Kevin King Serves as Keynote Speaker at Annual World Reach Week
Cairn University hosted its annual World Reach Week from January 25–29, 2021. This year’s theme, “Prepare,” encourages and assists students in developing skills for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with both global and local neighbors by recognizing the various ways different people groups best understand the gospel, thus fulfilling their calling as God’s servants.
Alumnus and keynote speaker Kevin King ’90 urged students to be passionate about sharing the gospel and to have a desire to be used by God through his three chapel sessions: “Our Light Shines Through Our Mouths,” “Turning Up Your Spiritual Volume,” and “The Expectations of Divine Appointments.” His messages shared his cultural perspective and heart for world evangelism, which were both shaped by his studies abroad in the Middle East and time spent in Europe and Asia. He also shared from his experiences as president of International Project, an organization focused on initiating church-planting movements through diaspora unreached people groups in ethnic communities and on university campuses.
In addition to Kevin King’s keynote chapel sessions, students had the opportunity to participate in and attend other events throughout the week.
Students came together to make Luopads (washable and reusable sanitary products for women) from donated clothing at an event hosted by Student Missionary Fellowship and Chi Beta Sigma, the social work club. With the help of the Cairn student body, more than 300 Luopads were created, and $277.28 was raised to ship these products.
Students were also invited to sit in on an “Ethics of Evangelism” panel discussion, which was hosted by Dr. Guy Eshelman, missionary in residence. Dr. Eshelman provided questions and points for conversation for Dr. Keith Plummer, Katrina Selby ’18/G’18, and Liz Givens ’69 as they discussed the tensions and ethical considerations of making disciples in today’s world.
At the “Storytelling on the Mission Field’’ event, Stephanie Bernotas ’11 and Liz Givens ’69 assisted students in understanding the effective ways of retelling their time on the mission field. The act of storytelling requires an understanding of both creativity and ethics, and this event helped students learn the basic principles for photography, writing, and more as tools for telling family, friends, and supporters about what God is doing around the world. Liz Givens, who serves on the University’s Board of Trustees, stated, “We tell stories in missions for the Lord’s glory and not our own.”
As Cairn University adapts to the global need of serving our neighbors, World Reach Week continues to be vitally important as students are educated on how to serve Christ in the church, society, and the world.
Kevin King is the president of International Project, an organization focused on initiating church-planting movements through diaspora unreached people groups in ethnic communities and on university campuses. In 2010, he launched the Equip program, which focuses on training cross-cultural church planters. Kevin’s vision is to see a movement of churches started among unreached people groups, starting with diaspora communities here and spreading to the least evangelized countries. You can learn more about his ministry at internationalproject.org.