Accepting a Call to Missions

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. What is the biggest mission field in America, arguably in the world? Well, I'm sitting in front of a young lady who has a college degree and just like other young people, she's had every parent and their brother say, what are you going to do with your life? Where are you going to go work? How's the job lined up?

The application's in the mail. How's that going? Brienne, it's like you just got to answering all our questions about where are you going to college, right? And now they're putting that heat on you, huh?

Yeah. Yes, I graduated from Lee University in 2018 and for the longest time, I never really knew what I wanted to be from a young age. People are like, oh, I want to be a teacher or a firefighter, but for me, I never had any of that.

But my first recollection of what I thought I wanted to be, I was in middle school and I was a missionary. That is so cool. Wow. Yes. And so that's kind of been a dream for a lot of my life, but yes, graduated and decided that's what I was going to do.

And so you graduated and then you went and I had you on this show and this is kind of cool. So this is like a Brienne update, right? Right. An update where she can tell us what God's doing now because she went a long way away initially and everyone's like, are you crazy? Why are you going to that university that's less than 1% born again?

It's largely communistic and secularistic and atheistic. Now she's come all the way home to one of the biggest colleges in North America to be a missionary on that campus. So it's awesome. So tell everyone where you went first and then we'll talk about the mission field you're at now. Okay.

I could talk about this all day. I went to Prague, Czech Republic, and I served there on staff with CREW, formerly known as Campus Crusade. And so I worked with high school and college students. I would go to high school campuses and hang out in English classes with my team and speak English with students, which I've learned is a really cool tool to use to be able to share the gospel.

If nothing else, people want to talk to you because you are a native English speaker. And so we'd go into class and speak English and help practice and build relationships with students and meet with them outside of class. We'd have student events. We would go to the park and have picnics. We'd have them over to our flat. And so did that with high school students and also got to reach out to university students. We'd go on campuses.

There were three of them, more than three in Prague, but three that we focused on. And we'd just walk onto campus and maybe just share the gospel outright or maybe meet people or ask them for directions to the library or the cafeteria. And they're like, you're American. And the novelty of that to these people, instantly you have a platform. They're like, oh cool, an American. An American who's nice. Which is pretty off-putting for them at first sometimes. Czech people tend, I love them so much, but they tend to be maybe a little cold upon meeting someone new.

Who is this American? Why is she smiling? Why are you talking to me? Once you get past that, Czechs are super loyal.

And so once you build friendships with them, you're kind of stuck with them, which is a sweet thing. What would you say a highlight of that trip? And I want to move back to North America where you are now. And we loved what you were doing and supported you. And we had you on the show. And you encouraged so many young people and so many people listening that are old fuddy dogs like me are going to get this podcast, broadcast, and they're going to forward it to all their young people and say, I want my kids to grow up to be like Breon. That's a prayer. What a blessing. And one of my mentors is with us right here, Dr. Carson, and he may have a question for you.

So hold on, Dr. Carson, I want you to think about, and I'll hand it to Mike. We're at a coffee shop. This is a cool little coffee shop. It's called Bobby Boy's Bake Shop. My daughter, Joy and I, it's our favorite coffee shop.

So good, isn't it? We're on the deck. It's a little chilly, but we're interviewing. We got our jackets. Yeah, we got our jackets.

We got our coffee. We have Dr. Carson, the ninjutsu believer, godly man of God, who's like my Paul, who knows, who's been poured into so many people. And we interviewed him not too long ago about his ministry, Date the Word, a scripture verse for every day of the year.

So cool. But Breon, tell us, maybe encapsulate that whole, that Prague experience with what maybe, what's something for listeners to hear that God really did in you, maybe did through you? Because these are a lot of folks that have never heard about Jesus, correct? Correct.

Yes. I would say the highlight of my time in Prague doing ministry was meeting weekly with a couple of high school girls, one-on-one or two-on-one in reading the Bible together. They're not yet believers, but 100 million thousand Australian percent believe that they will be.

