Next Generation Missionaries
The Bethel and World Partners Alignment Series
Part 2 — How We Serve Bethel Students… Current and Future
As newly appointed World Partners Missionaries in Residence at Bethel University, Jeremy and Mindie Tice are witnessing something special: students who are hungry to serve the Lord.
Before they even settled into life at Bethel in the fall of 2023 after two decades of missionary service abroad, the Tices began to sense the Lord at work among several students. Clearly, students were experiencing the conviction associated with a missional call and desired help clarifying that call.
And so, Jeremy and Mindie got right to work.
First, they engaged relationally. Jeremy and Mindie began filling up their schedules and their dinner table with students who expressed a sense of call. They did so because they personally understand that a missionary call is discerned, not simply decided. Like a Sherpa to Everest climbers, Jeremy and Mindie are expert guides who know the path of becoming a missionary. They lovingly help students wisely navigate their journey to clarity.
Shalyn
Corryn
Shelby
Shalyn is one of those students. Her burden to use sign language to share the gospel with the global deaf community is deep. As Mindie mentors her, Shalyn is actively testing this calling by attending a missional sign language conference this year through a Tice contact. Shelby is spending this summer with World Partners missionaries in Rwanda and Bulgaria, and Corryn is traveling to eastern Europe — all opportunities the Tices have brokered for students to explore and clarify their call.
But the Tices don’t stop at current Bethel students.
In fact, they sense that the Lord is calling MCUSA tweens and teens across the country. The Tices believe, in faith, they have a key role to play in helping to amplify and clarify the call of those students as well.
That’s why this summer they are speaking at children and family camps in the Great Plains Region. It’s also why they are partnering with the North Central Region’s Discover Conference for teens. And the same is true for their collaboration with the Central Region NextGen initiative, “Explore the Call” weekend.
“We see Bethel University becoming ground zero again in raising up the next generation of World Partners missionaries.” according to Joe Johns, a World Partners Director. “We can imagine the Tices, along with a team of energized Bethel students, visiting MCUSA youth groups and camps around the country and coming alongside NextGen workers to amplify Jesus’ call with the message: ‘come to Bethel or BUX and we’ll help you clarify your call and send you to it.’” Johns adds, “it’s time to see the renewal movement among students we’ve been praying for.”
The alignment between World Partners and Bethel University is strong and getting stronger. Next month, in the third and final part of our Bethel University and World Partners Series, we’ll announce a new collaboration between World Partners and Bethel that will further catalyze our growing partnership. Stay tuned!
In this series, we’ll explore the robust missional alignment between the Missionary Church/World Partners and Bethel University. Be encouraged by the fruit our shared purpose in Christ is producing to glorify Jesus. Look for future editions in this 3-part Bethel and World Partners Alignment Series.