This is the eighth in a series of blogs written by alumni of the Student.Go program.  This year Student.Go is celebrating 10 years of providing summer and semester missions service opportunities for college and graduate students in locations all over the world.

This blog is written by written by Mary Little who served through Student.Go with National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington, DC during the summer of 2009.

I participated in Student.Go the summer after I graduated from college in 2009. I was part of a team of five that ran a summer camp for urban children in Washington, DC at National Baptist Memorial Church. My experiences that summer have profoundly shaped my life and focus for ministry, especially in terms of feeling pulled to work in diverse urban neighborhood churches. My fellow camp counselors were a tremendous support and we all became fast friends, still keeping in touch 2 ½ years after our Student.Go experience. I even traveled to Missouri to attend the wedding of my roommate and her fiancé, who was also a Student.Go summer missionary that same summer at a different site.

In my theological reflections and practical ministry experiences as a current seminarian, I still draw on the memories and experiences of working at camp. The mutual exchanges of love, compassion, and trust between the children, the counselors, the different mission teams, and the congregation continue to have a defining effect upon my sense of call to pastoral ministry.

As a woman seeking ordained ministry, I found an incredible mentor in the pastor of National Baptist. Pastor Kasey Jones took me under her wing and, in addition to supervising me with the more administrative tasks of the summer camp, met with me for theological discussions and direction. Before camp ended, Pastor Jones invited me to preach for the Sunday service, an offer I happily accepted. She saw the depths of potential for ministry in me before I entered seminary, and allowed me space to explore my questions and passions with the congregation. The sermon I preached inspired in me a sense of awe at the all-encompassing nature of God who delights in creating lasting relationships and friendships among people from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures.   

I am so thankful for the opportunity through Student.Go to lean into a greater awareness and appreciation for the sacred beauty in the diversity of humanity. I am reminded of the song all the campers and counselors sang together at the end of each day, and I go through each of my days now, with this communal blessing sending me forth:

 “Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with chords that cannot be broken. Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, Lord, bind us together with love.”    May it be so.

Mary Little