SPECIAL EPISODE | Melanie Rogers | Mobilization & LEAD/NEXT

This week, we welcome back Melanie Rogers, LEAD Program Team Leader with CO SERVE. Also, Mary Kelly Letro from the SERVE Mobilization Team joins us again as our special guest co-host. As we look back on 10 years of the LEAD Program, we discuss the recent history of international mobilization with Campus Outreach, including our personal stories! Melanie shares statistics and stories from the field, from both LEAD staff and tenured CO staff who mobilized internationally with the NEXT program. 

If you're interested, this is also our FIRST EVER VIDEO podcast! You can enjoy audio as usually or dive into the video version on your podcast service.

Music by QubeSounds

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Would you like to hear more stories like these? Check out our blog, which publishes stories about what God is actively doing through Campus Outreach ministries around the world. Visit serve.campusoutreach.org/blog/

The Campus Outreach StaffCast is a production of Campus Outreach SERVE. The mission of Campus Outreach is to glorify God by building laborers on the campus for the lost world. To learn more, visit www.campusoutreach.org 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to the Campus Outreach Staff Cast, a podcast produced by SEO staff for SEO staff. I'm your host, John Elam, and with me, joining me again as special co-host is Mary Kelly Lethrough with the COServe mobilization team. Fresh off a plane from Brazil. How are you making it, Mary Kelly?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Um definitely could use another cup of coffee if I'm being honest.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Well, I I understand that. Definitely. Uh we have the privilege of Melanie Rogers joining us as a two-time guest back in season three. Melanie joined us and shared a lot about the lead program with COSERV. Today, Melanie, welcome back to the staff cast.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Thanks for having me back for a second time. I guess that means I didn't offend too many people the first time. Definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

No, by no means. By no means. Um, Melanie,

1) Melanie's story

SPEAKER_02 0:52

we'd love for you to just please share a little bit about yourself. Um, we always like to do this when we have our guests, a little bit about their story. So, just how did you come to Christ? Tell us a little about your time on staff, including your role now with COSERV.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, so I uh was born and raised in New Orleans in a non-Christian family. Uh, went to school at the University of South Alabama, Go Jags, and came to Christ my sophomore year. As far as I know, that was the first time I'd ever met a Christian uh in my life. Uh so was then discipled, graduated, and was invited to be a part of a small pioneering team to start the work in Louisiana for the first time. So I served at the University of Louisiana, Go Raging Cajuns. Uh, I was there for about 10 years. Uh, and then after that, I joined our team in Bella Rosence, Brazil, for about another 10 years, wearing a few different hats there. And then I started working at the Serve Center about five-ish years ago. I oversee the LEED program and I provide leader development training and coaching for a lot of our international field leaders.

2) Melanie and Jon - mobilization stories

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Um, that's awesome. I think that's so cool to hear just the journey of how God is taking you through many roles of staff. And right now, in your current role, you spend a lot of time and a lot of energy investing into the lead program. I have been a direct beneficiary of all of your hard work because I actually was a lead staff in Brazil and actually got to work with both of you, which was so fun. Uh, John had already been there previously, but I'd love to hear just from both of you, how were each of you mobilized to go overseas to Brazil?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Well, in my case, uh, I would say it was more, much more of a complex and complicated process than it needed to be. Uh, because at the time, I would say our campus outreach regions were pretty siloed. So I didn't really have any idea of, well, who do I talk to if I want to go overseas with campus outreach? Uh, where do we even have teams? I didn't even know that. So I was actually looking to go with different organizations, uh, different opportunities. But then a friend of mine who had who used to be on staff with us said, you know, Melanie, I think you should talk to this guy named Kent Bailey. Uh and I'd never heard of Kent before. Kent had just moved back to the US from Brazil. He was in the very beginning stages of starting what would one day become COSERV. Uh so she had his number. I called him up. Uh, I said, Hey, I've been on staff for several years, want to go overseas. I heard you might be someone to talk to about how to do that with CO. Uh, I think I left him a voicemail and he called me back and said, Yeah, let's talk. And it kind of went from there. What about you, John?

