When Stacy Gurgel signed up for her second mission trip to Africa, she thought she knew exactly what she would be getting into. “I was expecting a magical experience, like the one I had last time,” says the La Sierra University psychology/pre-seminary senior. “What I got instead was a very real experience.”
This summer, nine La Sierra students, at the request of university president Dr. Lawrence T. Geraty, traveled to Arusha, Tanzania, to hold a 21-day evangelistic series. Preaching at several sites, including an unfinished church with missing walls and an open field with a makeshift stage, the students, mostly pre-seminary, prepared and delivered sermons to the hundreds of villagers and Masai tribesmen who came to listen each night. The results were 398 local baptisms, an idea for a new university evangelism team, and a group of missionaries strengthened in the Lord’s service.
“I would be preaching a sermon, and suddenly I would realize, ‘Wow, I really believe this!’” says religious studies/pre-seminary junior Adam Hicks. “This trip confirmed my Adventist faith.”
“This wasn’t just a chance to preach,” agrees education psychology graduate student Emmanuel Nelson. “We all really came together to examine our faith and help it grow.” The students, along with sponsor Dr. Manuel Arteaga, often stayed up late into the night, studying and discussing such issues as sanctification, justification by faith and the nature of Christ.
In such an involved spiritual atmosphere, the students often felt the influence of invisible forces. “It really was like being on a battlefield,” says Hicks. “You could feel the presence of God—and Satan.”
For business/pre-seminary senior Manuel Arteaga, Jr., that presence became all too tangible one night while he was preaching. An intimidating encounter with a demon-possessed woman reminded Arteaga of how close he was to the front lines of a spiritual war. “When the devil is staring you down, it’s both scary and somehow comforting,” he says. “If he’s upset with you, you know you must be on the right path.”
One feeling that all the student missionaries seemed to share was a burden to preach. For those with previous mission experience, the chance was like the fulfillment of a long-unsatisfied need—a need that the first-time evangelists in the group soon felt as well. “By the time we got there, I was craving the chance to preach,” says Arteaga. “I wanted to get started as soon as possible.”
Several members of the group felt compelled to go to extreme lengths to spread the message of salvation. Sermons were preached through power failures, in the rain and while ill. Senior biology major Lorena Salto managed to deliver her message one night even after losing her voice. “I had to whisper my sermon to the interpreter,” she says. “He thought he wouldn’t be able to understand me, but we were able to make it through the whole sermon.”
Back home, this burden for the gospel is still weighing heavy on the hearts of these student missionaries. Several members of the Tanzania group have started The Call, a student evangelism team that has plans to minister both on the La Sierra University campus and in the Southern California community.
The group, which will be open to all LSU students, will speak at the spring spiritual emphasis week on campus in April. Gurgel is also working out plans to host an evangelistic series in the near future in one of the nearby cites of Ontario or Costa Mesa.
For everyone involved, the mission trip to Tanzania was a transforming experience that will affect them for a long time. “Sharing God’s word has become a lifelong commitment for me,” says Nelson. “I plan to do it for the rest of my life.”
