JEFFERSON CITY – What exactly do campus ministries do in summer? College students are gone, so ministry efforts cease, and campus missionaries just sit around planning for the fall, right? Wrong.

The pace of summer looks different than the school year for college ministries, but life is far from dull, and ministry isn’t dead from June to August. Many campus missionaries use the summer months as prime time to train up their student leaders and mobilize students for outreach and evangelism.

Christina Boatright at North Central Missouri College has been pouring into one of her student leaders, Jordan. “We did an outreach this month where we wrote encouragement cards and goodie bags to ten of Jordan’s choice of teachers/campus staff as a way to build bridges this summer with the campus staff,” Boatright says.

Jerome Stockert at University of Central Missouri has been focusing on individual weekly meetings with students who live in and around Warrensburg. “I have one student who is currently mentoring two young believers this summer,” he says. “I have another student exploring a call to ministry.”

While Jon Smith was on a church mission trip, his students were busy recruiting friends and people they had met over the summer to be part of their ministry. His students have also been participating in VBS and camp activities, and two traveled on an overseas mission trip to Northern Ireland with their churches. “It was gratifying to see such a high level of commitment,” he says. Meanwhile, his summer Bible study at the Missouri Southern State BSU has averaged twelve students attending.

Reese Hammond at Southeast Missouri State University deployed some of his students to do a discipleship project over the summer in which they evangelized weekly. “One of those evangelistic encounters resulted in a young international guy coming to faith in Christ,” Hammond reports.

Scott Westfall with The Bridge Collegiate in central Missouri spends a good portion of his summers on mission trips and outreach activities. He encourages his students to do the same. He did an evangelism training at a church camp this year. “While the kids got their reps in on the three circles, I got to see my students in action. Three youth came to Christ because of these conversations,” he says. Five of his students are serving as summer missionaries. “They have served on mission trips, two camps, and a training week. They have done a really good just staying filled up and disciplined to grow all while staying connected to their mentors.”

Bridge students participated in Mission Arlington at the end of June, consisting of backyard Bible club in the morning and service in the afternoon. “It was great to see them serve sacrificially in 100+ degree heat,” says Westfall. “They are more than capable of leading backyard Bible clubs. They worked so hard at the service project when Mission Arlington had a freezer of 6 tons of turkeys go out, and they sought us out to go and transport those to another freezer.”

Summer months can also be a prime time to connect with new students or deepen existing connections, especially with internationals who have few family members or friends around during the summer. Heather Murray at Washington University held a Missional Outreach event in June where she was able to connect with new students and recent grads including a Ukrainian student seeking support for Ukraine issues, a Muslim Senegalese language student, and an Indian student. “The Senegalese student in particular seemed very hungry to be seen/known and really appreciated being genuinely listened to and has reached out to me a number of times since to try and connect,” Murray says.

Hammond, at Southeast Missouri State University, has been regularly hosting groups of international students at his home for dinner. It’s both an outreach and a way to show his students “the habits of being intentional with your life in relation to the Kingdom of God,” he says. After having a group of Indian graduate students over, Hammond has built a strong relationship with them. One has even shown interest in doing Bible study with him. A Bible study with another international student “turned into a weekly workout time and driver’s preparation time,” Hammond says. “Our intern is seeing how to reach the lost with your whole life.”

Westfall opened his home for several international students to stay with him this summer. Though not connected to his ministry, they helped him serve a lady who needed help with construction projects at her house.

Greg Xander at Truman State continues to love a Japanese student and help her come into life-changing relationship with Jesus. In June, both he and a Christian Vietnamese student gave gospel presentations to her. Though she hasn’t put her faith in Christ yet, she continues coming and participating in a weekly small group at Xander’s house. “We just keep praying and trying to love with grace and truth,” says Xander.

The college campus may be sleep through the summer months, but college ministries are not. They are busy at work planting, sowing, and watering seeds as they prepare for the school year harvest to come.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Pathway, a publication of the Missouri Baptist Convention. Republished with permission.