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, well, um, I kind of had a little bit more of a classic mobilization uh story when we think about kind of lead program now. So God did a lot in me throughout college, conviction for discipleship, multiplication, and even just a commitment to having a personal ministry for the rest of my life. Um and so although I did not think I would be overseas, um that really was impetus for me because I thought I'm not gonna be overseas, but if I try to start my career and then have an overseas experience, it's probably not gonna happen. And I started looking at opportunities, um, similar to what Melanie was saying, um, to go overseas to do a short-term program. Um there was nothing with CO at that point, and so I started just filling out applications, and so it was ELIC and China and multiple parts in the world, it was edge cores um with the navigators, it was journeyman program with the IMB. It was even I looked into the Peace Corps because I was just very interested in what God was gonna do. Um and honestly, though, by happenstance, what happened is I had spent my CCP the year before my senior year in college in Brazil, and then during my senior year, I ran into Dempse Dempsey at Briarwood that was there with a group of students, and he was asking, What are you thinking about after college? And I told him, and he said, Well, here's what we're thinking about about hiring some short-term staff, and it just made sense. I mean, I thought I had just been there, it's a ministry I believe in, it's a ministry I want to have a part of for a long time. I just went to Brazil, had a good time, I fit into the culture, it just makes sense because all of that is part of the lost world, which was really the basis of my conviction. And so um I kind of ended up doing a lead program about 20 years before lead programming this.

3) What is LEAD and it's history?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Oh man, I love hearing it's just really clear how God was so clearly at work in each of your hearts, and then also you just had the drive, the follow-through uh to make the connections that you needed to make to get you overseas to do, you know, what now we have in lead. And I think that's actually a really common desire for many students as they're approaching graduation or maybe even post-grad as they're kind of getting into the work field. They want to serve and they just don't always know where to look. Um, and I mean, I really do think the lead program has filled that gap. Um, and it's just such a huge blessing. So I want to take a little bit more time to just flesh out lead and help our listeners really understand what we are talking about. So, Melanie, um, as our residential expert on LEED, uh, that's in my words, not hers. Um, how about you tell us what is LEED and why was it created and how did it come about?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, so I would say the most basic soundbite is LEED is a two-year development program for recent college graduates, and it has a dual focus. The first part of that is really continuing to develop them as laborers and wherever they left off in that process of being equipped to be a laborer while they're doing campus ministry alongside of one of our international teams. So it's two years of that dual development focus. There's four, I should say there's four main goals for LEED, and they LEED, obviously, we are campus outreach, that spells out something. So LEED stands for our four main goals, which are that you would learn yourself, that you would engage the world, that means your team, the culture, the local church, that you would help advance the mission, and that you would develop your leadership potential. So that's what we aim to help, aim to help all of our LEED staff accomplish in their two years of LEED.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Thank you, Melanie. I think that's super clear, but I want to dig a little bit deeper. Okay. Why was LEED created?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, it's a good question. Um, the way I see it, I've kind of identified three major reasons for why LEED came about. Uh the first is what I would just say as a runway extender for laborer continuation. So uh I know a lot of us have been talking about what even what is the definition of a laborer. So if we define a laborer as a person who is mobilized in the church to live out a Christ-centered identity with spirit-filled character, is governed by a biblical worldview, engages persuasively among non-Christians with the gospel, and is equipped to multiply that lifestyle into others. So our strategy to build that has been the four E's: evangelism, establishing, equipping, exporting. But what we've been noticing is that in 2026, most of our students are graduating somewhere in the middle of being established in their faith. So they've been given the basic building blocks of how to walk with God, and they've maybe shared their faith a handful of times. So I would say they're not graduating as equipped laborers. So lead is really meant to pick up, pick up wherever they left off in that process of the four E's. Uh so that's the first reason. I would say a second is really as a recommitment to our campus outreach vision statement. So everyone knows this. You know, we're we're trying to glorify God by building laborers on the campus for the lost world. Uh, but I think we need to be regularly assessing is how we are doing with that? Like, is this actually our vision statement, or is it just what we say? Is it just what sounds good? And then what's our data to back up what we're saying? So I was gonna give you a couple of data points on that. Uh, there was a a time period of five, six years, I think it was like 2004 to 2009, where no one launched overseas to work with campus outreach. Zero laborers sent to serve internationally in five whole years. Uh, and then for those of you who have been on staff for a while, you might remember in 2013 we had a global staff conference in Orlando where all of our staff around the world were present. I think there were 683 staff there. Only 13% of those serve internationally. So that is a low number to me. Uh, and then finally, even right now, we currently have around 18 US-based regions reflecting around 100 college campuses. We also have around 18 international regions, but that only reflects around 20 campuses. So LEED is really helping us recommit to this going culture of reaching the lost world with the gospel. Uh, and then I'll give the last one is just relevance to the current generation. So the reality is that the amount of people who were willing to commit to serve overseas for five to ten years right out the gate, which is that's kind of what our international teams wanted, that number was drastically declining. Uh and lead being two years, two years, that's a lot more palatable for a graduating concept, a graduating senior to consider. It's also more palatable for the parents to consider with their their child going overseas. Um, and so I think it just the fact that it was a two-year commitment started to take off a lot of the pressure that someone might feel where they it's like, oh, I don't have to figure out if I want to be a career missionary at 21. I can do this for two years and then see what God wants to do with that. So that's kind of the three main whys. And I just think once we clearly identified those needs, lead I would say is was basically the strategy we came up with for how to meet those significant macro movement needs.

