Go Now celebrates 70 years of sending students on mission

Go Now Missions celebrated 70 years of sending college students on mission by commissioning 223 student missionaries to share the Gospel around the world this summer.

The ceremony, held May 22 at Dallas Baptist University, welcomed both past and present Go Now missionaries to celebrate students who have gone and are going to the ends of the earth.  

Since 1946, Go Now Missions, a Texas Baptists’ ministry, has mobilized 10,346 Texas university students to serve as missionaries across the state, country and world. 

The first team of Texas Baptist student missionaries consisted of four individuals from Baylor University who conducted revival services in Hawaii. Since then, students have traveled near and far to engage in a variety of ministries to reach a vast array of people, from children and college students to homeless and ill-stricken, with the Gospel. 

The 70-year celebration ceremony featured keynote speaker Dr. Keith Parks, who has served as president of the International Mission Board and as Global Missions Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. 

Parks’ passion for missions began in 1948 when he served as a Texas Baptist summer missionary to San Andres Island, Colombia. 

“My spiritual understanding and the catalyst of what God used to tell me what He wanted me to do with my life took place when I was a summer missionary,” Parks said, enlightening the 2016 summer missionaries to anticipate a transformational experience while serving on the mission field. 

At the close of the ceremony, former student missionaries who served from the 1940’s to the 2010’s were invited on stage to pray over the summer missionaries as they prepare to depart on their summer mission journeys. 

“We humbly thank the Lord that He would choose to use Texas university students for seven decades to be a part of bearing His Gospel and being His servants all across our nation and the world,” said Brenda Sanders, who has served as Go Now Missions consultant since 2001.

In the last year, Go Now has mobilized a record-breaking year total of 526 missionaries, combining students commissioned for the fall semester, Christmas break, spring semester and summer. Learn more about and support Go Now Missions by visiting  gonowmissions.com.