“Six years ago, I felt the Lord calling me to serve overseas in some way,” said Macy Brown.
A senior at Campbellsville University, Macy is pursuing a major in marriage and family ministry. She recently had the opportunity to go on an educational mission trip to northern Africa in the summer of 2025 with the English Language Institute of China (ELIC).
Before traveling with the ELIC, Macy searched for a way to do ministry overseas for six years. Her first plan came to her in high school, and it was to participate in the World Race, a ministry where you live out of a tent for 11 months and travel to different villages each month, sharing the gospel and doing outreach. Macy said, to no surprise, her parents were opposed to that idea, and she didn’t continue with it. She was, however, able to participate in another ministry in 2023 by going on a mission trip to Costa Rica with her home church.
She first heard of ELIC during her first year at CU, when ELIC representatives visited the school of theology to invite students to participate in their program.
ELIC is an organization traveling to more than 100 countries with the purpose of teaching English as a method to evangelize. By sending short and long-term teachers, ELIC gains trust from the communities they serve in, and they have been requested by governments and universities to enter unreachable countries to teach English. Most of the countries they teach in don’t allow Christian evangelism, but because of their trust in their teaching, countries openly welcome ELIC teachers.
This past summer, Macy was sent to northern Africa in a Muslim country where Christian evangelism was illegal. Macy explained the country is in the 10/40 window, an area marked on the map as being unreached for Christianity. The country cannot be disclosed for safety purposes.
“Something about sharing Jesus in that part of the world,” said Macy, “is that you can’t just walk up to someone and share with them. One, it’s illegal and two, they aren’t going to accept. You have to build a relationship with them first.”
Macy’s expectations before the trip were to have missionary experiences, sharing her testimony and talking about Jesus. However, because of the restrictions, this was not possible unless a student brought the conversation up themselves. Since sharing the gospel was illegal where Macy traveled, she hoped the students could see her love and her actions as a form of the gospel.
“One thing I really wrestled with was not being able to share the gospel explicitly with my students or with the other people that we interacted with,” she said. “Knowing that I may not see the fruit of what I did over there – and there were certainly really hard days and situations – I trusted that the Lord is using that, and that one day, hopefully, whenever I get to heaven, there will be people there who were impacted by the trip.”
While serving, she was encouraged by a dream.
“I had a dream that I walked into heaven and one of my students was there. Having that dream honestly carried me through the trip,” she said.
The community she served in was described by Macy as being ‘close-knit’ with one another as they were supportive and took care of each other. Not only were they concerned with their own well-being, she explained, but they were also helpful for the American visitors.
“The community was very kind and welcoming to us,” she said, “they helped watch out for us.”
Macy said they were on the Mediterranean and described the setting as being much like the Middle East desert.
“It’s a beautiful country,” she said, “and it has so much diversity as you go from Mediterranean coast up north, to the Sahara in the south and everything in between. So, it’s really really pretty.”
Macy took this trip with her roommate and when they arrived at the school there was a sign posted on the front door for the English camp saying, “We have American teachers.”
“We just looked at each other,” she said, “and we realized we were the American teachers.”
Macy explained whether you have experience in teaching or not, ELIC provides lessons beforehand and gives curriculum for their teachers. The curriculum included lesson plans to follow each day and there are separate books given to the children as well.
Macy taught girls, ages seven to 13, every day of the week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. During every afternoon they prepared their lessons for the next day and would have time to connect with their team.
“We would meet once a day to make sure we were centering ourselves on the Father and relying on Him for the strength we needed each day,” she said. “So, whether that included reading Scripture, singing worship, or praying.”
According to Macy, on the weekends the team would go on different outings. The team rode a pirate ship on the Mediterranean, camped in the Sahara and slept under the stars, rode camels and for their last week they debriefed at a resort on the ocean.
Although Macy believed this experience was great for her and she enjoyed it, she is not going into teaching specifically, however she believes she could use teaching in a church setting.
Though Macy eventually made it to Africa, there was a process of traveling overseas. In preparing for leaving, Macy said she saw how God was working in her life and preparing her to leave through her studies at CU, church support, her parents and the peace of God.
“There’s no way I could have gone to the other side of the world if I hadn’t experienced being away from my family at college,” said Macy.
She saw God helping her by opening doors for funding the trip. Her church in Campbellsville is Campbellsville Baptist, and they helped a lot with donations as well as ELIC itself. Macy explained there are candidate advisers provided by ELIC who provide a system to help students fundraise and pack for their trip.
Macy’s trust in God and her belief that He had sent her this mission gave her much peace before going. She felt more fear when those around her expressed their doubts and worries, but she believed the Lord did give her a lot of peace.
Macy’s parents were worried about her going on this trip, especially her dad. To ease their worries, Macy prepared a PowerPoint presentation, explaining why she should go on the trip.
“I think it was honestly good for them, too, to learn how to trust the Lord,” she said, “To trust that He would take care of me even on the other side of the world when they couldn’t. I think it grew their faith.”
Macy said her lesson from this trip was gratitude.
“I learned to be grateful for the freedoms we have. Seeing how they don’t have religious freedoms in that country,” she said. “I learned to be grateful for the fact we can talk about Jesus whenever we want here and we’re not going to be persecuted for it. Just to be grateful for the fact we get to walk on Sunday mornings and we don’t have to worry about who watched us walk into church or who saw us leave.”
For those who are pursuing ministry, especially overseas, Macy has this advice.