4) The impact and legacy of LEAD

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Okay, Melanie, that feels like a very compelling why. Um but I'd love to hear a little bit more. What would you say is some of the impact or maybe even see the even the legacy of LEED?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah. Uh one thing in particular that's caught my attention is I was I was doing some counting not too, too long ago. And really, uh I'm not a math person, but I thought this was interesting, interesting. In the past 10 years, so in the past decade, uh campus outreach has launched to nine new international locations. So nine teams sent out to nine new places. Uh that's Monterey, Lima, Cape Town, Lusaka, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Chiang Mai, and Athens. And I would say lead has played an incredibly crucial role in pulling all of that off. So, like, just to give you a couple examples in like how the teams break down. So, in Monterey, Monterey got started with a team leader and four lead staff. Lima, a team leader and three lead staff. Cape Town, a team leader and two lead staff. London, a team leader and four lead staff. Edinburgh, a team leader and three lead staff. And Athens has a team leader who is waiting on their first two lead staff to arrive this January. Uh and so that's a huge impact. Nine new regions, nine responses to church requests because 22-year-olds are signing up to go spend two years doing international campus ministry. Uh, I think another one, again, this is recent math that I just something was catching my attention. I was like, oh, I'm curious as to what the numbers are uh for this. But at present, uh 41% of all of our CO staff who are serving internationally, they are lead staff or they were lead staff who then recommitted with a long-term commitment. So in Latin America, 52% of all of the staff, lead staff reformer lead staff. In Africa, it's 36%, Europe, it's 59%, Southeast Asia, 21%, and the Tasman network 44%. So this is also one of the reasons that the quality of investment that we make in the development of those lead staff is so important. They're becoming 41% of the people on our teams. So that to me is an incredible impact and I think a legacy that's just gonna continue to grow and multiply.

