“Why go?” That is the question I have heard from many college students over the years and even ask myself when it comes to sacrificing time and finances to go overseas on a mission trip. That question is also met with others like “Can God really do anything through me in only a week?” “Am I even having an impact?” “Wouldn’t it be better to just send money to the people instead of using that money on myself to go?” I am sure many of you have asked those questions and some have come to different conclusions.

For me, the answer came through a little girl named Pinky. She is a little girl my husband and I sponsored for some time through an organization that provides children in the slums of India with food, clean water, and a good education. I had the honor and privilege of meeting Pinky one day while I was in Delhi on a short term mission trip.

She was 3 years old at the time and was as light as a feather. Her little hut was nestled right by the slum idol. This was her daily reminder of the religion to which she was enslaved. As I held Pinky and looked over her more than 8,000 person slum, I felt so helpless and honestly hopeless for her eternity. I knew that there was one known believer who ministered among these perishing people. One to reach 8,000. To say I was overwhelmed was an understatement. I just wept over Pinky, begging God to save her. I desperately tried to come up with anything to make the Gospel clearer to her. I knew that God was the only one to change her little heart and the verse in Romans 10 was becoming ever so real to me now. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

In that moment, I remember the Lord spoke so clearly to me saying this is why you come and this is why you do what you do back home. The Lord said what if one of the college girls you are pouring your life into in Birmingham ends up in this slum and even shares the Gospel with Pinky. That moment I had a tangible example of why we as believers give our lives away. It is about God’s glory being spread throughout the world but if we are not being faithful where God has us and where he wants to take us “then how will they know” as Paul says in Rom 10?

We go because there are people living and dying who have never heard the Gospel. That can’t be a waste of time or resources. We go because there are brothers and sisters in the faith family that need encouraging and reminders that living a sacrificial life is worth it. We go because we ourselves change because we are faced with the reality that most of the world does not live as we do with access to the good news.

My biggest takeaway from that short term trip is that I want to work hard for God’s glory, at home and abroad, not wasting a bit of the time God has given me on this earth so people like Pinky will know the Gospel. I want to give my life away for the sake of those who don’t know. I want to be willing to go wherever the Lord leads me while always looking at my current city as a mission field. I still pray often for Pinky and her family. I pray that she will be in eternity one day with her Creator. God help me to always remember that it is worth everything to follow you and make you known!

Stephanie F. and her husband are members at The Church at Brook Hills. Stephanie serves on staff at Brook Hills as the Associate College Minister, specifically spending her time discipling college age women and leading small groups. Stephanie has also led many college students on Short-Term trips to South Asia, The Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. Through the Global Offering, College Students receive 50% of the cost of their trip. Brook Hills desires to develop college students who have a biblical worldview and to see them leverage their lives for the sake of the nations. The Global Offering allows this to happen.