An increasing number of diverse leaders equipped to participate in God’s mission of saving the lost and renewing all things.
Students rushed into Resonate Global Mission missionary Hannah Damsteegt’s classroom at Resonate partner International School of Tegucigalpa (IST) in Honduras. They knew the day was going to be different.
Everyone at the school—from the students and teachers to the lunch workers, office workers, and principal—was dressed in white. “That was to signify Christ rising from the dead again and your sins being washed away and becoming white as snow,” said Hannah.
When Scarlet was expelled from school for bad behavior, she wanted to change but was worried that no one would accept her because of her past. She experienced God’s grace at Emmanuel Christian Reformed School, a Resonate Global Mission partner in the Dominican Republic.
Scarlet’s parents separated and her father left home when she was young. Scarlet was devastated. “I was very close to my father,” she said. “When he left, I couldn’t understand why … it left a big emotional vacuum in my life.”
Resonate Global Mission missionary Rebekah Wissink thinks of her classroom at Good Shepherd’s Fold in Uganda as a training ground for students to give their best to God. This past year, her students did just that when they stepped out of their comfort zone and staged a performance of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Meindert Prins moved to Canada from the Netherlands when he was 29. He understands just how challenging it is to not only learn English as a second language, but to learn new things in a language you’re still trying to understand.
That’s why he partners with Resonate Global Mission to help students succeed.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for children,” said Meindert. “I thought after I retired, perhaps I could do some work with children wherever it’s needed.”
When Laura Osborne was a student at Western Michigan University (WMU), she found a safe place to land at campus ministry. Now, Laura is providing a safe space for WMU’s international students as a campus minister at Resonate Global Mission partner International Campus Ministry (ICM).
"A lot of times in Central America, but also in North America, we think that missionaries are only the people who leave their country and go to another one," said Resonate Global Mission missionary Rachel Beveridge.
"Mission is something we are all called to."
“I sort of had this opportunity to be a missionary early on,” said Resonate Global Mission missionary Jordan Roeda. But when Jordan didn’t take the opportunity, he thought he had missed his calling.
God surprised him.
Students at LCC International University, a Resonate Global Mission partner in Lithuania, are learning the importance and power of sharing their faith with their peers—starting in their dorms.
“[God] wants to bring the good news to every people and bring hope and love to everyone,” said Carl, a student in Resonate missionary Stan Kruis’s church-planting class at Asia Theological Seminary in the Philippines.
That’s why Carl and his classmates spent a day at a church plant in a cemetery.
Campus ministers and student leaders from throughout Canada and the United States gathered May 28-30 at Loyola University in Chicago, Ill., for the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry Association (CRCMA) conference.
There, they wrestled with questions surrounding diversity, gender, sexuality, and power within relationships so they can better share their faith with all students.
“Universities have changed. Culture has changed,” said Mark Wallace, Resonate Global Mission’s campus ministry leader.