5) LEAD stories from the field

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Melanie, thanks for sharing uh some of those numbers. It's really helpful to see the story um that kind of comes out with that. So I want to ask you to even kind of double-click and flesh out some of the storylines, kind of some of the narratives with that. Like tell us about some of these teams, tell us about some of the staff and how they've been directly impacted, not just through mobilization, but even specifically through lead.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah. I mean, honestly, I would love to tell you all their stories, but I know that this podcast isn't long enough for that. Uh so uh I'll start with one. Um, I think one of my favorite examples of this is our team in Monterey, Mexico. Uh, so this team started with a Mexican named Rodrigo Puebla, who he actually heard about campus outreach for the first time while at seminary in the U.S. He had come to Christ in college in Monterey, Mexico. Uh, and even after then, before seminary, he just had a dream to reach college students uh on his campus where he was an alumni with the gospel. Uh, and after he heard about CO, he said, I want it to be a campus outreach. Uh, and I think it was actually uh eight years uh of his pursuit, patience, perseverance that it took for that dream to become a reality. Because uh it was five years ago in 2021 that we sent Rodrigo four lead staff. Um, and Rodrigo is a great leader. Those staff were amazing. They were pioneering, they were learning. Uh, but three of those four, when they finished their lead commitment, uh, they made a new commitment to serve with him long term. That was Alex, Ben, and Gloria. Uh and so they're pioneering together at Tech de Monterey. Uh, then we sent him three more lead staff after that. Two of those recommitted. That's Venus and Spencer. Uh after that, he's since been able to hire two Mexicans uh on his team as well. That's Ale and Paloma. Uh and then he also hired an additional long-term staff who had served as a lead staff in a different location, who then committed to serve with him long term. So that that might sound not sound super impressive, but when you think about five years' time, in five years, you know, an eight-year dream, five years' time, God built a team of nine long-term staff in Monterey, use them to establish what I think is at present a thriving campus ministry, and they helped to plant a church. Uh and this all just started with Rodrigo and four 22-year-olds who are willing to take a step of faith to serve God internationally. So, Monterey is a great story to highlight. Uh, another team that would come to mind uh in a different sense is actually Edinburgh, Scotland. Um, so previously a mobilization director, Ryan Akers, moved his family to Edinburgh in 2023. Uh, a year later, we sent him three lead staff. We always like to give our leaders a head start. And I would say none of those staff, and they would all say this, uh, none of them were fully prepared for the incredible hard soil of a secular and skeptical Scottish student population. Um, but man, they faithfully did the very hard work of cultivating the soil and sowing seeds. And in less than two years, they had begun to see the first fruits of their labor of a couple of students coming to know Christ. That was not expected, or even they couldn't even think they could have hoped for that. Um, so different from Rodrigo's case where a lot of them recommitted, those initial lead staff just finished their two-year commitments and all of them transitioned back to the U.S. Uh however, God has now raised up five new lead staff in addition to three long-term staff for us to send to Ryan in January. Uh, some of those staff, they're gonna build on the foundation that those first three lead staff had begun to laid. The soil that they cultivated, the seeds that they planted, more laborers are coming to continue to build on that work. Some of those others who were gonna launch in January, they're gonna start investigating and pioneering ministry on a second campus in the city. Uh, so again, 22-year-olds blazing a trail to build a lasting gospel movement on foreign soil. It's really beautiful to see happen.

6) What happens after LEAD?