“Just go for it. Even if it seems so scary,” she said. “Just do it, because your life will be changed forever and that experience was priceless. There’s nothing like it. It was the experience of a lifetime. If that’s something the Lord is calling you to, you need to be obedient in that.”
Macy’s mother, Brandy Brown, described Macy as being a kind person who is always smiling and happy.
“She seeks the Lord in all that she does and spends a lot of time in God’s word and in prayer,” Brandy said.
Macy’s parents were initially scared for her decision to travel overseas; however, they knew Macy sought God’s plan for her life and understanding this gave them more assurance.
“We knew she’s always seeking what God wants for her life, and she really felt his call to go,” Brandy said. “Knowing that even if we’re scared, if He’s called her to do something, He will protect her. We truly had to hold onto that while she was gone.”
While Macy was overseas, her parents’ trust in God grew.
“So many times we say we trust Him but it’s when there’s nothing we can do,” she said. “We weren’t even in the same continent. There was nothing we could do other than pray and trust.”
Brandy was not surprised when Macy came to her and her father to tell them she wanted to go overseas.
“I figured there would be a time, and I always encouraged her if there were opportunities to go serve in college that’s a perfect time to go,” she said.
When Macy gave her PowerPoint presentation, her parents could see the research and effort she made to explain why she should go.
“She did a good job of trying to show us this wasn’t something that she just decided to do on a whim,” Brandy said. “It was something she felt called to do and wanted to do and she had put time into researching and getting answers for us even before we had the questions. It was helpful.”
Since returning from her trip, Brandy sees maturity in her daughter.
“She’s always been really mature,” she said. “Seeing her grow in that and her being able to say, ‘I don’t know, but I trust God knows.”
Abigail Duvall, a junior studying education at CU, also went to northern Africa with Brown and the ELIC.
“As an education major, I felt it would further me in my career as well as testing it in my walk with Christ and being able to defend my faith,” she said.
Duvall said this experience gave her confidence in her teaching career because she had never taught English before, especially never to people whose first language was something other than English.
“I feel like I could go into diverse classroom settings and be confident now,” she said.
Duvall taught boys ages seven to 10 and admitted she was given the ‘rowdy bunch.’ When preparing her lessons, Duvall made sure to use methods students would have an easier and more fun time understanding.
“I did vocab fútbol, soccer,” she said, “So, I’d hang up vocab words around the room, and they would kick this soccer ball to the word when I would say the word. The second round I would say the definition and then they would have to get the word. So, I adapted to their rambunctious ways.”
Duvall’s students would often get frustrated with themselves. So, her games gave them a fun time while learning. Apart from the games, she also encouraged them by reminding them of what they already knew.
“My students already knew Arabic and French,” she said. “So, they were learning their third language. I would often say, ‘Honey, you all, Arabic and French. Miss Abby, only English.”
Duvall first heard of ELIC when they spoke at chapel during her freshman year. She said when she first heard about their program, she thought it was interesting, however, didn’t believe herself to be adequate for it. It wasn’t until Macy came to her and said she was going that Duvall decided to go. She believed because they were going together it gave their families a little more peace as well.
Since the two went together, they were able to support one another whenever the other needed help or was struggling. Duvall helped Macy with creating lesson plans and activities for her students and Macy helped Duvall when she was feeling discouraged.
“There were some days where after I taught, I felt kind of discouraged and I didn’t think the lesson went well,” she said. “So, she would stop and pray with me and talk me down because I would work myself up. I want my students to learn, and she would talk me down and be like, ‘You were called to this, and Christ has qualified you for this’.”
Although Duvall never taught or mentioned her faith in Jesus, one of her students found out. She said the second day when she was teaching apostrophes a student raised his hand.
“‘Miss Abby, you Muslim?’ He just asked me in the middle of class,” she said. “I looked at him and said, ‘No, let’s talk about apostrophes.’ Then, class continued and I redirected the conversation.”
After their class, the student came back to Duvall.
“After all the students had left, he lingered,” she said. “He said, ‘Miss Abby, what are you?’ He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what I was, but I knew what he was asking. So, I looked at him and I told him, ‘I’m a Christian, I believe in Jesus.’ He just looked at me for a second, and then he nodded and pointed to the sticker because he wanted to go home.”
Duvall’s hope is that, even though he couldn’t vocalize his questions about her faith then, eventually he would realize her actions reflected her faith in Christ. He would see her joy, patience and encouragement and be able to see that came from Jesus.
“Maybe one day when he’s older, the reason why Miss Abby had that peace, the reason why Miss Abby had that joy, the reason why she had that patience with us, was because of Christ,” she said.
Upon leaving, Duvall said she was distraught. She hugged her students goodbye and couldn’t let go as they cried together.
“They had become my family,” she said. “Kids I worried about, kids I prayed for, and I want the best for, and I want to see them in heaven one day. Not knowing if I will get to or not breaks my heart.”
Duvall wants to continue with this type of ministry over the years. When Duvall begins teaching, she wants to use the money she earns during semesters to pay for her summer travels to more mission trips in the 10/40 window to teach English and share the gospel.
“Ministry is not about you or anything you’ve done,” she said. “I feel like a lot of things in my past held me back from serving and made me feel unqualified or unworthy of being someone to go share the gospel. I had to let go of the guilt because I feel like guilt comes from the enemy trying to hold you back. So, I would just say, lay it down. Lay down your pride, lay down your guilt and go.”
