Belmont Students Blogging Mission Experiences

One of my friends at Belmont University emailed me a story about a student's post in Brazil. Nothing brings more joy to my heart to hear of young people sharing their faith and witnessing the changes that God makes in new believers. If I was still physically able to jump up and down for joy, I would be doing it now.

There are Belmont University groups in Brazil, Cambodia, and Africa who are blogging this summer. I stayed up late last night to read them all once I found them.

Cary, a volleyball player who is part of Belmont's Sports Evangelism team serving (no pun intended) in Brazil wrote the following:

"I am truly witnessing the power of God in every activity we do here. Never before have I seen so many children, and never before have I felt the Holy Spirit working constantly through me. God has sent each and every one of us here for a reason and I feel blessed to be a part of such an amazing team."

Dr. Jeff Overby, a Belmont business professor posted his thoughts on a day when the twenty student in his group learned of apartheid from individuals who suffered through an ugly era in South Africa:

"As we would witness during the day (and throughout the previous days for that matter), the people of this amazing country are managing to overcome a terrible page in history called apartheid and countless other calamities such as the AIDS pandemic to find hope and joy instead of hate, hopelessness and despair."

Shannon, a nursing student at Belmont, shared this in her blog post from Cambodia:

"Saoly...shared with us his experience from the khemer rouge. he talked of how he witnessed starvation and cannibalism. he told us of how his father died at his side from starvation. though saoly surrvived, he experienced much pain throughout pol pot's regime. he showed us his scars from coining. coining is a traditional cambodian pain reliever. many people here in cambodia still do it today. they take burning hot coins and rub them on their bodies to distract them from the pain they are having in another area."

I know there are Tennessee Baptists who believe that Belmont has become too liberal and has somehow drifted away from her original mission. After reading posts like those that I quoted, frankly, I do not care what label someone choses to place on the institution. I will recommend Belmont to any Tennessee Baptist student who wants to get off the ministry sidelines and get into the game.

Thank you, Belmont, for letting these stories get out from under a basket.