Called for the Gospel
In college, my brother’s life transformed after receiving the gift of Jesus. After watching for a year, I witnessed a profound change in his words, actions, and attitude back home. This gift prompted him to invest in Campus Outreach (CO) throughout his college years. I watched him raise support for various conferences and summer programs. When in Florida during the summer of 2016, he invited me to visit him at his second Summer Leadership Project. I couldn’t shake the odd feeling that this was something I had to do. So, I left after work in Orlando and headed for Daytona, having no idea how God was about to move.
After meeting an army of people involved in CO and being taken aback by the excitement I found, I took a closer look. These people genuinely loved each other. They did not simply sing words on a screen, but they worshiped God. They were serious about their faith, as they took notes while the speaker taught from God’s Word. This was different than Christianity that I was used to. Witnessing all of this led to a piercing conversation between my brother and me. Through this conversation, God broke down my walls, convicted me of my sin, and laid my heart bare in front of me, all while covering me in the Gospel. On the drive back to Orlando, I received Christ as my Lord and Savior.
My brother told me that the biggest thing for a new believer was to find community, so I started going to CO meetings and connected with leaders in the ministry. Quickly, they invited me into their lives and began to teach me how to faithfully walk with God. I found a church to join and participated in various Bible studies. Before long, I was equipped to share my faith and Christ worked through my life on the campus. Still, the most impactful moments in my new-found life revolved around retreats and conferences I attended.
Months after surrendering my life to Christ, I went to New Year’s Conference and was deeply impacted by God. He revealed that the course of life I once desired was not His plan for me. My world was no longer what it once was, and I was no longer who I once was. At that conference I had a conversation that opened my heart to full-time ministry. Prior to that conversation, I was unaware that people could get paid to share the gospel and disciple students. I immediately knew that I could see myself working for CO and planned to reach college students after graduation through CO in my region.
The culture of Campus Outreach has shaped the way I view missions. The men and women in the ministry were faithful to share the gospel and this began to encourage me to live the life of an evangelist. As crazy as it may seem, we simply share our faith out of love for God and love for people. We love God, and therefore we are faithful to obey Him. We love people, so we desire for everyone to experience salvation and joy in Him. Furthermore, as a ministry we gather once a week to pray for the campus. We also pray once a week for the unreached people groups of the world. Thus, I first saw missions in the way those in this ministry lived their daily lives and understood it repeatedly through exposure to the ministry’s various Bible studies, talks, and teachings. Through all of these means, I heard the gospel, everyone’s need for the truth, and most importantly, that all was rooted in Scripture.
The last thing that shaped my view of missions was revealed in God’s Word. At my first Summer Leadership Project, I recall studying the Great Commission in depth. I remember crying in a coffee shop in Daytona. As I studied the Word personally and was exposed to it corporately in CO, I discovered God repeatedly saying over the last year through His Word: “Nathan, YOU go and make disciples of the nations”. I believe that He spoke to me there. My heart grew in love for the people of the world who did not know Him.
After that transformative summer, I sought entering into full-time ministry as a missionary abroad, but I still felt called to work with college students. With this, I also had to participate in an internship to finish my degree. How could I marry these desires? It was at this time that my friend who works for CO explained the CO LEAD program to me. Through this program, I could go abroad for two years and share my faith with lost college students while continuing to develop personally as a Christian. After speaking with my school, they determined that the program would count for my required internship. I began the application process in January 2018 and continued to receive green lights from God through prayer and counsel. I’ll be departing to Australia with CO LEAD in June 2019.
The individuals and resources that have influenced my life through CO constantly point me to God’s Word and the gospel. They have set an example for me that God’s heart is not only for our school, but for the world, so we build laborers on the campus FOR the lost world. It is because of His Word and the gospel that we pursue Him and His Commission. I am going because for me there is nothing worth doing more than this - all for God’s glory. The change that I have experienced drives me to my knees for all nations to know Him. The Lord has saved me, so what else can I do but give my life out of love for Him?
Nathan Martinez is a graduate of Georgia Southern University. He serves the Lord overseas sharing the gospel to college students at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.