," I was on a mission trip in Atlanta. We were doing a ministry called "God Is..." Each person on the team was to create a sign declaring who God is to him or her. The night before we hit the streets, I was trying to decide my answer when God asked me, "Who will you let Me be?" It took several hours for me to arrive at the answer I desperately wanted to be true:

Although I will always aim for God to be my everything, the particular role He fills changes frequently. He is Lord, Savior, Counselor, Healer, Redeemer, Best Friend. Most recently, He has asked to be my hope. Letting Him be my hope means looking forward to what He has for me. It means trusting Him that things will turn out for the best even if it's not the way I want.

There comes a time when we must all decide how we will respond to Jesus. And to do so, we must determine who He is. He wants to be your everything. Sometimes, that requires just accepting Him in one more role each day. As you learn how to accept Him in each role, you can also respond to Him in that role.

Join the conversation: Who do YOU say He is? Who will you let Him be, and what response will that role demand?

Some of the answers my friends gave to "Who is God to you?"

Right On Time

You know those watches with all the numbers jumbled at the bottom? The ones that normally say, "Whatever. I'm late anyway." As much as I hate to admit it, it would probably make perfect sense for me to own one of those. I hate it because it drives me crazy to be late. I grudgingly admit it because I am almost always late. 

For as bad as I am at following them, I almost always have a schedule. Except on Saturdays, of course. Although I might be a few minutes behind, I tend to stick pretty close to that schedule. Even on vacation, I like to find out when attractions are open and how long I should expect to be there; then I plan in a way that I can fit the most new things into my time.

I used to think I could schedule my life as a whole the same way I like to schedule my daily tasks. But considering I am in my mid-twenties, living with my parents, never been on a date, don't have kids, and still haven't published a book, I'd say the life schedule my 13-year-old self had was thrown out the window a long time ago. I've made some adjustments along the way. Some changes were voluntary. Some weren't.

I'm willing to accept that I might not have had all the right ideas when I was 13. I'm also very glad that God didn't give me some of the things I wanted back then - especially at the time I wanted them. 

But many times, I want to point at the clock and yell at God. "Come on! Don't You know You're late?! Don't You know You're making me late?!" Times like when He promised a mission field in Denmark four years ago, and I'm still in Missouri. Or when I remember He promised healing 13 years ago, and it still hasn't come.

In recent months, God has been talking to me about His timing quite a bit. I must admit that I am a slow learner. The other day, I came across these verses in John 14. "If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you." And God showed me a picture.

He showed me one of those watches with all the numbers fallen. Unlike the watches you can buy at the stores, where the hour and minute hands still rotate as usual, these hands always pointed at the numbers. But they always pointed at the right time. I just couldn't tell because it wasn't where I would expect them to be.

I have often heard it said that God is never late and never early. He is always right on time. When He makes a promise, He keeps it "when everything is ready." When WE are ready. And when HE will get the most glory from it.

I'm still working on it, but now, when I'm struggling with God's timing, all I have to do is look at "His watch." I will be reminded that He knows what time it is. I will be reminded that He is running right on time.

Join in: Do you struggle with God's timing? Are there any promises He has made to you that you are still waiting on? What helps you trust His timing?

After God showed me that picture, I drew the best version of it I could.
Maybe it will help the more visual people out there like it did me.

Let Me Be

To all of you reading... MERRY CHRISTMAS! Earlier this week, I intended to write early enough that I could avoid the cliche Christmas post. As time went on, I spent more time thinking about the Christmas story.  And I decided a Christmas post actually was the best option. However, I still wanted it to be different, so enjoy reading this poem I wrote as I pondered each character of the Christmas story.


Let me be like Mary.
Believing no matter how impossible,
Serving no matter what the cost,
Let me be like Mary.

Let me be like Joseph.
Fearing not the judgement of man,
Obeying what my Lord has said,
Let me be like Joseph.

Let me not be an innkeeper.
Turning away those in need,
Shutting out my Savior.
Let me not be an innkeeper.

Let me be like the angels.
Proclaiming peace between God and man,
Singing praises to be heard across the land,
Let me be like the angels.

Let me be like the shepherds.
Running quickly to find my king,
Sharing all that I have seen,
Let me be like the shepherds.

Let me not be a Herod.
Clinging desperately to my Kingdom,
Fighting violently for control,
Let me not be a Herod.

Let me be like the Magi
Pouring out my greatest gifts,
Seeking more than gold and treasure,
Let me be like the Magi.

Let me be like Simeon and Anna.
Trusting every one of God's promises,
Thanking Him for all He has and will do,
Let me be like Simeon and Anna.

But most of all...

Let me be like You, Jesus.
Living in my Father's will,
Giving up my life for men to know,
Let me be like You.


Join the conversation: The idea behind this poem originally occurred to me while thinking about the shepherds and their reaction to the angel's message. I was challenged by how eager they were to share the news. But then God reminded me that as a Christian, my goal should be to look like Jesus. I know I often fail to accurately reflect Jesus to the world, so as a first step to accepting this challenge, I am going to be focusing on making every decision in God's will (not just the major ones). Which part of the Christmas story are you most challenged by? And what will you do to meet that challenge?