HBCU students experience international missions, see ‘someone like me’

By Alex Smith and Sue Sprenkle/IMB

SÃO PAULO, Brazil (IMB) – Chyler Hughes had never seen a black missionary. She learned in church how to serve in her local community, but no one ever talked about international missions.

The concept came to her world when she left Kentucky and enrolled at Lincoln University, a historically black college in Jefferson City, Missouri. She learned about international missions by attending Rooted, a collegiate ministry, and Soma Community Church. They partnered with an International Mission Board missionary team in Brazil and sent their first short-term team of students to work with them.

It was during this trip to São Paulo, Brazil, that Hughes met her first IMB missionaries, Eric and Ramona Reese, and witnessed firsthand how they shared the good news of Jesus Christ in the world. slumslow-income settlements.

Brian Kelley plays a game of basketball in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Lincoln University student in Jefferson City, Missouri, was making his first international trip with Soma Community Church to work with IMB missionaries in Brazil. IMB photo

“It was really inspiring to see Eric and Miss Ramona in a place like Brazil,” Hughes said, speaking of the diversity of the community. She saw people of different ethnic backgrounds and colors spreading the gospel and sharing their testimonies. “When you see that representation, you see that missions is for everyone.”

Jon Nelson, pastor of Soma Community Church, nodded. This is exactly what he prayed his young team would learn during this mission experience for HBCU students. The pastor pointed out that statistically, about 8.4 percent of all missionaries in any denomination are African American or of African descent. He noticed this low engagement among his students, who typically do not consider leaving their own communities for missions. For most, this trip to São Paulo was their first international trip.

“Part of the fruit of this trip is the way they (will) see the world now. My students were able to see people who looked like them,” Nelson said, referring not only to the Reeses but to Brazil’s diverse population. “It takes the racial aspect out of missions and allows them to think more about what it’s like to serve God in another country. They see that it’s about obedience to God.”

Brian Kinney kept reminding himself that the whole experience was “bigger than me.” As he tried new foods and experienced a new culture, he didn’t want to get caught up in the new and miss out on what God wanted to show him. He discovered that he could spread God’s Word, regardless of the language barrier, through smiling, playing, hugging, feeding the homeless, and of course, translating. The experience now has him thinking about full-time missionary work, something that wasn’t even on his radar before the trip.

The same thing happened to Hughes as she saw many challenges and hardships in the lives of the people she met. She held babies in the favela and played games with the laughing children. She talked to a man in a small town square where people with addiction hung out and learned about his struggles. She listened to national believers share their testimonies of coming to faith in Jesus.

Hughes felt her eyes and heart open with all the new experiences. She went from thinking that someone else could do missions to “why not me?”

“There are so many people here in São Paulo and around the world who are struggling with things that are similar to how we all struggle. They just need Jesus in their lives,” Hughes said. “We need more people spreading the gospel.”

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