Jody Gambrell and his 14 year old daughter, Avery spent their Spring Break in the Northeast of England with First Baptist Tuscaloosa’s Student Ministry students and a few families.
This is their story:
“This is typically a high school trip for us, but this year was so different because we had families come as well. We have two partnerships as a church, one with UK-USA Ministries and one in South America. The trips are so different from each other. There was a lot of darkness in England that you don’t normally see quite like that in America. The beauty of this trip for me was how we had a new adventure every day. We went in to each day with an open mind, we were in the schools, doing whatever we were asked to do. When we are flexible, God always seems to exceed our expectations. I was concerned about the age of our team at first, but it was so cool for me to watch the people who don’t normally speak up begin to take ownership and share their stories. I said this last time when we brought a team in 2018 and it came true again this year: I’ve never shared the Gospel in one week as much as I did during that week in England. It’s such a cool opportunity to share the Gospel on a daily basis because we want to make the best use of the time we have there and really try to share our hearts with them. We told the kids in the schools, “This is not just a story to us. This is why we are here. This is why we spent money and traveled so far to come… all because we believe this truth with all our heart.’
One thing that was unique about the church we were at in Shiny Row was that there were several people who were volunteering who were still questioning and seeking truth, but haven’t given their lives to Jesus yet. We are so used to hearing about God from a young age, but they are starting to process the truth of the Gospel for the first time as adults. That was eye opening to me. We got a message after the trip that one of those guys we encountered just made a profession of faith. He was an atheist who the church had been ministering to and now he has professed Christ as His Savior. It was so cool to know a name and know that very man we met has professed faith since we got back.
One thing that is always eye opening on mission trips is how easy to get back home and get lackadaisical about sharing the Gospel because you just assume everyone knows. It’s important to realize that Europe is really our future in that the churches are becoming museums. Trips like these prepare us for the future of where our country may be headed. I can already see how much harder it is for my daughter Avery to be a Christian as a teenager than it was for me when I was growing up. I want to help prepare her and her generation for all they are going to have to face. We talk constantly with our students about persecution because kids are starting to experience that for the first time for believing what the Bible says. That has been on my radar recently and going back to England put that back on the forefront of my mind.
It was surprising to me how meaningful it was to the believers in England that we came as a church to help them. We had thirteen people on our team which is about half of their congregation on a normal day, and yet they were so hospitable to us. They made us feel like we were such a blessing to them. They were an encouragement to us and we got to be an encouragement to them. They told us how they don’t see teenagers often going to church. The fact that we had teenagers sharing the Gospel is something they don’t experience. There really is a lot of darkness you can’t fully explain unless you go and experience it. The need for people to go and be a light in a dark area is huge.
You can hear these negative thoughts, “Why go? What kind of difference are you making?”
But in partnering with churches locally, you can really see the difference that can be made in the lives of so many. We have always been about keeping these ongoing partnerships that our student ministry has gotten to model for our church. Instead of hopping all over the globe, working with partners you keep going back to and we have seen a lot of benefit from these ongoing relationships. We have seen the fruit of these short term trips and we will continue going because God is giving us His burden for the people of England. One of the guys we met from England, James was such an encouragement to us by telling us he was one of those kids in the Religious Education classroom a few years ago. He told us how God saved his life through a team coming over from the states. It’s easy to think it might be a waste of time when it feels like no one is listening, but then to hear James’ story, where he came from and where he’s at now. That was a huge encouragement to our group.
The harvest is truly plentiful and the workers are few. It’s not easy, but the Gospel is the same message and to see it penetrate hearts is so encouraging. People are lost here and after every trip to England, I have a greater burden to share the Gospel when I’m back home like I did over there.
I’ve seen it in Avery’s life. Her initial reasons might not have been the “mission” side of it, but after day one, I got to see God working in her and through her and giving her a heart for the people there. Now it’s all she’s talked about since we got home. This was the first time we got to go on a mission trip together and we can’t wait to take the whole family at some point soon.
From connecting with these believers in England and staying in touch through social media, seeing the ongoing ministry and all God is doing over there year round adds fuel to the flame for me wanting to go back and be apart of what God is doing over there.
-Jody Gambrell, Student Pastor of First Baptist Tuscaloosa
“At first, the reason I wanted to go to England was to see the sites and experience the food, but actually by the second day, the connection I got to build with our group and the other people in England as I got to talk to all the kids made me so glad I came.
I remember this one time I was at the lake when I was younger and I asked my Grandma, “Am I saved?” She told me, “You aren’t saved until you really commit your life to Jesus by faith and follow Him!” So I committed my life to Jesus that day and got baptized right there in the lake by my Grandma. I know people who talk about Jesus at my school, but they don’t go to church or live like a Christian. They don’t take a step and actually commit their lives to Jesus. I saw some kids like that in the schools in England. When we were working with the groups, sometimes they would get off track or not be listening super attentively, but there was this one girl about my age who had this light in her. Her eyes were very attentive and she was listening and asking questions. I told her group about why we were here and that we flew 10 hours to come over here to spread the Gospel and spend our Spring Break over here. She asked lots of questions and she seemed so interested because she had actually never heard any of this before about Jesus. I didn’t realize how much that impacted me until after the trip. Now when I think of England, I think back to that one girl and it shows how God worked in me through that.
I learned that Jesus takes younger people like me to be apart of His plan. It was really God’s plan for us teenagers to go and spread His truth to other people closer to our age. It was really cool to see how He took the younger generation and we got to spread the Word to people who are way younger than us who probably would never have had the chance to hear about Him.
Please pray that the kids will take what we said seriously and really remember what we shared and want to know who Jesus is.”
-Avery Gambrell, 14
📷 by Jody Gambrell
Watch Jody’s video from the trip here!
