{"id":47325,"date":"2024-06-25T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=47325"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:20:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:20:50","slug":"god-kept-showing-up-and-being-faithful-on-student-mission-trip-to-nicaragua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/god-kept-showing-up-and-being-faithful-on-student-mission-trip-to-nicaragua\/","title":{"rendered":"God kept \u2018showing up and being faithful\u2019 on student mission trip to Nicaragua"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEON, NICARAGUA\u2013\u2013It was an experience of \u201cfirsts.\u201d It was the first time that Ben Braly took a team of students from Jacksonville-area colleges and universities on an international mission trip. It was the first time that student Caleb Goltz preached a sermon. It was the first time that student Lark Davis shared her Christian testimony in Spanish.<\/p>\n

But it definitely wasn\u2019t an experience of \u201clasts.\u201d There will be more international mission trips with students. There will be more sermons preached. There will be more testimonies shared in the heart language of the people being reached.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“God just kept showing up and being faithful.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n Ben Braly<\/strong>
\n director, Jax Baptist Campus Ministries\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Braly leads Jax Baptist Campus Ministries<\/a> for five colleges and universities in the Jacksonville area: Jacksonville University, Florida State College at Jacksonville, St. Johns River State College, Edward Waters University and University of North Florida. In March he took a team of nine students to Le\u00f3n, Nicaragua, where they prayed for church members and community residents, went door-to-door witnessing, shared the gospel in schools, held a beach worship service, and taught in a local church and at a youth rally.<\/p>\n

When Braly first began leading Jax Baptist Campus Ministries about five years ago, it was a time of rebuilding for the campus ministry. This year\u2019s inaugural mission trip was a vital next step in the rebuilding process\u2013an opportunity \u201cto put missions in my students\u2019 hearts and to see that God is working all around us, and it\u2019s not just in the U.S., and to give them a bigger mindset. God is the God of the nations,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

The students, Braly said, saw \u201cGod\u2019s hand all throughout the trip.\u201d Even when the mission team felt weak or vulnerable, he recalled, \u201cWe kept saying, \u2018We\u2019ll bring our weakness, and God will bring us strength.\u2019 And that\u2019s what happened. \u2018We\u2019re just going to be faithful; we\u2019re going to show up.\u2019 And then God just kept showing up and being faithful.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During the trip, the Jax Baptist Campus Ministries group discovered how Christians are truly united in Christ, even amid language differences and when living in different countries. Braly commented, \u201cOne of the things that was really impactful for me and the students I think was that we really saw the body of Christ doesn\u2019t matter where you are located or who you are; it\u2019s that these are your brothers and sisters in Christ. These are my brothers and sisters who live in Nicaragua, and I live in America, and that\u2019s the only difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The student mission team partnered with a mission team from Faithbridge Church<\/a> in Jacksonville. Connecting students with local churches is a priority for Baptist Campus Ministries, Braly said. The Faithbridge mission team focused its ministry at its church campus in Le\u00f3n, while the students focused their ministry at Iglesia Fuente de Vida, a nearby church plant, where they \u201cused all their gifts to encourage, equip and support\u201d members there. Both mission teams joined for morning devotionals before daily activities.<\/p>\n

While in Nicaragua, the student group had to rely on interpreters most of the time to share the gospel. After Braly preached a sermon, one of his students shared a story with him about his interpreter. The man who had interpreted the sermon had served previously as an interpreter in the tourist industry. As the young interpreter was learning English and sometimes struggling with a new language, he sensed God impressing on him that he would \u201cone day\u201d interpret for a preacher. This was the interpreter\u2019s first opportunity to do so. Braly said it was a humbling experience to be a part of that \u201cone day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students had stories of their own as well.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Student Caleb Goltz preached his first sermon in Nicaragua, an experience he described as \u201csurreal.\u201d Sensing a call to ministry and \u201ctrying to take steps toward walking in that calling,\u201d Goltz was enthusiastic about the opportunity. While preparing to preach, Goltz said, \u201cI had a moment where I just felt so much pressure to create this amazing sermon and just felt like the Holy Spirit laid a question on my heart, ‘Why are you trying to make this grander than what it is? The gospel already has the power to change lives; you do not need to add anything to it; just preach it. Use the power that is in it and show it to these people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Another student, Lark Davis, had studied Spanish throughout elementary, middle and high school. \u201cLast year,\u201d she said, \u201cI decided I wanted to build on that foundation and achieve fluency \u2026 since I had decided to go to Nicaragua. I knew that we would have interpreters, but I thought it would be more engaging if I was able to share my testimony in their language.\u201d Nervous before sharing her testimony, she said, \u201cMany people in my group prayed for me and encouraged me. Feeling God\u2019s peace, I shared, and several of the members afterward told me how it was encouraging for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now back home, students are continuing their relationship with the Nicaraguans, communicating through technology and continuing to celebrate God\u2019s faithfulness. They are also building on their own student-to-student bonds that were strengthened during the mission trip.<\/p>\n

Braly is planning two international mission trips for students in 2025\u2013one will return to Nicaragua to continue the work there, and the other trip is slated for Ecuador.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is faithful,\u201d Braly said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEON, NICARAGUA\u2013\u2013It was an experience of \u201cfirsts.\u201d It was the first time that Ben Braly took a team of students from Jacksonville-area colleges and universities on an international mission trip. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":47326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,675,11,155,49,23,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-collegiate-ministry-coaching","category-expanding","category-next-generation","category-region-north","category-sharing","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67743,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325\/revisions\/67743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}