It all started with a mission trip....

He was a Freshman at the University of Illinois Springfield when he came to check out a Bible study on campus....holes in his ears, tattoos and high tops that were never tied. He stuck around and got into a Small Group led by some other guys, and was soon going on a Mission Trip to the Ojebwe Indian Reservation with Christian Student Fellowship. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. He loved kids and loved sports, so getting to help with a Basketball clinic for a bunch of Native American kids was a pretty great set-up for this student.

When the sign-up list came around for a Casas por Cristo trip to Juarez, Mexico, he was first on the list. He worked hard on that trip, but his highlight of the entire trip was the afternoon some of the neighborhood kids showed up with a flat soccer ball and they spent the next 2 hours playing soccer in a lot filled with litter and rocks.

He went to Kenya with a team of students from CSF. He spent 2 weeks there, playing with orphans at the Gathiga Children's Hope Home, working at a feeding program in one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, and encouraging the orphanage workers and helping with projects.

He will graduate from UIS this May. While his peers are making plans to start graduate school, move back home into their parents' basements, or find their "dream job", he will be headed to the mission field. He's caught the vision of how God wants to use him in the world! He understands that God has gifted him in really specific ways and wants him to use those gifts for the Kingdom....and it all started with a mission trip.

Tis the season when we start getting letters from high school and college students asking us to partner with them on mission trips. I LOVE those letters, and I pray that as you receive them, you'll get excited about what it might mean for the Kingdom of God.