JACKSONVILLE (FBC) – While most young people are planning vacations or finding summer jobs, many Florida college students will instead scatter to the four-corners of the world—from West Africa to Western South America, from Oregon to Florida and from the Caribbean to Hawaii—to serve as summer missionaries. Their terms of service range from one month to ten weeks.

Each summer, students are challenged by their campus Baptist College Ministry to explore opportunities for sharing the Gospel. In an effort coordinated by the Florida Baptist Convention’s Collegiate Ministries Department, BCM recruits and enlists students to serve through the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board and International Mission Board. Some students also choose to serve through various other missions-sending agencies.

Funding for Florida’s BCM students is based on a variety of factors—some receive full funding for pre-arranged positions, while others receive scholarships when they apply directly to NAMB or IMB for the position. Proceeds from the Maguire State Missions Offering are combined with Cooperative Program funds and special project monies to support the state’s budget for student missions.

At a state-wide service focused on this year’s BCM theme, “Imitators of God” based on Ephesians 5:1-3, 90 students were commissioned. Before the students leave for their various locales, the Collegiate Ministries Department offers them cross-cultural training and creates a prayer calendar for them to share with family members and friends.

This year, more than 14 students will travel to Asia as last frontier missionaries. Because these nations are closed to the Gospel, the students’ last names and photos cannot be released. These students require even more concentrated prayer on their behalf, said Loy Reed, department director, as they attempt to share the Gospel message in a hostile environment.

Two summer missionaries will serve in Zambia, where they will trek the African bush on mountain bikes. They will stay in isolated villages, share the same food as the villagers and learn about their culture while sharing the Gospel through storytelling.

Three students will serve in Bangkok, Thailand, developing relationships with college students and helping a new church on a university campus with 20,000 students.

In Hawaii, two missionaries will minister in a poor section of Honolulu that is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Another will lead vacation Bible schools and backyard Bible clubs in Kailua-Kona.

Florida Baptists are encouraged to pray for the students listed on these pages.

Those students indicated with an asterisk (*) took part in a commissioning service at the Baptist College of Florida in Graceville but are not serving in BCM positions.