SPEAKER_01 17:56

I'm actually so glad that you mentioned those two teams in Monterrey and in Edinburgh, because in Monterey, so many people stayed. And then in Edinburgh, actually, none of those initial lead staff stayed in country. So that kind of brings me to this question: what happens to lead staff once they complete their two-year commitment?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, so as part of their kind of development along the way, about 18 months into their lead experience, they're gonna participate in what we call an assessment event. Uh, and really, it's a two, three-day event. It's a whole lot of learning yourself in light of your vision, your health, and your unique design. Uh, and so from there, after they kind of go through that, they're gonna get feedback, they're gonna reflect on a lot of their experience. But then after that event, they're gonna have a couple of different people engaging with them in the months that follow to really try to help them discern what might God be calling them to do post-lead. So the goal of that is really to help each person figure out what's the right next step for their best kingdom contribution. And honestly, we encourage people to have at least three options that they're pursuing. So, where do they tend to end up? Uh, I would say probably around half, I think, do recommit to their long-term teams. And if I'm honest, that's more than we we thought. Um, several of them end up moving back to America, they'll get a job in the marketplace, and they're really looking to plug in with the church and to labor through them. And then some go back to America and go on staff with campus outreach on a US-based team. Um, what I want to say about all of those is they are all wins for us. So, like our goal in LEED is not for all of them to become long-term foreign missionaries. God doesn't call all everyone to that. Uh, lead is developmental regardless of where you end up long term. So, really, what we want to do is think about how do we position our staff for their best kingdom contribution. And if that's on staff with us, great. And if that's not on staff with us, great. Um and uh I've heard, I mean, this is something that I know people from other organizations have commented on about us. That I mean, I've heard they're saying, I actually can't believe all that you do for people who are leaving your organization. Um, and honestly, I'm really grateful that that's something that our staff experience with us is that we don't care about you just because you're an employee with campus outreach. Like we care about you and we want you to labor for a lifetime and we want you to make your best kingdom contribution.

7) NEXT for current staff

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Well, Manley, thanks for explaining about that. Um, and it I agree, it's great to think about the investment into people regardless of if they stay or if they return back to seek out an opportunity in the US or someone else. But I have another question. So tell me about men and women who are currently serving with campus outreach in the US. What about those who are interested in serving overseas? They're not gonna do lead, so is there an opportunity for them?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Well um, that's really my story, right? So we do have something for them. Uh, it's called CO Next, but that didn't exist yet when I was looking to launch uh somewhere. So when I look back on my time on staff in Louisiana, I would say those 10 years, they just gave me incredible ministry experience, uh, especially because it was a pioneering type of situation. By the time I had left, um, you know, God had allowed me to share the gospel with women that I saw become Christians, that I had the opportunity to disciple, then they led women to Christ and discipled them, then they led women to Christ and discipled them. I think it was four spiritual generations. Like that was significant ministry experience that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. Uh, but over those 10 years, like I started to, my heart was Shifting in a couple of different ways. So, for one, I had participated in several different short-term mission trips, whether that was CCPs with campus outreach or through my church. And God was using each one of those to really cultivate a vision to reach the world with the gospel. And I just, I wanted to go somewhere where there were even fewer laborers. And I just I felt like there were people who were here in the US saying yes to building laborers here, but not many who seemed willing to go where there were a lot fewer. So that was one key shift in my heart that was happening. I think another is that I noticed my heart was really pulling me towards wanting to minister to people who seemed like they were starting further back in the evangelism process. People who are a bit more secular, skeptical. And there didn't just seem to be a lot of room for that in our U.S. ministry strategy, where it was we're looking for people who were already kind of ready to maybe come to events or read the Bible with us. And I just wanted to go somewhere where there was more freedom to minister to those people on God's timetable and not feel a pressure to get them to come to our events or read the Bible if that's not where they were yet. And you know, hindsight's 2020, I look back at that and I just go, God was clearly shifting my heart to labor in Brazil. Uh so there wasn't a next program, uh, but God worked in my heart and brought me where he wanted to bring me.

