The Student Mission story is always unfolding. With every new story of salvation and answered prayer, there is another story of someone committing to pray to see a move of God in the student generation. Some of these stories are hundreds of years old, with people whose names we may not know, making a huge impact on the student mission narrative we are a part of today. To highlight the story you're a part of, we're sharing some stories from years before. Check out this one below.
In 1806, a student at Williams College Massachusetts named Samuel Mills began to pray for the cause of foreign missions. At this point, missionary organisations in the United States were exclusively dedicated to domestic missions. Mills asked God to raise up men who would take the gospel abroad. One August afternoon, Mills gathered four other students - James Richards, Francis LeBaron Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green - to pray just outside of campus in a grove of trees. They had been reading William Carey’s book An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians (1792) which urged followers of Jesus to undertake overseas missions.
They spent time interceding for the world and discussing Carey’s writings. Suddenly, their meeting was interrupted by a thunderstorm and they took cover under a haystack. Arthur Latham Perry writes: “"The brevity of the shower, the strangeness of the place of refuge, and the peculiarity of their topic of prayer and conference all took hold of their imaginations and their memories." As the rain subsided and they got up from beside the haystack they had been praying under, Mills turned to his friends and exhorted them, “We can do this if we will!”
God answered their prayers. These five young University students initiated several of the first mission agencies in North America, including the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM), the American Bible Society, and the United Foreign Missionary Society. These organisations have played a vital role in sending people to share the Gospel across the world. The ABCFM sent over 1250 missionaries in its first fifty years across Asia, establishing many hospitals and schools. The hunger of these few, ordinary students for God to move and work through them ignited a global movement.
