By Nick Anderson and Olivia Ginther, with reporting from Sandra, Danny, and Davis,
From May until July, nearly 30 teams of Salt Company college students will travel overseas for the sake of building relationships with local citizens. Their ultimate purpose is to bring the Gospel to university students in the university cities where they will live for two months. While living in the cities, they will team up with local missionaries to be trained, equipped, and sent out to the campuses to fulfill the Great Commission.
In anticipation of the upcoming trips, college students from all over Iowa gathered at East Iowa Bible Camp in May for Missions Training. Salt Company Staff and alumni of Salt Company summer trips became SE Asian nationals for two days as they sought to give the college students a taste of what their upcoming trips to their respective countries would look like. During the training, students were immersed in an airport simulation, a taxi simulation, and an on-campus simulation where they had opportunities to engage with “locals.” On the second day, there was more on-campus simulation, in addition to each team being assigned to 2-4 “locals” who they ate with, played games with, and led a short Bible study with.
The point of the first day of training is to bring measures of intense stress to teams and team leaders to help them learn how to interact with one another. The purpose of the second day of training was to put them in positions to make conversation, build friendships, and transition natural conversation to the supernatural – Gospel conversations!
In early May, we sent our teams to Asia. Since the teams have arrived, we have received updates of their travels. From long plane rides, jet lag, and culture shock, the teams have been adjusting very well to a new environment.
During the first week, one of the teams met a person who had heard the Gospel before. They shared with him their own faith, and he decided to give his life to Jesus! It is incredible to see the faithfulness of God. The Salt Company prays Luke 10:2 often, asking God to raise up laborers because the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. We see a huge answer to this prayer as Matt and Elijah, two men on the team encountered this student who had a seed sown in their heart long before they arrived. We know that God is faithful to water the seeds that have been planted, and Matt and Elijah cannot wait to spend the rest of their summer overseas reading the Bible and discipling this student. Join us in praying for the Nations! That God’s name will be made famous, and disciples will be made to the ends of the Earth.
Sandra, a missions team member shared, “This team I am a part of is the best. What we are doing here is really hard. Not hard because it’s physically tolling or making friends is tough, but hard because little to no one knows of what we are sharing.
“I will never forget the first friends JoAnna and I made. We eventually shared that we are Christians and believe in Jesus and they had never heard of Him before. That broke me. I had heard of how plentiful the harvest is of lost people who need to hear the gospel, but it wasn’t until I sat across from two souls who had never heard the name of Jesus that I felt a burden for that harvest. When the weight of what needs to be done here feels overwhelming at times, I am reminded of a Father who hears us (Psalm 61:2).
“I feel like this trip can feel so tough because I so rarely die to self in America. Every day I have to walk out the door to a lot of blatant rejection, foreign food, walking aimless miles…etc. I genuinely feel like my eyes are opened to how often I think of myself over others in my daily life. Or better yet, think of myself over what my Father wants for my life.”
Danny & Davis shared about their experience, “One day we were going to prayer walk around a track on campus and ask that God put someone in our path that we could share the gospel with. Right before we started around the track a student was walking by himself and we decided to practice this foreign language with him. He does not speak a lick of English but after google translating a conversation for about 15 minutes we asked if we could get dinner together with him that night. We asked him about the Bible and if he had heard the story of Jesus. He said he had not but was very interested in hearing about it!”
The next day Danny and Davis met the student again, “We read the Bible for THREE HOURS. After one hour, he understood the gospel and said, “I want to trust in Jesus Christ.” We kept sharing and reading for another 1.5 hours and he was leaning into the Bible so much. We were blown away by how fast and deeply the Holy Spirit was working in him. By the end of our conversation with him, he said, “I am a man of no religious belief. You brought me to believe in Jesus.” Danny and I were able to pray with him, the first time he has ever prayed to God. What a joy! Our whole conversation was through Google Translate Conversation, a feature that none of us knew about three weeks ago. What a testament that the Father is paving the way for people to meet him. Thank God and pray for this student with us!”
Please be in prayer for these mission teams this summer as they serve in difficult areas and bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to hearts and minds that have been opened to receive.
