{"id":69532,"date":"2025-11-06T14:26:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=69532"},"modified":"2025-11-06T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:26:41","slug":"uf-baptist-collegiate-ministries-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/uf-baptist-collegiate-ministries-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptist Collegiate Ministries at UF is tops in sending students on mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWhat we know is not every student who goes will go long term, but every student who goes will come back different. They will always know what it\u2019s like whenever they hear Lottie Moon Christmas stories in their church.” said Eddie GIlley, BCM Director at UF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GAINESVILLE\u2013When college students arrive at Baptist Collegiate Ministries at University of Florida<\/a> each year, they learn quickly about the opportunities for international mission trips.<\/p>\n

It is actually a stated goal, said Eddie Gilley, who has been the BCM director there since 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want every student to spend two weeks of their college career in a cross-cultural environment sharing Jesus,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a pretty robust plan for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s their robust plan that has helped make them tops in the nation in sending short-term missionaries on international trips through the International Mission Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UF BCM sends out 18 to 24 students each year on mission trips, the majority of those traveling in small groups for six-to-eight-week trips during the summer. For example, 18 of the students participated in the longer six-to-eight week trips this past school year, while six did a short-term trip.<\/p>\n

\"Put your yes on the table and let God say where, when and for how long. If you\u2019re willing to say yes, God will direct where you\u2019re supposed to go.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>

Eddie Gilley<\/strong>
Baptist Collegiate Ministries, University of Florida<\/div><\/div>Students must apply in the fall to be part of one of their Global Outreach or G0 teams that travel to other countries, usually one trip within the 10\/40 window, a term used to describe the area of the world between 10- and 40-degrees north latitude where most of the world\u2019s unreached people groups reside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually somewhere in a difficult environment. We typically let other people go to the easy places,\u201d Gilley said. \u201cWe challenge our students to go to places where evangelism might mean just moving boulders out of the way. You might not even get to plant a seed; you\u2019re just moving rocks, moving barriers from people to even hear the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams typically go to cities in Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe. In the past they\u2019ve gone to China, Turkey, Japan, Africa and even Australia. \u201cOther than Antarctica, we have sent a team to every continent,\u201d Gilley said.<\/p>\n

Planning, training and raising funds<\/strong><\/p>\n

John, who asked that his real name not be used, is a former UF BCM student who now coordinates all of their mission trips, which includes vision-tripping for future trips as well as communicating with current long-term missionaries around the world and<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want every student to spend two weeks of their college career in a cross-cultural environment sharing Jesus,\u201d said Eddie GIlley, BCM Director at UF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

assessing their need for assistance from college students.<\/p>\n

Working with the IMB, the organization sends students to assist current missionaries who are already working with college students in their countries. This makes it easy for BCM students to go on college campuses and use English as a platform, teaching English or offering conversational English opportunities to other students and forming friendships, which can lead to gospel conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lot of entry-level evangelism and discipleship,\u201d John said. \u201cEverything is geared toward building relationships with lost people. Students can be a seed to those who are interested and leave those relationships with the long-term workers to follow up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The UF BCM sends students to assist current international missionaries who are already working with college students in their countries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All students who sign up for the summer trips go through extensive training to prepare them for the mission field, including evangelism training, missions education and general church doctrine studies. They also learn about sharing across language and cultural barriers, contextualization issues, security issues and border patrol. The goal is to have them ready to work before they leave so no extra time is needed once they reach the mission field.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time these students get to the field, they have already failed so many times that they\u2019re really well-prepared,\u201d John said. \u201cThey have failed in a safe constructive environment, and the hope would be that training is harder than the actual thing. We want them to seamlessly fit into the long-term strategy and be a blessing not a burden, and not a security risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several years ago the training helped a team that got stuck in the Singapore airport for five days when they were unable to get to their destination. \u201cThey had to find a hotel and try to work everything out, and they had to do it onsite,\u201d Gilley said. \u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018Amazing Race\u2019 for Jesus, you know. That\u2019s kind of what they had to do to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the training, each team member sends out about 100 mission support letters to help raise funds for their trip. With a goal of about $4,500 per person, they are raising a total of about $100,000 each year. While some individuals may not make their goal, each team has always been successful.<\/p>\n

The right time to go<\/strong><\/p>\n

Going on mission trips during your college years is the best time to go, Gilley said, as students are more independent from their parents, don\u2019t have a career yet and have the freedom to travel.<\/p>\n

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Going on mission trips during your college years is the best time to go, as students are more independent from their parents, they don\u2019t have a career yet and they have the freedom to travel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is no other time in their lives when they are going to have the freedom to be able to go like they do in college. It\u2019s the perfect time to utilize them, to encourage our mission force around the world and to change their perspective,\u201d Gilley said.<\/p>\n

And gaining a new perspective about mission work is huge as it impacts the way the students see missions for the rest of their lives, especially those who have experienced the longer trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we know is not every student who goes will go long term, but every student who goes will come back different. They will always know what it\u2019s like whenever they hear Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions stories in their church. It means something else to them because they know someone who benefits from that on the field. They know what it\u2019s like to be in a place where you toil for the gospel day in and day out and may not see anyone come to faith in years. But they are still faithfully there and faithfully serving.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a student perspective, John said the biggest obstacles that keep many from committing to these missions are their academic careers \u2013 as in time away from completing courses and internships \u2013 and their parents, especially Christian parents who either forbid their students to go or convince them into coming home for the summer and doing something safer, like working at camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents are well meaning, but unfortunately they can often be obstacles to their students doing what God wants them to do,\u201d he said. \u201cOften the students are more motivated to go than their families are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Put your yes on the table\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being named tops in sending students on mission is humbling, Gilley said, because there is so much more to be done around the globe. \u201cWe could send thousands, and it would still not be enough as the need is great all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilley said BCM students are always challenged to say yes to serving God on mission, whether that means being part of one of their GO teams overseas, going on a short-term trip with their local church, staying in the U.S. and supporting others, or serving long term in another country.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your yes on the table and let God say where, when and for how long,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re willing to say yes, God will direct where you\u2019re supposed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The UF BCM sends out 18 to 24 students each year on mission trips, the majority of those traveling in small groups for six-to-eight-week trips during the summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE\u2013When college students arrive at Baptist Collegiate Ministries at University of Florida each year, they learn quickly about the opportunities for international mission trips. It is actually a stated goal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":69545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,230,2617,17,155,49,25],"tags":[673,633,13,15,2957,2958],"class_list":["post-69532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","category-college","category-featured","category-missions","category-next-generation","category-region-north","category-stories","tag-baptist-collegiate-ministries","tag-bcm","tag-imb","tag-international-mission-board","tag-students-on-mission","tag-uf"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69532","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\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69532"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69551,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69532\/revisions\/69551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}