8) NEXT stories of mobilization

SPEAKER_01 23:36

And I'm so thankful. Um, and it's funny, like there was no next program, but you were essentially a next staff, and just like John, there was no lead program, and then he was essentially a lead staff. Um, so um, yeah, it's just it's funny how God works. And and I'm also really thankful that we do have these two programs, and it can just be hopefully smoother for people. But essentially, really just hearing your story, the next program. We we really like to say this it is based on the person, not the program. So, like what God was doing in your heart, calling you to this skeptical people, I mean, it was just directly shifting you to Brazil. And so that's kind of the idea of next. Like, you've been on staff for a while, you got some experience, and you are asking yourself, what is next? The Dutch. So like we want to help um investigate those questions, you know, like what decisions do you want to make so that you can position yourself to be this laborer for a lifetime, to disciple the people of all nations and be God's witness to the ends of the earth, what every Christian is asking themselves. And then are you really wanting to and willing to go where the laborers are truly few? And if you are, just quick shout out to C of Serve. We want to know. So please talk to us. Um, and actually, Melanie, I'd love to hear a couple of examples of people who asked themselves these questions and felt this desire and went. So tell us.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, I was um trying to look earlier today about who who are our current next staff on the field. So again, we've got around 150 staff serving internationally. Um, I might be off by a number or two here and there, but I think we have around 12 to 15 staff overseas who were serving on staff in the U.S. and then made that shift to serve internationally. So a few that come to mind. Uh Leah Townsend was a campus staff in Houston, Texas. She is now the women's coordinator in Brisbane, Australia. Uh Chad Mary was the mobilization director for CO Indy. He then became the investigative team leader uh in London that we sent four lead staff to. Taylor Roth was a campus staff in Augusta. She's now a lead supervisor in Manila. Uh and Megan Rintel was a resource staff for CO Memphis. She's now serving as the resource director in Birmingham, England. So that's just a few different examples of even a few different roles that took shape for US-based staff when they made the shift overseas.

unknown 26:06

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Uh if I'm honest, when I was looking at uh, I was like, who are our next staff? I really wish that number was a lot higher. Um, 12 to 15 total people doesn't sound like a lot to me. And the reason uh I want it to be higher for one, because I think there's a really good chance God is cultivating that desire in a lot of staff. And they just need people to come alongside of them and help fuel that flame. Uh, but also students seeing CO staff launch to the foreign mission field, that normalizes that as a viable option for them. And I believe it's gonna result in even more lead staff being sent from a given region if they have seen some of their staff actually make this decision. So my own story is an example of that. Uh, when I was a student, I saw six staff from my region launch a new CO region to Kazakhstan, including my campus director, including the staff woman who led me to Christ. Uh when I was a new staff person in America, uh I saw a staff woman return to her staff role after taking a two-year hiatus to serve as an English teacher with ELIC. She'd been on staff before. She wanted to go serve with ELIC for a couple years, and then she came back and kept working with campus outreach. Uh so my story is an example of this. And then honestly, uh just last week we had uh a serve staff orientation with 18 lead staff who are now beginning to raise support to go serve internationally. Uh, and I was talking with one of them named Malcolm, he's out of CO Memphis. And I asked him why he decided, like what were some of the key influential pieces to why he said yes to going on lead. Uh, and he actually quoted uh Denny Catalano, who's a veteran staff person, been serving in CO Memphis for a long time, and in about two weeks is gonna launch to London. Uh, but he quoted Denny. Apparently, Denny uh told the whole CO Memphis staff team, he said, someone in this room needs to go and join the team in London to help them. And if none of you go, I'm gonna go. And none of them did. So in two weeks, Denny and his family is getting on a plane and moving to London to help the team there. And so what Malcolm said is, man, I just thought this man is moving, this key leader in this movement and ministry is moving his whole family long term to reach the lost in Europe with the gospel. If he can do that, I can do that for two years. And so Malcolm is preparing to launch to Chiang Mai Thailand as a part of his lead experience. That's that's a key impact on them. Uh, and honestly, just to just to draw attention to this, we need to be able to send experienced staff to help lead, develop, and care for these young lead staff. Uh, we're not gonna send a bunch of 22-year-olds to lead themselves on the field. We need some US-based staff who say, I want to go and I want to lead these young missionaries.

9) The next 10 years of LEAD & NEXT

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Melanie, that is amazing to hear. Really, really cool. And so, I mean, we've just been talking to you and listening the impact that lead has had over the past 10 years. And I mean, I'm personally feeling quite inspired. But I would love to hear, like, dream with me. How do you think God is going to use lead and next over the next 10 years?

