By Eden Morris I Reporter, Gracie Savage | LTVN Broadcast Reporter
HeartFire Missions held a prayer and worship night at the Hurd Welcome Center on Monday for all students. Speakers like Will Bowden, director of Baylor Baptist Student Ministries and Scott Drew, Baylor’s head basketball coach, shared their stories.
LTVN highlights Missions week at the ‘Called to Go’ event.Â
Harris Creek Baptist Church worship leader Freddy Kearney led the crowd in a worship and prayer time before and after the speakers’ messages.
HeartFire is an organization “empowering a new generation of world changers” that sends students on missions trips around the world to spread the Gospel.
Jeff Dyer, a HeartFire missionary, said he has a specific call to help Baylor students serve internationally and make disciples of all nations.
“Did you know a century ago, one in every 37 college grads went into missions in some capacity? Today, that number is one in 55,000. One in 37 to one in 55,000 — and it’s not because there’s more people going to college,” Dyer said.
Dyer said there is an emergency around the world of people going their whole lives and not hearing the Gospel, and Baylor student missionaries can be the change that the world needs.
Will Bowden also believes his calling is to send Baylor students to be missionaries all over the world.
“My prayer is that in the next three to four years, there would be a paradigm shift at Baylor, and it would be the norm for students to give up a summer, a semester or a year to go to unreached people,” Bowden said.
Bowden said that Baylor has a missionary history.
“Baylor has a rich culture. It’s a culture of sending student missionaries,” Bowden said. “The student-wide movement began, and it was Baylor students who were leading the charge. You are part of a legacy, and we have moved back to that.”
Huntsville, Ala., senior Ava Watson is an ambassador for HeartFire Missions.
“My freshman year, I went on a mission trip [with HeartFire,] and I got baptized,” Watson said. “It was a really life-changing experience for me, and so since then, I’ve really stayed connected with HeartFire.”
Watson said as an ambassador, she is really passionate about Called to Go, but it also resonates with what HeartFire represents.
“There’s a common misconception that you need a special calling to go into missions. But in reality, we’re all already called to go. Jesus says, ‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.’ So that’s just what [we do] here, share with people and give tangible ways for college students to do that, even on campus,” Watson said.
Scott Drew talked about his experience on mission trips and encouraged students to go on a mission trip if they felt called.
“For me, it was life-changing,” Drew said. “The more you’re in line with [Christ], the more He can bless you.”
