Planting Seeds Among the Nations: The Purpose of GCU's Global Outreach

The dusty, dirty, breaking-down Glendale apartment complex holds refugee families from Central Africa and Afghanistan who do not get along. The kids get into fights, the teens are forbidden from dating each other and the adults glare at each other from their porches. Broken glass litters the complex’s playground, cats roam feral and the pool is coated in green scum. In the midst of looking for work, attending school and paying bills, these refugee families are separated by culture, religion, and choice in ways that feel unmendable.

Three or four times a week, students from the college down the street enter the complex, passionate about loving, serving and reconciling these people to each other and to God.

“I've seen a lot of common grace through Global,” says Ethan Lee, an engineering senior and student leader at Grand Canyon University. “A lot of pain has been mended through refugee ministry, families have been brought together, kids have had their faith in Christ restored.”

Global is an outreach program at GCU that umbrellas over multiple student-led ministries that serve the global community in Phoenix - English lessons, kids ministries, teen programs and many more, all with a common goal - to magnify the name of Christ and reach those who don’t know Him. Global began to take on a life of its own a decade ago, and now in 2024, it is a large, organized missional force in GCU’s community.

Streams of Purple

Being a GCU student means knowing that the neighborhood surrounding campus is not swanky or even safe, but it comes with its own opportunities. Because of the affordability of Glendale, many refugees are resettled near GCU, and the majority of Phoenix’s refugees are from Central Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, and the DRC), Myanmar or Afghanistan, according to Refugee Council USA. The location of the college gives students unique opportunities to minister cross culturally just down the road from their dorms.

“The nations are right here in our backyard,” says Lee, referencing Christ’s command in Matthew to go and make disciples of all nations.

In 2014, an apartment complex called Serrano Villages was the first home for many refugee families from Central Africa; it also bordered GCU’s campus. Students began walking down the street to play with the refugee kids who lived there, which grew to helping them with homework and then spending extended time with their parents. Some students even moved into Serrano Villages to truly become these families’ neighbors, inspiring GCU News to write a story about them in the spring of 2014.

“You used to look out down Camelback in the afternoons, and just see streams of purple shirts walking down to Serrano Villages,'' said Pastor Tim Griffin, Dean of Student Affairs at GCU, who remembers when outreach began to take off on campus, “all around the neighborhood really - purple shirts going out all over the place.”

From these humble beginnings, a movement has blossomed, with specialized ministries that serve various needs of the global Phoenix community.

Every Nation Tribe and Tongue

The families from Serrano Villages eventually moved, and GCU students moved with them. There are now student-led ministries at three different apartment complexes, a refugee church, two sites of English classes, and a foodbank. Three full-time staff mentor the student leaders who run the teams, 15-passenger vans drive students around Glendale to serve and, twice a year, all the children Global programs serve come on campus and play in a day-long soccer tournament organized by volunteers.

Global began as a student-led movement, and that is just as true today. Amanda Waugh, a junior in her first year of leadership with Global shared what many other student leaders feel - serving herel gives them irreplicable leadership experience.

“I’ve always been drawn to - and find myself doing the best - when I have leadership and responsibility,” she said. “I get to do things I never would have known about if I wasn’t on Global.”

Students like Waugh are equipped with the skills to lead their peers, manage finances and commitments well, and share the Gospel across language and cultural barriers through Global.

Every year, the Global staff choose a theme - this year’s was ‘every nation, tribe and tongue,’ pulled from Revelation 7’s prophecy of the day when the whole earth will worship Christ as king. By sharing the good news with people from parts of the world that have never heard of Christ, GCU students are bringing that day closer. As a senior, Lee has seen student engagement take off the past few years, which he attributes to the shift in how students lead their teams.

“As leaders, we started to see that when we showed up and led with boldness, we got a lot of boldness back... students here love to serve and be involved in a hands-on way,” said Lee.

By first meeting the practical needs of these communities, challenging their volunteers to engage and commit, and embracing the calling to serve, students are taking the gospel to new places.

A Spirit of Boldness

According to a recent study done by the Barna Research Institute, under 40% of American Christians believe that they should be serving regularly in their community; those on Global want to see that number go up. Caitlin Titus, one of the staff members responsible for guiding Global students, shared her dream for the future - that the students that participate in Global would be instruments of peace and reconciliation. Phoenician Palms, the apartment complex where many ministries serve, is dramatically split between the African and Middle Eastern refugees, and Titus wants Global students to help unite the two groups.

“We’re already pretty established there - what comes next is bringing reconciliation; it might take years to get there completely, but that’s where I want us to go.”

Students are on the mission field whenever they walk out their door, but for some, their time at Global inspires them to go further. Leaders from the beginning recall the fearlessness and passion that GCU students had in ministering cross-culturally, and the hundreds of students going on mission trips each summer.

Today, Lee feels that that is no longer the case, saying, “I’ve seen people come through Global, go on a mission trip, graduate, get a job, and now the way that they’re talking, it’s like they’re never going to go long term [as a missionary].”

While he doesn’t believe that spirit has vanished, Griffin acknowledges that it’s certainly smaller, even though the campus population is exponentially larger. He said that he “just pray[s] that there will be a spirit of boldness in the student body again.” Boldness in their walk with the Lord, in their relationships, and in sharing the good news they have received, especially to those who are currently unreached.

Planting Seeds

Global keeps GCU students busy, doing everything from welcoming refugees as they arrive in this country, to teaching English or playing a competitive game of soccer. There’s an intensity to these students' actions - urgency, but also peace. The students know they are part of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, but they also know that the results are not in their hands.

“We’re doing something that I know people before me prayed for, things are happening that they never could have imagined, and I hope that maybe even hundreds of years from now we can look back and say this is what Global was doing then,” said Waugh.

What is barely a dream today will quickly become the past, and the actions these students are taking will have long-reaching impacts. As this year's theme has reminded them, the Lord’s heart is for all people to know the gospel, regardless of language, culture, or location.

Waugh prays that “even if [these families] move one day, hopefully we’re planting seeds now that will be watered by others in the future.”