Jessie Morgan, a student at Western Kentucky University, sent an email to Linda Cooper after meeting her at an event.  Linda then shared the email at our Kentucky WMU October Board meeting. I was so glad to meet Jessie last weekend at Engage, our KBC international student retreat.  Jessie was there as a family group leader and an encourager to international students who had come for the weekend.  She is passionate about sharing Christ with internationals and told us about spending this past summer doing just that at WKU.  Her email to Linda reveals where the passion began.

When I was six years old, I started getting involved in Girls in Action at my small Southern Baptist church.  Each year I would go to GA camp. At first is was just overnight camp with my mom or aunt, and as I got older, I went to week-long camp.  The camp was always held at Camp Cedarmore [Cedar Crest, WMU camp at Cedarmore] in Bagdad, Kentucky. Each summer I would leave with a more refreshed and clear vision of missions in my state and my world. I went to camp until the age of 12 and it was in my last year at camp that God truly opened my eyes to my role in world missions.  I can still remember listening to the stories of an older woman who had committed her entire life to missions in Russia and I wanted her story to be my story.  Did that mean I was supposed to pack up and move to Russia?  Of course not! It did, however, mean God want me to completely surrender any plans I had of living the “good life” and instead trade it for a life of “labor pains” (Galatians 4:19).

I am now a 20 year old woman living out my faith as a junior in Elementary Education at Western Kentucky University. I do not want to be a teacher in a public school system. I am simply getting this degree in order to hel me on the mission field. Since coming to WKU, God has strengthened me and grown me to be a better servant for Him by serving in the Baptist Campus Ministry. Through this campus ministry, I have been given the great opportunity of evangelizing to the nations present on our campus. It is a great privilege to plant the seeds of faith in the ears of students from all over the world. To be completely honest, reaching out and serving the international students on my campus is a mission field all in itself.

All of this to say THANK YOU to all the women in the Kentucky WMU who have made young girl’s hearts, minds, and souls their mission field.

Wow!  What a story.  And after observing Jessie leading a family group during the international student retreat and seeing her passion for the students, I know what began in Girls in Action and in summer camps, is bearing fruit that is touching the nations.  And only the Lord knows how many more will hear about Jesus from Jessie in the years to come.  This is why missions discipleship matters!  This is why WMU keeps teaching missions and helping preschoolers, children, youth and adults get the big picture of what it means to be radically involved in the mission of God.

Thanks, Jessie, for sharing your story.  Thanks to the folks at Ekron Baptist Church who taught and nutured you through the years.  Thanks to every GA leader and camp staffer who invested in your life.  And thanks to everyone who has given to the Eliza Broadus Offering which helps us provide missions camps and Engage.  The Story Lives On!