Summertime on a college campus is fairly calm with students gone, even though we’re hard at work on projects and planning for the fall. There are breaks in the quiet, however, especially when students show up for Super Summer, PraiseWorks and JoyWorks each year. They bring life and a reminder of how much God is doing in this generation of students, calling them to new life in Christ, to lives of purpose and training them for service in and through the church.
I am so thankful for this long-standing partnership with churches across our state.
Stay updated on stories like this — Get news delivered to your inbox
Many of our own students disperse for the summer to work and serve before returning to us in August. Summer mission work has long been a Ouachita Baptist University tradition, so it’s no surprise that we have students scattered around the world — in churches, at camps and with missionaries.
Campus Ministries recently sent a team to Santiago, Chile, where they connected with Ouachita alumni Cliff and Cinthy Case, who have served with the International Mission Board for more than 30 years. They’re no strangers to hosting Ouachita teams and students.
But summer service is not for students only.
Faculty and staff on mission
Faculty from the Pruet School of Christian Studies recently returned from a trip to the Amazon Basin, where they partnered with local churches and pastors, teaching 20 sessions over three days. It was a meaningful time, made even more so by the retired IMB missionaries who joined them and a recent Ouachita graduate who helped translate.
They’re not the only ones. Faculty and staff have used their personal time this summer to serve in places like the Dominican Republic, Wales and Brazil, partnering with local churches on the mission field. They’ve dedicated hours to Vacation Bible Schools. Others have spent weeks away as youth group sponsors in places like Camp Siloam, where students find focused, uninterrupted time to connect with God. If you’ve ever spent a week as a sponsor, you know what a labor of love those weeks can be.
It’s certainly not a vacation.
None of them do it for personal publicity. In fact, no one I’ve mentioned here asked to be highlighted for their work, and some might prefer not to be. But out of a genuine love for God, they want others to know what he’s doing — not to draw attention to themselves, but to him.
That, I think, is the real lesson of a Ouachita summer. Every one of us was given the same 24 hours in a day and roughly the same stretch of summer days. Most of us don’t get the long breaks that students do, but we still have opportunities.
Some of our days may be spent teaching in the Amazon or discipling a teenager at camp. Others are spent mowing yards, working a regular shift or simply being present with family. None of those things need to compete with each other, and none of them need an audience. What matters is whether we’re paying attention to what God has placed in front of us, and whether we’re willing to use the time we have for something beyond ourselves.
Making best use of time
Paul’s charge to the church in Ephesus still applies to a college campus, a summer job or a mission trip:
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16, ESV).
All days are fleeting, and summer is no exception. It will end soon enough. Classes will resume, and the rhythms of the academic year will return. But the charge to use our days wisely doesn’t end with the season — my prayer is that we’ll carry it with us into the fall and into each day God has given us.
As always, we appreciate your prayers for Ouachita.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ben Sells and originally published by Arkansas Baptist News.
