Lloyd and Rossell move to Southeast Asia post-grad

BY JACIE SELLARS Staff Writer

Ouachita students Hannah Rossell and Hannah Lloyd will be taking a gap year in order to serve as missionaries in Southeast Asia. They are serving with the International Mission Board (IMB) and will be overseas for five months. Lloyd and Rossell will prepare over the summer and leave in August.

Rossell is a communication sciences and disorders major, and Lloyd is an elementary education major. They will be able to use their degrees as they work within communities in Southeast Asia.

“Our first job will be to work with the missionary family’s little boy,” Rossell said. “He is language delayed, and we will combine our love for speech pathology and education in order to give him more ways to communicate.”

Rossell found out about this opportunity after feeling unsure about her post-grad plans. “I told the chair of my department that I thought I needed to do something else before I went to grad school, but I didn’t know what,” Rossell said. “Soon after, an opening with a missions team with the IMB became available to me.”

At first, Rossell was a bit uncertain about committing to international missions and traveling across the world.

“I said no to begin with. I had no interest in going to Asia,” Rossell said. “Then, as I prayed through the situation and Dr. Hardman encouraged me, I felt the Lord undeniably calling me.”

Lloyd committed to the mission trip after hearing about it from Rossell. She began to feel calm about the whole experience as time went on.

“On the drive to our club outing, Hannah told me the details, and I decided to think about it,” Lloyd said. “By the end of the trip, I had a peace about it, and I knew that this is what I wanted to do and where God was leading me.”

Lloyd also believes that a gap year will be beneficial both in the short term and the long term. “I didn’t really feel like I was supposed to start teaching right after graduation,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t feel like teaching was my next step, but I didn’t know exactly what that to know each other and become true friends over the past few years at our home away from home.” order to fellowship and minister to local students and their families to the absolute best of their ability.

Lloyd is excited to partner in missions with a long-time friend, and she believes that her friendship with Rossell occurred at just the right time so that their future plans could align.

“We are trying to prepare for culture shock because we know it will happen,” Rossell said.

Rossell is excited to meet the people she will minister to. “I am overjoyed with the thought of the relationships that we will build overseas,” Rossell said. “It is really sweet to know that if the people we step would be. When this trip came up, though, everything just fell perfectly into place.”

Rossell and Lloyd have become close friends during their time at Ouachita, and they are thankful that God brought them together.

“Neither of us ever planned on rushing or pledging a club, but I decided to pledge on the last night of rush,” Rossell said. “A year later, Hannah decided to pledge, and I took her as my little. The Lord guided each step. We have gotten

“We both love the story of Esther, and we both love the verse that talks about ‘for such a time as this,’” Lloyd said. “If Esther hadn’t been put in the right place at the right time, so much would have been different. This reminds us that if God did not have His own sovereign plan, we would not have met and become friends, and this trip would not be happening. Our own plans fail to measure up to His.”

As Rossell and Lloyd prepare to move to a new country, they know that they will face obstacles. Rossell hopes that the two can adjust to a new language and culture in

Lloyd is making plans to maintain relationships from home while she is overseas. “The time difference will be a lot to get used to in many different ways, but especially when keeping in touch with our families and friends back home,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd is looking forward to truly experiencing life as an international missionary in Southeast Asia. “I have always been interested in the idea of doing missions, especially internationally, and I am excited to see what that will look like,” Lloyd said. “God will use us in ways that we have not even thought about. This trip will confirm if missions is something that will continue for me in the future.” meet decide to follow Christ, we will see them again after we leave Asia. I’m holding onto the hope that we will make friends, and even if we don’t see them again on this side of Heaven, we will meet them in Heaven one day.”

Rossell and Lloyd would highly recommend a gap year to students who feel called to it, even if the future feels uncertain.

“When we committed, we had no idea why the Lord was asking us to go, but I know that when we look back, we will see that the Lord was very clear,” Rossell said.

Lloyd believes that God is always at work in our seasons of transition and change.

“My advice to graduates is to pray about your post-grad plans,” Lloyd said. “If that gap year is what God wants you to do, there may be difficult times, but, in the long run, you know that you are doing what you are supposed to do. You aren’t missing out, and it will pay off in the end.”