New EDGE Program trains, sends students on cross-cultural missions

By Lindsey Carraway
Writing Specialist

Six high school students from across Mississippi, most of whom had never traveled by plane, spent their spring break serving and sharing the Gospel alongside International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries in Oaxaca, Mexico, as a part of the new EDGE Program. 

EDGE — which stands for Equipping and Discipling the next Generation in Evangelism — is a collaborative effort of the Missions Mobilization and Discipleship/Sunday School departments of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB).

Chad McCord, Director of Missions Mobilization, and Zach DePriest, Student Ministries Consultant, hosted and led the trip Mar. 7-13 alongside Mary Hamilton Bennett, a student at Mississippi College and Baptist Student Union (BSU) summer missionary.

“Our heart behind this program is to come alongside the local church to help equip students, recognizing that not every church has the opportunity to take yearly spring break trips with their student ministry,” said DePriest. “Our MS Baptist student ministers helped us ‘recruit’ students for the trip; they and the parents entrusted us with their students, and we’re thankful for that. It was a great experience seeing students from across the state come together and truly be a team.”

Cross-Cultural Missions Training

Prior to the trip,the students attended a weekend training at Central Hills Baptist Retreat from Feb. 6-7. Bennett, who has served in Oaxaca multiple times, led a class on the culture of the area and explained its blend of Catholicism and animistic beliefs. Throughout the weekend, DePriest led devotions tying into the mission at hand. 

“At the front-end of the retreat, we hosted a meeting for the parents to come and hear all the logistics,” said McCord. “It was also a time for them to get to know us and to feel assured. Zach and I had traveled to Oaxaca in October, so we could say with confidence that all of us had been there and knew the area. We also confirmed through our missionary partners that the violence which erupted in Mexico did not affect the area we were going to.”

“A big part of our weekend was training this next generation to share the Gospel,” said McCord, “and to be able to do that not only in Mississippi but cross-culturally, as well.”

To prepare them for the language barrier, McCord set the students up with “mock translators,” but since the imitation interpreters could not speak actual Spanish, the Good News was relayed in gibberish. “They thought we were crazy during that,” McCord shared with a laugh, “but when we got to Oaxaca they realized it’s really hard to share the Gospel when you have a translator. That’s why we trained them that way so they would learn to keep their train of thought going.”

Oaxaca

Jeff and Liesa Holman, Mississippians and IMB missionaries serving in Oaxaca, frequently mobilize teams to be on mission. On the field, they engage and evangelize with unreached people groups in their area, and disciple and train local believers to carry on the Great Commission. Liesa, former BSU Associate Director at the University of Mississippi, has a heart for equipping the next generation. The couple eagerly accepted McCord’s request to bring a student group into their ministry. 

The Oaxaca IMB team had a desire to form relationships with the nearby public schools where they could not share the Gospel openly. With the EDGE team involved, they now had a tactful opportunity: students teaching English to other students. The Mississippi students were excited to be a part of a strategy that would lead to greater opportunities down the road. 

Another, more daunting activity the students participated in was to hold up signs which read, “Come practice English with us,” at a local park. Through these exchanges, the students were able to segue into deeper, Gospel conversations with the help of their translators. 

“God really taught me how present He can be in the little things,” shared student Jensen Baker. “Being able to start the high school English club was really exciting. Knowing that God will be able to use that after we leave made me feel like we actually left an impact. Also hearing Jeff and Liesa’s strategy plan taught me that not everything we do, we will be able to see the immediate change in people. It is a long process that God has His hand in.”

“In Mississippi, the students have engaged a culture where most people call themselves Christians but don’t really live it out,” said McCord. “In Mexico, you see many people who would call themselves Catholic. The students realized many believe Jesus is an instrumental biblical figure, but there is a disconnect between putting their complete faith and trust in only Him for their salvation. The people they came across are putting their faith in their works, in trying to gain God’s favor, and even in the priest and Mary, but Jesus was absent from the equation.

“Our hope is that this evangelistic engagement in Mexico will carry on into their evangelism here in Mississippi. We want them to be evangelists in their schools, now and when they go to college, in their part-time jobs, and wherever they go. Whether they become full-time teachers or accountants or whatever, we pray that they would be a missionary in their workforce. We also pray God would call some of these young students to become missionaries on the field one day. This may be just one little step of that journey.”

What began as a group of strangers, most of whom were nervous and reserved, became a tight-knit, talkative, and terrific team. Over the week, their confidence and camaraderie had increased through their training, their travel, and most of all, their trust in the Lord.

Students On Mission

“Sometimes student ministries can lead to silos from the rest of the church,” said DePriest. “I think a part of that is because we don’t involve all five functions of the church, which are fellowship, discipleship, worship, service, and evangelism/missions. With student ministries, we might focus a lot on fellowship, discipleship, and worship, and do those things very well, but a student may not always get all five pictures of the church’s functions.

“When you see students grasp all five, it gives them a better idea of what the church actually is. So when they graduate, they didn’t graduate from just a fun fellowship or cool worship services. They see the purpose of the church. They see the importance of the church in their everyday life, and it will serve them once they graduate to know what the church is meant for. We pray that when our students graduate, they will stay engaged.” 

Student Skylar Flora encouraged others to sign up. “This week was a week I will cherish forever, and God did a mighty work in Oaxaca, Mexico, and He will continue to do so,” said Flora. “I gained several new best friends that simply have blessed me beyond measure and I could not be more thankful. God is so intentional, and going on a mission trip in a different country will give you a newer, deeper perspective into who He is.”

The new EDGE Program was made available because of your church’s gifts to the Cooperative Program. Every year, a “Challenge Fund” is decided by Mississippi Baptist church messengers to finance ministry and mission initiatives from the overflow of your gifts. Through this, the EDGE Program was created. The MBCB Missions Mobilization and Discipleship/Sunday School departments intend to combine and continue the program into their ongoing ministries. 

For more information on the EDGE Program visit https://mbcb.org/edge/.