On Sept. 23 from 5-7 p.m., Mobilization and Serve hosted the Cookout and Yard Games event at the Bowld patio to help students learn about the upcoming Global Opportunities (GO Trips).
The students who came were able to support the Mobilization and Serve team, partake in food such as hamburgers and chips, and play games like corn hole, frisbee, PaddleSmash and Spikeball in addition to learning about GO Trips.
Zoe Leatherwood, a senior social work major and a member of the mobilization team, shared her hopes for this event.
“We just want people to know more about the GO Trips, what it’s like to go on a GO trip and start to get people involved in GO trips,” Leatherwood said. “We would love it if we could get people involved in local service opportunities.”
In the GO Trips brochure, two of the missions include traveling to Utah to “engage the lost with the gospel” and traveling to Italy where students would get to “walk the streets of Ancient Rome” while allowing students to grow and distribute gospel-sharing materials.
Gabe Miller, a junior music major who has been involved with the mobilization team since last fall, went on a GO Trip to Vancouver, Canada last spring.
“I learned a lot about sharing the gospel through the training process and going to different places in Vancouver, like the malls, to do some street evangelization with random people and try to share the gospel,” Miller said. “It’s just a big growing experience in learning how the gospel is lived out in other nations. It’s an exercise in sharing the gospel and a huge growing experience, for me personally, in seeing the gospel spread.”
Caleb Rhubottom, a freshman nursing major, has never gone on a GO Trip before but expressed interest in the upcoming Clarkston, Ga. mission trip during spring break.
“I grew up on the mission field and have a heart to continue to do missions, so I was curious about what missions looked like going through Union,” Rhubottom said. “Clarkston, Georgia is a city with high Muslim density, and I have a heart for the Muslim people. Growing up in Arab countries as well, I have a heart for Arab people. So it’s kind of a local way to engage with those people groups, so I’m pretty excited.”
Another student, Isaac Smith, a sophomore pastoral ministries major, has friends who are on the mobilization team and encouraged him to come.
“I have a real heart for secular cities and helping people see how the way of Jesus is better than what the world offers. I would love to go to an environment where you see secularism as more of the dominant narrative of the day and being able to partner with what God is doing in that place and see what’s going on,” Smith said.
“God could be calling you to something, and I think you need to give Him your worry or your fear or whatever is preventing you from following His will for your life because your life is going to be so much better if you follow what God has for you and what God is calling you to,” Miller said. “If it’s a GO Trip, then, I would say, trust God — because what He calls you to do — He won’t leave you stranded. He will provide for you. He’s gonna provide a way for you to do what He’s called you to.”