Dee Edwards, center, spent a year teaching English and being the presence of Christ at a university in Nanning, China. Photo courtesy of Dee Edwards

ATLANTA – Dee Edwards, 23, can’t say that one-on-one English tutoring with Lucy was the highlight of her year teaching in China. It was hard to keep conversation going with a student whose English wasn’t improving very much. Yet Lucy kept coming to her teacher’s office hours every week, and Edwards kept trying.

And one day that broken English conversation turned to matters of faith. They began talking about God, and Edwards shared about her faith in Jesus Christ.

"I know that conversation had a purpose," said Edwards, who served as a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship representative to Nanning, China, for a year. "My main job was to plant seeds."

Edward’s work began last August when she began teaching at Xing Jian International College in Guangxi province. Her ministry was relational, showing students Christ through her actions and interactions with them. It wasn’t loud, off-putting evangelism. It was mentioning she believed in God. It was showing her students that she cared enough to be a good teacher. It was putting in that extra effort to make sure her students were progressing. It was being the presence of Christ and being ready to answer the question she prayed she’d be asked, why do you do the things you do?

"The biggest thing was letting them know I cared," she said. "I really think they saw I was different and was kind to them and didn’t give up on them. In the end, I really had some good conversations and knew I had made a difference."

Edwards also worked with a local church, teaching a Sunday evening English class with other CBF representatives to China, Don and Karen Barnes.

Spending a year serving overseas wasn’t something Edwards ever intended to do, but she started feeling called to overseas service during her sophomore year at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. The Fellowship gave her the opportunity through its Student.Go program, which sends college and seminary students on summer, semester and year-long service trips.

That year in China taught Edwards a lot about herself and the world around her, including the wealth of ministry opportunities that surround her each day. She returned to Raleigh in July with a new perspective, now seeing the importance of ministering to internationals living in the United States. Whether immigrants, refugees or international students, "if they can come to know who Jesus is, the impact can go really far," she said.

Now serving as interim youth minister at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Raleigh, Edwards isn’t sure the ministry direction her life will take. But after a year overseas, she knows she doesn’t have to be in China in order to be the presence of Christ.

"We are missionaries here, and the more we start approaching our Christian walk as a call to ministry and as a call to be missionaries, the more that the world’s going to be changed," she said.

To learn about serve opportunities available through CBF, including short-term assignments, call (800) 352-8741 or go to www.thefellowship.info/involved/serve.

To learn about partnership opportunities with the Fellowship in China, call (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.