Oh, where to begin? God has been doing a major work in my life and has transformed my thinking in so many areas in my time here, but I think I am going to just focus on one.

I have attended Middle Tennessee State University for the past 2 ½ years. On my first week of school I showed up at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry and wanted to get involved right away, so I did. I heard a lot about the International Ministry through it. They did things like conversational English groups with internationals, retreats for them, and a Thanksgiving dinner for them. Most people, myself included, didn’t seem very interested. It just didn’t seem a priority. I am not proud of that in my life, but it happened, and thankfully God has allowed me to learn from that since I’ve been here in Russia.

It took me walking in the shoes of those internationals to realize how much they need to be reached out to. Coming into another country where you don’t know anyone and barely know the language is intimidating. I was blessed and am so thankful that I was able to make friends so easily here, but it doesn’t happen like that in America, at least it didn’t on my campus or among me and my friends, who continually said that they wanted to reach the nations for Christ. I’m not saying we weren’t doing that in some capacity, but we just didn’t recognize or grasp that the nations were so close. The people in my campus ministry love the Lord and have a desire to make Him known, but somewhere along the way, reaching the nations on my own campus was lost. I didn’t even think about it much. I helped at one event for them, and that was it.

God has changed my heart and given me a desire to reach these people that I have neglected the past two years. He has brought the nations to us. The nations are right next door to the BCM every Tuesday night to practice English. What a better way to meet them and begin to build relationships with them than that. Yes, conversation may be awkward at first because you don’t know what to say, but that often happens when you meet new people anyway.

God has begun to give me ideas of ways to reach out to internationals at home. He has also given me the chance to talk to some people on the ministry team at the BCM about it, and they are ready to reach the internationals of our campus.

I see God working in the lives of believers at home in this area, and He is definitely working in my life. I am excited to see how God is going to use this for His glory.

Shannon Selby