Kenya mission trip teaches students lessons, sees many profess faith in Christ

During the first international mission trip since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students were able to share the Gospel with 865 people and see 110 people come to faith in Christ as a team of eight served in Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 1-10.

Sponsored by the World Missions Center (WMC), students served alongside two mission units from the International Mission Board (IMB) who serve on the Nairobi City Team and the Nairobi University Team. The IMB teams are made up of Southwestern Seminary alumni and current students.

“Nairobi is a key city in East Africa,” said Sam Brittain, associate director of the WMC and the mission team leader. “Strategically, serving in Nairobi would expose students to missions in a city in the most-rapidly urbanizing part of the world. The team in Nairobi also had ways for the team to serve that were in line with their long-term strategy.”

Kenya was selected as the mission trip destination due to the relationship between the IMB teams and Southwestern Seminary, COVID-19 conditions within the country, and Kenya’s permittance of short-term visitors within its COVID-19 parameters, Brittain explained.

The IMB teams used the Southwestern Seminary team to engage in outreach efforts on three university campuses and in street evangelism in neighborhoods. Team members were trained to use two Gospel presentations, “3 Circles” and “Two Kingdoms.” Three Circles, which moves the Gospel conversation through the cycle of God’s design, brokenness, and the Gospel, was used in the team’s outreach efforts with university students. Two Kingdoms, which shows how Jesus is the only one who can move a person from the Kingdom of Darkness to God’s Kingdom, was used in street evangelism.

Virginia Fletcher, a Master of Theological Studies student with a concentration in cross-cultural missions from Lima, Ohio, joined the team after participating with the seminary’s Crossover outreach in Nashville this past June.

Through the trip Fletcher saw God “make Himself known to many people of all backgrounds” including a Muslim man the team shared with on a rainy afternoon.

The man “decided he was ready to receive Christ,” Fletcher explained. “He heard the Gospel and really counted the cost. He asked us if he should still attend the mosque. He told us that all his family had Islamic names and that they could turn their back on him, but it was still worth it.”

The trip, Fletcher said, not only confirmed her calling to missions, but also allowed her to learn methods of sharing the Gospel she is now using and teaching others to use.

“I grew in my comfort and ability in sharing the Gospel,” Fletcher said of her mission trip experience. “I have had the opportunity to use the methods we learned in sharing here in the States. I really enjoyed getting to work with the university students, [and] I have taken the desire and drive to share with them and brought it back and used it for my ministry to the girls in the dorm.”

Jim Crouch, a non-degree seeking student who lives in Lewisville, Texas, joined the mission team alongside his wife, Shirley. Though Crouch had been on international mission trips previously, the Kenya mission trip allowed him his first opportunity to preach. Four people came forward to receive Christ following his sermon.

Crouch first heard about the mission trip this past spring through his contemporary evangelism class with Matt Queen, professor of evangelism and L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism (“Chair of Fire”) at Southwestern Seminary. He explained his participation has helped him bring attention to the work of missionaries, specifically those with whom he and the team served.

Crouch said the experience allowed him to get out of his comfort zone and caused him to be “more intentional about sharing” the Gospel as what he learned on the trip is “something that can easily translate just in a day-to-day basis when you’re back home.”

Brittain said the lessons the WMC hoped the students would learn on the trip were two-fold.

“First, as with any trip, we wanted our students to be able to share the Gospel in another context,” Brittain explained. “Nairobi, while largely Christian in name, is home to people from many religious traditions. Sharing the Gospel in this context provides students opportunities to engage multiple worldviews in one place.”

The second lesson, Brittain said, is to help students see how they can be involved in the missionary task whether they are in the United States or another part of the world.

“Going on a short-term trip often allows students to put themselves in the shoes of a missionary and see that there is a place to serve,” Brittain added. “We hope short-term trips challenge students to consider how God could be leading them to serve long-term overseas.”

Mission trips are open to any individual in the Southwestern Seminary community. The next international mission trip is scheduled for March 9-19, 2022, to the Middle East. More information can be found here.