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JACKSON, Tenn. — May 1, 2001 — “How will they know? When we go!”

This was the theme for this year’s annual GO Trips which more than 200 51���� students and faculty participated in over spring break by traveling to twelve different locations including places as far away as Honduras and Hungary and areas closer to home like Naples, Fla. and Irving, Texas.

“GO Trips help students develop a Christian worldview,” said Union’s director of student outreach, Suzanne Frost. “After you go on one of these trips, you look at the world differently.”

While many of the trips had a specific interest or ministry in mind such as helping an orphanage in Honduras or assisting at a day care for HIV-positive children in Chicago, all of the teams served in different ways such as leading in worship services, Backyard Bible Clubs, door-to-door and street evangelism, construction and clean-up, and ministry to the homeless.

Frost said that not only those on the receiving end benefited from the trips, but the participants did as well. “One of the girls who traveled to Irving (Texas) with her group had never been on a mission trip before. When she got back, all she could talk about was the night they led worship in a homeless shelter, and seeing a man in tears, praying to God in Spanish. Though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, she knew God was working in his life.”

Frost herself traveled with the GO North Africa group to participate in prayerwalking for an unreached people group. Because it is illegal to witness in North Africa, Frost and her group had to rely on God to bring people into their lives to build relationships with.

“It’s not illegal to answer questions about faith,” explained Frost, who said that the goal was to begin conversations that would cause people to ask questions about their faith. The mission trip looked discouraging, however, when the group discovered that they had a tour guide who spoke perfect English, though the Journeyman traveling with them had requested no tour guide.

“We were afraid our opportunities would be more limited to praying together as a group. Boy, were we wrong!” said Frost. The group quickly discovered that the tour guide was searching for the truth, and eagerly listened to everything that was shared with him as he asked questions.

“I think the greatest lesson that many of us have learned through these trips,” said Frost, “is that God is always working! Always!”