PAUL REISSMANN
Michigan Area Communications
International Spring Break mission trips at the Wesley Foundation of Michigan State University can have a profound effect on the young adults that participate in traveling abroad.
Keeley Davenport, a member of Wesley at MSU, is a young adult who has been transformed by her various mission trips. Davenport has been to several countries, including Zimbabwe, Haiti and Jamaica, and has gone on trips to the Appalachian region of the United States. Soon she will embark on a trip to Nicaragua Spring Break 2016.
Davenport is currently an Encounter Your Call Intern at Wacusta UMC, where she is learning Church as Society work. She is also a part of the Reproductive Health Committee for Church and Society and is planning to apply for seminary after her undergraduate degree in Statistics at MSU.
On her anticipated trip to Nicaragua, Davenport and five other young adults will be working with orphans under the direction of Steven and Karen Small. They will run a week of Christian Education with the children in the style of vacation bible school.
Bill Chu, the director of the Wesley Foundation at MSU, has seen a particular change in Davenport as she has gone on these trips to different countries. In Zimbabwe Summer 2014, a trip planned by Greg Lawton and Lisa Batten, both of whom are Wesley Directors in the Michigan Area, Davenport found a call to champion the health of women.
During her three-week trip, Davenport visited with women who have AIDS, but who also were educating other people on safe sex practices and contraception. This was a turning point for Davenport as she met women who were acting in a proactive way to better the health of others despite their own condition.
Keeley wants to experience new things and to connect with different cultures and people, Chu said. She has a deep passion for her own personal relationship with Jesus and this is most evident when she is one-on-one with other people.
Chu said that what Keeley’s experiences on her mission trips is something he calls, “reverse evangelism.”
Keeley’s experiences on her mission trips is something Bill Chu calls “reverse evangelism.”
While the notion of evangelism usually means introducing Jesus to people who have not encountered him before, “reverse evangelism” is the opposite; Davenport experiences the presence of Christ through the blessings of the people she meets in her mission, growing in her own personal relationship with Christ as a result.
Chu said that Davenport also has a deeper interest in the Bible, as she has found that her mission trips are a performance of the scriptures she has learned in church. One of her favorite verses is Micah 6:8, as it relates to her mission experiences and as a codifying of her calling for justice.
Through raising funds for mission trips, Davenport has learned important skills for relating with her Christian community. Davenport grew spiritually through these experiences by learning how to make the most of her time with people, Chu said. She also had to learn how to listen to people in order to connect with them on a passionate level, he adds. During these conversations Davenport rehearses her own call story with each person she meets.
Davenport plans to attend seminary for a Masters in Theological Studies.Seminary training and scriptural understanding are important for her in embracing her call from God.
~This is the 3rd in a series. Wesley: Making Disciples on Campus
Last Updated on December 15, 2023