June 26, 2026 by

This Student Life Blog post was written jointly by several members of a Cedarville Global Outreach team on a trip to Africa. While the location and full names of the students are not included for security reasons, we hope these students’ testimonies encourage you to pray for the Lord’s work in unreached areas.

His Grace in Me: Mariellie’s Story

I was taking an Intro to Missions class with Dr. Bowman and was learning about how God is worthy of all worship, yet He is not known in so many places. I wanted to see what serving in a different religious context would be like and started praying about the opportunity to go on this trip. God opened up every door, even the ones I thought would stay closed.

Our team of four started preparing for the trip during spring semester. We practiced sharing our testimonies and the Gospel with each other, prayed, and worked on language-learning.

On our trip, we were in Africa, building friendships with the locals and sharing the Gospel with them. In the first city, our team had a few language lessons, which were really helpful as we went around the city. In the second city, we were researching where students tend to meet for future teams who will come. Our goal was to spend time with and get to know the locals with the prayer that we would be able to share the Gospel with them.

God humbled me on this trip by showing me that I cannot do anything without Him and showed me His grace in still working through me when I failed. We were in a really dark and hard place, and I realized the necessity of daily time in prayer and the Word to keep going. It’s easy to follow God in America, where we have a strong believing community around us, but it is so much harder to follow Him where there is darkness on every side.

If you’re considering a GO trip, I encourage you to lay it at God’s feet and be willing to go where He leads you. God used this trip to deepen my trust in Him and shape me in so many ways.

the Africa team poses for a group photo.

Beyond My Expectations: Eli’s Story

My professor asked me to come on this trip because I had been to the country two times before. I came into this trip having not sure how much we could accomplish. I prayed that God would provide opportunities for me to share the Gospel, but it’s a high-security context, so I wasn’t certain if I would even be useful there. Yet, God truly worked and used the team and me for the Gospel.

We made friends quickly and spent our whole time in the first city hanging out with people we had met there, spending multiple hours every day with different people and sharing the Gospel in depth daily with people who spoke English and were willing to hear. This was beyond any of my expectations, so I praise God for His amazing work!

My biggest takeaway from this trip is that I am not my own, and I am only a vessel for the Lord. This kind of work is humbling in that it requires complete dependence on Him. The contexts we were in required faithfulness, but it was truly the Lord who provided the opportunities for the Gospel to be completely and accurately shared. On one occasion, a fellow trip member and I asked God to give us clearer opportunities to explicitly tell our local friends that aside from Jesus they cannot have a relationship with God. The next day, both of our friends we spoke with asked us directly if we believed they were going to heaven or hell. God is so good, and all the glory goes to Him!

If I could encourage those considering going, I want to encourage you that the call is simple: Be faithful. That does not make the call easy, but it means that going requires nothing special of you; it just requires following Jesus. He will lead you, and He will provide the words to speak.

a city in Africa.

Living My Daily Call: Rachel’s Story

Though it may sound cliché, I can say with complete confidence that this trip changed my life. I first heard about this GO trip almost by accident. I was talking with a friend while working at the library when he mentioned that our professor was leading a trip. I had already been loosely considering a GO trip before graduation, and because I deeply respected my professor, my interest was sparked.

After the first informational meeting, the Lord placed this trip on my heart. Something stirred in me. I knew I was meant to go. From beginning to end, God answered countless prayers and continually reminded me of His faithfulness. He showed me that He will provide again and again, oftentimes in ways I don’t expect.

Throughout the trip, the Lord revealed more of His character and taught me what it means to love like Christ. But more than anything, He opened my eyes to the deep and desperate need for His light to reach the darkness in this world. He broke my heart for the things that break His. What once felt like a distant missionary calling — something reserved for “unique” people — became deeply personal and profoundly real. I now understand the Great Commission not as an abstract command but as a daily call to live in faithful obedience.

If you’re considering a GO trip, take the leap. God has something amazing in store, and He works in all things. We are called to partake in His mission — what an honor!

a village in Africa.

Seeing the Need: Ethan’s Story

The past year, I heard a lot about taking the Gospel to the nations in classes and with my friends, and I wanted to get involved. The Lord provided a way and the funds for me to go on a trip, so I registered to go. I remember a former missionary in my class telling us that if he had known of the spiritual darkness that awaited him, he may have never gone to the field. While 10 days is not as immersive as 20 years, God definitely showed me spiritual darkness like I’ve never seen before.

I’ll never forget our first full day in Africa. Eli and I had spent most of the day with a local, talking about Christianity, local religion, and life. Near the end of the day, he showed us how he washes himself sometimes before praying. It probably took a few minutes for him to finish, but it felt like hours. Watching him scrub himself thinking it would bring him to God broke my heart. This area of Africa is so blind to the Gospel. I praise God for helping me see the need around the world.

This trip took everything I’ve learned about in class and made it real. I learned that missionaries aren’t super-Christians; they’re just normal Christians who love the Gospel. It was so cool to see the outworking of discipleship, evangelism, and church planting.

For anyone considering a GO trip, I would recommend it even if you don’t plan on living overseas. Both as a goer or a sender, the experience of a short-term trip is helpful in understanding the missionary task, and it’s an awesome way to watch God do amazing things.

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