Changing the World One Missionary at a Time

Changing the World One Missionary at a Time

By Kaitlin Roach

At Walla Walla University, taking time off of school to be a student missionary is often a life-changing journey.

Approximately 70 students every year travel to serve in many different places around the world. The student missionaries leave a positive mark in the location they chose to serve in.

The dedication, hard work, skills, and vision these students have is what makes WWU shine in one of our core themes: to have “generosity in service.” It only makes sense to get an idea of what it can mean to be a student missionary, the impact they leave behind, what they personally experience, and how they can apply what they learned to their future career and goals.

A student missionary has many role options, like being a chaplain, a dean, a teacher, a nurse, a coach, a maintenance worker, or a medical assistant. However, a student missionary’s role is more than the type of work they choose to do. A student missionary is also a mentor and a role model. The relationships and love they share with the people they help is life-changing.

I had the privilege of interviewing Emily Beaver, who spent the last year in Zambia, eastern Africa. Her decision to serve overseas began in her high school Bible class. Her teacher had graduated from WWU and served as a student missionary during her time there. After Beaver heard stories about her teacher’s service, she knew that was exactly what she wanted to do. Following this decision, Beaver embarked on a mission trip to Costa Rica her senior year and was ecstatic to go for an entire year in college.

A student missionary may have expectations about what they will experience, but the journey they embark on is full of surprises, trials, and beauty. They go without knowing the impact they will have on the people, the purpose they will discover in themselves by God’s grace, and the memories they will take with them for the rest of their lives. The journey may not always be easy, but these experiences are what make it all worth it in the end.

Beaver described two big experiences she had during her year of service. First, she received valuable medical experience. Second, she got to live and serve in a different culture. Overall, she says the best part of doing mission work is “knowing that I am helping people in any way that I am capable and I am following God’s calling for us to be there for the people around us.” 1

Beaver knew that she had always wanted to take a year off of school and serve as a student missionary, but she also knew she wanted her mission work to benefit her future. She looked for an opportunity to gain medical experience. Beaver attempted to get into several places that included medical programs, but they filled up. She was stuck. She prayed earnestly, leaving her future up to God. It wasn’t until the very end of her school year that Brittni Bryan, the Associate Chaplain for Missions at WWU, gave her a call to tell her there was an available spot in Africa. Beaver knew this was exactly where she needed to be.

A student missionary’s experiences can be eye-opening, leaving them with future decisions to make and having an entirely different perspective about the world around them. During Beaver’s time in Zambia, she worked at Mwami Adventist Hospital in a very small, rural town near the border of Malawi.

She was immersed in the African village life. It could be heartbreaking to see all the poverty and sickness. Consistently, her job changed and was significantly disorganized. There were days where she got to work in the operating room for an assignment—watching, learning, and gaining enough knowledge to work as a scrub nurse or as a surgeon’s assistant. Other days she would work in the HIV/AIDS clinic, where she took vitals for patients being admitted.

The rest of the time she would either practice blood drawing in the lab or do rounds with the doctors in different wards. Beaver not only appreciated how diverse her opportunities were, but also appreciated the challenges of working independently and the disorganization that came along with the variety.

Beaver was surprised by the amount of hands-on work she received. She didn’t expect the emotional challenges she would face. Because she was living in an impoverished country in a rural village, she saw lots of disease, sadness, uneducated children, and death. As depressing as it was for Beaver, it deepened her passion for the medical field. It helped her realize that she wants to continue working hard in school so that she can eventually have the opportunity to go back as a medical professional and help more.

One thing Beaver attempted to do as often as she could was pray for patients and bring them food. This was difficult due to the language barrier. Beaver said she “wanted to incorporate God into everything I did.” 2

Beaver participated in the Mwami community and their church life. She attended their service projects, helped with Sabbath school, and did whatever she could to be an example with the gifts that God presented her with.

Beaver shared with me one of her favorite stories of when she was part of a surgical case. A young boy had been in a terrible motorcycle accident, which left the majority of his forehead scraped off, exposing the skull. The boy came into the hospital “in pain, sad about his appearance, exhausted, and disappointed.” 3 The surgeon decided he was going to make a skin graft using the boy’s own skin from his forearm. After a long process of four surgeries, major healing, and recovery, they were finished. Beaver says “it was the most rewarding thing to watch him look in the mirror for the first time after the surgery and smile so large. After that, any time the boy saw me in the hospital or around the village, he would come to me and say thank you.” 4

After a student missionary reflects on their own experience from the mission trip, they sometimes discover what they are meant to do in life. Beaver learned that you do what you can with what you have, and that being present is the first step in mission work. She was able to work with extreme diversity in personalities and lifestyles. Beaver says, “It doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing or has done, the only thing that matters is that you’re doing what you’re supposed to.” 5 Beaver learned that her interest in medicine is something she wants to pursue—she wishes to impact the world with her abilities and share the Word of God with the people around her.

1 Beaver, Emily (3 Oct. 2019). Personal interview.

2 Ibid

By Kaitlin Roach

page 4 | October 10, 2019 | Volume 104 | Issue 01