GO Week Coming to Bison Hill Sept. 13-18

At Oklahoma Baptist University, students are challenged to think critically and compassionately as they develop a Christian worldview through the University’s Christian liberal arts curriculum, spiritual life experiences and extracurricular activities. As part of their education, students are taught to think both locally and globally.

Through the Avery T. Willis Center for Global Outreach, the University encourages students, faculty and staff to engage a diverse world through opportunities to reach out to people in their local communities and throughout the world. One of the ways in which they accomplish this is through Global Outreach trips, or “GO” trips.

“GO Week” is coming to Bison Hill Sept. 13-18. It is designed to inform students of Global Outreach opportunities and to encourage them to participate. The week will include three GO Week chapels and numerous events, all built around the theme, “Beyond: Make Him Known,” based on Psalm 67:2. With the calling highlighted in Psalm 67:2, the organizers of GO Week encourage students to participate so that, “[God’s] way may be known on earth, [His] salvation among all nations.”

A Global Outreach Fair will take place all week in the Lower GC. Raleigh Sadler, author of “Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking,” will be the chapel speaker the following day. A special simulation event called “Who’s Your Neighbor” will take place Saturday, Sept. 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., also in the Gathering Room. Lunch will be provided. The event will emphasize the needs of vulnerable peoples in our community.

The first GO Week chapel will feature a student panel Monday, Sept. 13, at 10 a.m. in Raley Chapel’s Potter Auditorium. During the service, numerous students will give testimonies about their personal experiences on GO trips, including discussion about the locations where they served and how the experience shaped their lives. Johnathon Bowen will share about his GO trip to Greece, Reagan Benton will discuss Northern Africa, Tyler McPheeters will speak about his experience in England, Allison Lewis will share about her time in Uganda and Gracie Pipes will discuss her GO trip to Egypt.

The next chapel takes place Wednesday, Sept. 15, also in Potter Auditorium at 10 a.m. It will feature guest speaker Dr. Rebekah Naylor. An accomplished woman with a B.A. in chemistry from Baylor University and M.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Naylor was appointed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to serve as a missionary in India in 1973.

Through the new Bangalore Baptist Hospital, she launched a notable medical missionary career and with constant involvement in church development, she organized training programs in allied health disciplines, set up residency training programs for doctors, initiated a training program for chaplains and established the Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing in 1996. On top of this, she served as strategy coordinator for the state of Karnataka from 1999 until 2009, when she retired from active IMB service.

Naylor currently serves in the United States for the IMB, mobilizing health care personnel to meet medical needs all around the world. She has been awarded the Surgical Humanitarian Award from the American College of Surgeons and received an honorary Doctor of Missiology from OBU in 2018. She received the University’s Herschel H. Hobbs Award for Distinguished Denominational Service in 2016.

The final GO Week chapel will take place Friday, Sept. 17, also at 10 a.m. in Potter Auditorium. The guest speaker will be Raleigh Sadler. Sadler has served in Christian ministry since 2001. He is the founder and executive director of Let My People Go, headquartered in New York City.

Sadler’s passion is to see the local church fight global injustices, like human trafficking, by loving those most vulnerable. Sadler believes the church should be at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking because of the Gospel’s call to pursue justice and mercy in our communities. Through this passion, he has worked with churches, universities and other collaborative organizations around the country to love those who are at risk of exploitation. His most recent book, “Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking,” is available now.

Learn more about Global Outreach opportunities at OBU.