If there’s one thing that seemed to be catching fire in the fall semester among MBCollegiate students across the state, it’s the call to share their faith and make disciples.

University of Central Missouri (Central BSU)

Jerome Stockert says he witnessed evangelistic initiative from his students early in the semester. “Several times this month, at least twice a week students pair up and walk the campus, asking how they might pray for people and then sharing the gospel,” he shares. Two of his student leaders set up their own evangelism training event where they equipped fifteen of their peers on how to share the gospel.

Crowder College (Crowder BSU)

Campus Missionary Austin Pfrimmer and his wife, Chloe, have been training their students on various aspects of sharing the gospel. They’ve had students write down simple versions of the gospel and role-playing share the gospel with Chloe acting as a stranger.

They’ve seen the fruit of that training pay off. One of their students witnessed to her own professor. “They were looking at the anatomy of the human body, and our student took the opportunity to tell her professor that seeing the complexities yet perfection of the human body and how it functions is a something that points her to God, something that resonates to her that we are created beings,” Pfrimmer says.

He also shares that one student has been witnessing to his family for the first time. Several others practiced sharing the gospel for the first time in front of their peers, while still others “began witnessing at their workplace, homes, and on campus after we trained and challenged them to do so. At least two students are now seeking opportunities to share the gospel on campus in a major, public way,” Pfrimmer celebrates.

Missouri Valley College (The Bridge Collegiate)

Five football players have been leading a weekly Bible study. Their group grew to over fifteen guys, so they split the group into two groups. The groups meet on separate nights of the week in hopes of reaching more students.

Campus Missionary Marita Avliez discipled the girls on The Bridge’s leadership team. One day, she asked them who they were going to share the gospel with that week, a question that is a regular part of their vernacular. Two student leaders mentioned a classmate they felt compelled to talk to. Eventually, they realized it was the same person. They both talked to her about the gospel and found out she’d become a believer earlier this year. They invited her to The Bridge, and when she came, she brought five friends with her. She kept coming to The Bridge and even starting meeting weekly with a student leader for discipleship.

Missouri Baptist University (Women’s Discipleship)

Emily Ramage, the Women’s Discipleship Coordinator at MBU, has had the privilege of watching several girls she is discipling grasp the vision for sharing their faith. The journey for one girl began this semester when she gave her life to Christ. Since then, “she is on fire for the Lord, sharing the gospel with her friends and teammates who she knows does not know the Lord. You can tell that Jesus has completely changed her life and other students are noticing it,” says Ramage.

Another of her student leaders has been learning what it looks like to be on mission in her off-campus workplace. Ramage says, “The Lord has softened one of her coworker’s hearts in being willing to read her Bible and to start a discipleship relationship with her.”

Ramage is excited to see another disciplee start to disciple one of her cousins. She says of walking with one of girls, “It has been so sweet to be able to disciple her and to encourage her to take that step of making disciples and raising up someone to walk with and then encourage to do the same.”

Missouri Western University (Christian Challenge)

Student leaders at Missouri Western learned an important lesson this semester: persistence and patience pay off in evangelism and discipleship efforts. Campus Missionary Paul Damery had met a football player at an on-campus lunch one day. He talked about the Lord and invited the player to a student-led Bible study for athletes. One student leader connected with him and regularly invited him to the study, but he didn’t come—until over a month later. When he finally came, he showed a hunger for studying God’s Word. Damery says, “This was so encouraging to me and the guys leading the Bible study because it reminds us that just because someone doesn’t immediately respond to an invitation doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually respond. It pays to be persistent!”

Southeast Missouri State University (The Lighthouse)

An upperclassmen student leader has been meeting with a few of his friends, who are not students but are student aged, to teach them the Bible and share the gospel with them. “His work with them has brought them to our Thursday night gathering to hear the gospel and study the Word,” says Campus Missionary Reese Hammond. “It’s great to see our investment go beyond the campus.”

Hammond is also encouraged that one of their Zimbabwean students recently began an all-Zimbabwean Bible study with some of his dorm mates. “This is really encouraging as he is a new believer but truly coming into the understanding of the Create Commission and his duty to share the gospel and make disciples,” he says.

To the Campuses…… and Beyond

A Saint Louis University student who has only been a Christian for 6 months shared her faith for the first time—then a second time, a victory Campus Missionary Brad Russell celebrates.

Stedman Valentine, Discipleship Director at Southern Baptist University, shared that one of his students gave a ride to a homeless man. He shared the gospel with the man, and the man responded in faith.

As Jesus changes the lives of college students who then get equipped by MBCollegiate ministries, this next generation of mothers, fathers, workers, and church leaders are grasping that the Great Commission is for them, right now, on their campuses and beyond.