Flying halfway across the world for a mission trip is the way three Ball State students spent their summer vacation, sharing their faith with university students in Uruguay as well as East Asia.
"I'm a Christian and I really have the desire to share the gospel," Kelsey Kreps, a junior social work major, said. "I love new cultures and [I] am thinking about doing missions or moving somewhere overseas. I wanted to test it out."
Kreps spent six weeks in Montevideo, Uruguay, with Campus Crusade for Christ. She went with the upper Midwest region, which includes the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. She was the only student from Ball State who did her mission work in Uruguay.
She spent much of her time on a university campus, where CRU partnered with Uruguay and Peru CRU groups.
"Everyday, we would go sharing on campus and have conversations about God," she said.
Kreps didn't face a major language barrier because she was placed at a university where many of the students spoke English.
"There was a few times when it was an issue," she said. "It was a barrier when I would do things around the city like order food in a restaurant."
Nick Dodge, who spent time in East Asia, had a similar language experience.
"I talked to the people who had the best English speaking abilities," the senior architecture major said. "For them, it's a requirement to learn English so some of them had more practice. Some people were harder to talk to than others."
He also spent time on a university campus, approaching people and making new friends. Dodge, who also went with CRU, approached the trip from a different angle being in a different part of the world.
East Asia is not as open to Christianity, which challenged the students as well as gave them the opportunity to perform their mission work.
"I've been to the country before so I love the country and there is a big need for the gospel over there and there's a lot of potential in the country," Vince Ferry, a senior architecture major, said. "Most people haven't heard anything about what Christians believe. They're really eager to hear."
The experience for the students was encouraging, each taking away something different.
"Although every day wasn't easy to wake up to, it was enjoyable and full of purpose," Ferry said.
Many think of mission work in terms of construction, like building homes, churches and schools, but there is more to the process, Kreps said.
"For me, it was definitely eye opening. People need spiritual guidance," she said. "I saw God work in a lot of cool ways."
Being away from home, the students were challenged during their mission trip in a variety of ways. For Dodge and other members of his team, the task could get to be frustrating and overwhelming. Continuing the effort itself could easily become the actual challenge.
Although challenged, students found the enlightening of their newfound friends to be rewarding.
"One girl I knew became a Christian while I was there," Kreps said.
Ferry had a similar experience with a friend he made while in East Asia.
"For me, it was rewarding when one of the guys I became friends with through our conversations found out one of his parents was a Christian, which is rare, and kept asking questions," he said. "It came to the point of him wanting to become a Christian. It was a high point for me on the trip."
In addition to finding the experience rewarding, students also had favorite aspects of the overall trip.
Mission trips are important to the three members of CRU as they learned about themselves and others during their time abroad.
"It's something greater than myself," Ferry said. "I believe that is good to work toward furthering the kingdom of God and to talk to people and get to know them and really have something that they can count on."
Kreps said she gained a different perspective on the world from taking part in the mission trip.
"I got a bigger view of God and a bigger view of the world that America isn't the center of the world as much as we would like to think it is," Kreps said. "People from all over the world have needs and values."
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