Incredible Travels: LSM Spring Mission Trips

“Lost people matter to God, so they must matter to us”  - Missionary Keith Wright

LeTourneau Student Ministries (LSM) recently unveiled new mission trip opportunities for Spring 2014. LSM: Deploy has organized 10 different trips, ranging from Alaska to Mexico and all over the United States.

Spring and Winter Missions Coordinator and sophomore Mechanical Engineering major Lynnette Donkor described a few enhancements LSM has made this year: “We asked ourselves what we could do to revamp the trips and take them to the next level—thought about what would make even more people passionate to go.”

LeTourneau University’s vision states: LeTourneau University graduates are professionals of ingenuity and Christ-like character who see life's work as a holy calling with eternal impact.

Spring missions are a tangible demonstration of this vision becoming a reality as students use their chosen vocational skills to spread the gospel. Aviation students will serve as pilots. Computer Science majors will aid mission organizations with their technological systems. Education students will spend the entire week working with children.

While the methods are varied, the basic premise of the trips are loving and serving people while creating relationships that allow for sharing the gospel.

Donkor, having attended last year’s Beach Reach, described LSM’s success with a summary of simple, meaningful service: “We gave bus rides to people to wherever they needed to go free of charge, gave them pancakes and just talked to them. If they had questions about the gospel, we answered them.”

She said they were able to start many conversations with non-believers because it was clear they were there to love them without condition.

Donkor described several of the upcoming trips, which will all take place during Spring Break 2014:

“The Dillingham, Alaska, trip involves working with youth. That team will serve by loving on the kids and sharing the Bible with them. They take the concept of God’s love and his judgment and relate it to kids in a way they can understand. Just because Alaska’s so far and kind of hard to get to shouldn’t stop us from serving there.”

Meanwhile, students attending the Mexico trip will be participating in construction, evangelism, and working with kids. Another provides students the opportunity to partner with Tri Grace Ministries in Ephraim, Utah.

“Working with Tri Grace is a really good opportunity for evangelism and apologetics,” Donkor said. “Students help with ministry, but in a way that’s careful not to step on people’s toes—to love on them, but to, at the same time, defend your faith.”

Other LSM: Deploy trips are scheduled to join organizations including: Buckner, where students will spend the week doing construction for churches; Missionary Maintenance Services (MMS), specifically for aviation students, who will perform maintenance on missions aircraft; and JAARS, open to all majors, who will work with translators and mission aviators.

Student pilots, through LSM, minister using 

vocational skills.

In addition to ministering to those in need, LSM is also working to build relationships with mission organizations to increase effective ways LETU can aid in their efforts to reach the world for Christ.

“We realize that an important part of missions is the organization as a whole,” Donkor said. “We want to serve the unreached, but we want to serve the organization that helps the unreached, too.”

For those not quite ready to go on a full-fledged trip to a distant locale, LSM

is also planning local mission projects in Longview.

Whatever the activity or location, LSM’s goal is the same. Donkor said it well: “We want to serve wholeheartedly and represent Christ with a spirit of excellence—not mediocrity. That’s something we’re passionate about.”

If you are interested in joining a spring mission trip, you can register here. We ask that alumni, family members, and other friends of LeTourneau University pray for these students as they spend spring break reaching the unreached. Contact jennapace@letu.edu with any questions or comments.