Summer campaigns offer ... Religious Outreach Harding's influence far extended the bounds of her campus as hundreds of her own journeyed to corners of the world last summer. These students experienced all manner of culture and worship, from a typical service in pews in England to an African dance of joy under a tree. With a goal to share Christ, they blessed in spirit and number all who received them. They too were blessedwith a new awareness and understandingwhich has forced them to continue living with a mission. Many times the absence of the familiar made the campaigners clearly aware ofGod's universal purposes. Mental walls of tradition disintegrated when God's plan for His church was played out in people so very different from Harding's students. Chris Williams, who worked in Uganda, said, "I never knew how large and diverse the kingdom of heaven is." Seeing the universality of Christ's church amid cultural differences shocked many students. Jesse Tyree found that the church in Scotland struggled in many of the same ways as his church in the northern United States. This realization opened his eyes to what had previously seemed normal at home and burdened him to continue his mission when he returned. "My home church needs the same work we have done in Scotland," he said. The oneness of the church was felt all over the world. LauraWhite reflected, "Though we were in a different hemisphere on the other side of the world, our hosts never seemed like strangers. We felt like family." From the ones they went to help, the students grasped how individual members of the worldwide body of Christ work together to fulfill God's purpose. "Christianity and worship are not confined to our personal relationship with God. Love for Christ is shown by serving His people and His creation," Williams said. At the close of the summer, students had both shared and received this love. Being outside of affluent America, campaignerswere confrontedwith great need. One would think this would evoke pity from the campaigners, yet the result was a lesson on contentment. Those who had nothing made much of what they had. They gave freely and were happy with having nothing at all. "The church was their life, their social unit," White said. These people did not need anything else. God made evident through the poor of the world the richness of faith. Heather Troutwine summed it up for the campaigners and those to whom they went. "In the end, who cares about anything except our faith!" Many students who had never before considered foreign missions now dream of forming teams to teach abroad. All, however, returned from the experience convicted of the mission of God and the role they play in that mission. - Johnna Duke Kris Keim, Todd Denoyer, Sonua Bohannon and Laura Harvey (lying on floor) perform the skit, "Father, Father" in an Australian school. Teaching with drama was only one ofthe ways that the Harding group tried to reach the Australians. Photo by Robin Jubela. "Though we were zn a different hemisphere on the other side ofthe world, our hosts never seemed like strangers. We felt like family." - Laura White
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