Christian Challenge event connects students with missions

Christian Challenge hosted Missions Connect in Phoenix on Jan. 21. This one-day event’s purpose is to introduce, engage and resource Arizona college students to be on mission for Jesus Christ.

Missions, a value of Christian Challenge, is seeing forward momentum through opportunities like Zona Camp, Impact — Challenge AZ’s state missions, local church experiences and International Mission Board and North American Mission Board partnerships.

Christian Challenge’s mission team is comprised of campus missionaries from around the state who serve to help college students be on mission. In the months leading up to Missions Connect, they pray for God to call students to serve, research and plan for what opportunities and needs students have to be on mission and enlist knowledgeable speakers to encourage and teach what Scripture has to say about serving.

About 40 individuals were involved in this conference. John Leland, West Region church and student mobilization strategist for the International Mission Board, led sessions on “What Does the Bible Say About Missions” and “How to Serve Abroad.” During his time, Leland walked students through Scripture, prayer and the nuts and bolts of how to apply and serve.

Rachel Joy, a newly appointed career missionary with the International Mission Board, was gracious and spent some of her limited time stateside to speak with students about what it’s like to be a full-time missionary. Her experience from serving as a college student to full-time on the field today helped the group focus on the fact that their choices during college can and do have kingdom purpose. Her time was followed with a Q and A session that helped unpack many of the questions that came up during the day.

This was the inaugural year for Missions Connect. The Christian Challenge missions team came away pleased with this year’s event and is already praying and working to host in January 2024.

*Some names may have been changed for security purposes.

Lainee Pegelow, a freelance writer and photographer, is communications specialist, missions coordinator and a campus missionary for Christian Challenge AZ. She is a member of Challenge Church, Flagstaff.

Story modified after initial publication.