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Well, one is, I mean, I'm sure all of you, or hopefully all of you, have seen this map of the world that we have with blue dots and red dots. Uh, and I hope in these next 10 years uh that we just get to see continued expansion to meet those red dot requests from churches. Uh, there are, every time I look at it, it makes me excited and sad at the same time. So many churches around the world are are saying, please will you come and help us? Will you send us a campus outreach team to partner with us because we want your help to reach the university students uh in our cities? And again, I think lead is a key part of helping to make that happen. So I hope I hope that in 10 years, a lot more of the of those red dots have turned blue. Uh and again, lead staff and a couple of experienced staff to lead them, uh, to lead these things are the basic building blocks of responding to those requests. Um, I also would love to see uh international locations launching lead staff to other international locations. Uh so you know, right now, almost all of our lead staff are Americans who are serving outside of America. Uh, but I hope that there are lots of non-Americans serving as lead in ten years because that means our international works are producing fruit on the campus. And I just imagine that in the same way that God is reaching into people's hearts and cultivating a vision for them to go and reach the lost world with the gospel, that he's also going to be doing that in places like Brazil and South Africa and England and Thailand and Australia. And I want to see some of them go and be a part of what we're doing with lead as well. Like I said, there's been a couple of examples of that in the past. We've had a Kiwi woman named Rochelle be a lead staff in Thailand. Uh, and currently we've got Georgia, an Aussie woman who is serving as a lead staff in New Zealand, and Jason is actually a Fijian serving as a lead staff in New Zealand. So I would just love to see more of that happening in 10 years as well.

10) Prayer for staff

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Melanie, we really appreciate you sharing, Mary Kelly. Thank you so much for joining us also, and and you bring so much expertise in this, also. You said Melanie was the resident expert. I'll throw you in that group also. Um, but thank you so much. This is really an opportunity that we have to showcase and highlight uh the movement that's going on and with the goal that as people listen, as staff listen, they realize that there are opportunities and there are ways to be mobilized with campus outreach. Um definitely there are hundreds of ways to do it without the campus outreach, but even within our ministry, these opportunities exist. So thank you for that. Melanie, um to close our time, we always ask our guests, would you please take a little bit of time and pray not only for the current lead staff and current next staff that are serving overseas, but also for the ones that will join them over the next years as they labor around the world.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Father, we thank you for um just the men and women who have launched the foreign mission field on lead or as a part of CO Next, we thank you for their commitment to uh just to die to themselves, uh, to go and try something that is scary and requires a lot of courage. And we just pray, Lord, that wherever they are, whatever part of their day, wherever they are in the world right now, Lord, would you remind them that you are with them as they go onto campus, as they seek to love their neighbor, as they seek to be salt and light to the world around them where you would you strengthen them to do that. And Lord, we pray that we trust that there are many other men and women that you were that you are calling right now to go. And I pray that whoever that is, Lord, would you give them eyes to see, ears to hear, and the will to say yes to that invitation. Um I can't help but remember that some of um your last words to us, Jesus, before you ascended were that we would make disciples, we would go and make disciples of all nations, and that we would be your witnesses to the ends of the earth. Lord, let us not stop before we get to all nations and to the ends of the earth.

unknown 33:58

Amen.

Outro and Info

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Thank you for joining us on today's special mobilization episode. Make sure to see the show notes for resources that were mentioned in this episode. If you want to reach out to the CO Serve mobilization team, visit lead.campus outreach.org. Make sure to follow the Campus Outreach Staff Cast on your favorite podcasting service so you can catch each new episode. The Campus Outreach Staff Cast is a production of Campus Outreach Serve. The mission of Campus Outreach is to glorify God by building labors on the campus of the lost world. And to learn more, visit www.campus outreach.org.