That's so cool. And so meeting with these women, these young women who maybe have never seen a Bible or touched a Bible before, and getting to read the word together and just allowing the Holy Spirit to be present and to say, all right, I have nothing to offer, but God, you do. And so Spirit just lead us and, you know, open up John and start reading.

And that's all you have to say is what is written on the page. And so just getting to watch these girls specifically too in mind that I met with, just to watch them kind of, their eyes and their minds be open to the word and actually like fall in love with God and fall in love with the word before they even decide that they want to follow him. So if I learned one thing, I think it was just the power of the word and letting it just speak for itself. Amen. So you turned a pretty big corner to come back stateside to the United States. And then suddenly I get this email and enjoy, my daughter and I were talking, and you're going to here to North America, to University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. What's going on?

Why that change? And tell us about what you're doing there and what God's doing now. Yeah, absolutely.

Yes. So time in Prague kind of was just further clarification of, man, I love this stuff. I love ministry.

I want to do this full time. And so didn't feel led to stay, which was sad. I had to grieve that because I loved my life there and I loved my job there.

And I love my Czech friends with the word was saying, come back here. And so we're just gonna say like, there's another sweatshirt. I'll just get it from student tomorrow. Okay. Very, very cold. I see someone offered a sweater so I can warm up. Very gracious. Awesome. Thank you, my friend. One of our bystanders is a new Christian radio listener to the Truth Network.

He just offered a sweatshirt to the young lady because it is kind of chilly. Thank you. God bless you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Wow.

We interrupt this national radio interview for a act of kind service from a young man, a gallant man with offering a sweatshirt to this young lady. So how about that? That's cool. So carry on. So you got to kind of close that door and led you away from Prague.

Yes. Let me away from Prague back here. And yes, so I also, I said I love ministry, but I also love sports and athletics in that realm of the world. And lacrosse is my big sport. I got to play in high school and then a couple years in college.

And so just getting to see how that can even be an avenue for ministry was huge. And you used to play basketball with my daughter, Hope. I remember those days.

Yes, I do. In the church league, so that was fun. Humble start.

That was great, though. So the athletics and all that's kind of tugging you toward a whole new thing. Yes. So I have just joined staff with a ministry called Athletes in Action. And so what that ministry does mostly is campus ministry.

So lots of college campuses that we're on. And we'll have weekly meetings and discipleship with student athletes. But the focus is on these student athletes who maybe they know Christ or maybe they don't yet. But just inviting them to join into what's going on and, you know, getting to go out and support them and just be a part of the athletic world there.

And I think my time at Lee, I went to Lee University, was huge. And even just as a student getting to say, OK, God, what would you have me to invest here on this team? And getting to come alongside of women and disciple them and even kind of see God change their lives. And so meeting people where they're at, learning how to do that. And who would have known God would have had a whole plan to use a Christian college, Christian professors to build into you, Christian leaders to disciple you, to prepare you to be on a fully secular campus.

Right. To now be making disciples of some kids who are just they're struggling. They're looking at life.

Now they're struggling with masks on and all the changes with all the stuff going on. But now God's using you there. We're going to take a quick break and come right back with Breanne and her ministry on the campus of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Now stay tuned because we need to hear from our youth. We're focused and we're doing a whole segment now and we're doing these segments on Truth Talk to focus on the youth, the rising generation and their passion to serve God and what we can learn from them and how we can challenge. I have four daughters and I pray more, you know, let this young lady be an example to them to serve you and to be missions minded. So come back with us in just a second.

Don't touch that dial. Thank you to all of our awesome affiliates. Be sure you download the podcast of this in the whole thing entirely.

Maybe some bonus coverage. Dr. Carson is going to ask a question in the next segment too. And how can we change the world? How can we be a force for the Holy Spirit to work through us on the college campuses all across North America? This is the Truth Network.