ALPHARETTA, Ga. — As the calendar marches on through August, college students throughout North America are transitioning back to the grind of life on campus. Thanks to GenSend, dozens are going back with an eye toward living “on mission.”

Just over 200 college-aged men and women spent time as missionaries this summer spread throughout 13 locations as part of the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) GenSend program.

“Our theme for this year was ‘More than a Summer,’” said Jon Chasteen, who serves as Send Network’s director of next-gen mobilization program and leads GenSend Summer. Send Network is NAMB’s church-planting arm. “We wanted GenSend to have an impact that lasted beyond the summer for the cities and church plants where these students served.

“We prayed that the people and places these students encountered this summer would experience a ripple effect that would create lasting change,” Chasteen said. “Our desire is that church plants are strengthened to make disciples because of GenSend. Our prayer is that the summer propels these students to know Jesus more and to make Him known for decades to come.”

As research continues to indicate that faith has been on a steady decline in North America, GenSend students learn that there are cities and towns filled with people who need to hear the gospel.

Emily Shelton, who served in Providence, R.I., shared a story about a young lady she met while she and fellow students were sharing their faith. Even though this lady claimed she grew up Christian, she had never heard the message of salvation before.

“This was eye opening to how much I assume everyone has heard the good news,” Shelton said. “I realized then that there are individuals who, though they may be surrounded by a city full of people, they’ve still never heard the gospel. It is not just people in a far-off land.”

GenSend teaches students to be faithful in the small things, to keep showing up in the community and engaging the people they meet, building bridges to share the gospel as they do so. That consistency led many to develop interfaith relationships and opened doors for spiritual and gospel conversations.

“We met two high schoolers at pickleball,” said Noah Parker, a student at the University of South Carolina who served in Salt Lake City. “We were able to follow up by going hiking with them. One was thinking about going on a Latter-day Saints mission. He said he didn’t know much about evangelical Christianity, and I was able to share the gospel with him.”

These student missionaries also had opportunities to witness life change as they served within Send Network church plants.

“We were able to invite this man to church, and he ended up giving his life to Jesus and getting baptized in the span of us being there,” said Caroline Kelley, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas who served in San Diego. “It was cool to see how God drastically changed his life and how devoted he became to the mission of the Lord. It was really encouraging.”

The focus of GenSend Summer is to help students grow as disciples, learn to live on mission and discover God’s kingdom calling. All told, the summer missionaries recorded more than 2,700 spiritual conversations and 1,400 gospel conversations. An exit survey asked participants to gauge their level of interest in returning to the mission field.

“This year, 70% of students indicated they would love to return for a second summer,” Chasteen said. “More importantly, 62% said they were interested in returning to their GenSend city to serve alongside a church plant for at least two years after college.”

GenSend begins accepting applications for placements in the summer of 2026 on Oct. 1. To learn more, visit gensend.org/summer.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.)