Spire Summer 2020

team I’ve joined or led; they all carry a special memory and piece of beauty, but most importantly, there are specific God moments that have happened in each place that marked my life in a specific way.” Browning recalls her first mission trip to El Salvador in 2014 and how it significantly changed her life. “At the time I already knew I was interested in missions, but I had never been exposed to any culture other than that I was raised in,” said Browning. “My first trip outside of the United States was an eye-opener. When I returned home, I remember experiencing a deep grief like that I had never known. I could no longer turn a blind eye to what I had seen. While in El Salvador we did street evangelism, ministered in various churches, distributed food amongst different church congregations and shoes to a specific group living in one particular poverty-stricken area. It was then that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God would use me to take His hope to the nations if I said yes to Him.” Since then, Browning has served on several mission and ministry trips including; a mission trip to Panama in 2017 with Bluefield Collegiate Ministries (BCM), Guatemala, Spain, Ukraine, Hungary, Amsterdam, Costa Rica, Malta, South Africa, and Zambia. In 2017, Browning expressed interest in missions and ministry to her pastor who introduced her to The Awakening in Oklahoma. The Awakening is the global youth and college department of the

also assists in the discipleship of their interns, leads mission trips abroad, and travel to minister and serve the IPHC missionaries and ministries in various countries. Browning’s most recent trip was to Zambia in December 2019. Every two years, The Awakening hosts continental conferences in Europe and Latin America. This past year, the team partnered with missionaries and national leaders to host the first continental conference in Africa. IPHC national leaders from as many as eight different African countries brought their National Youth Directors along with youth and emerging leaders to Zambia to spend a few days in a time of teaching, discipleship, equipping, and resourcing. “Throughout our time in Zambia, we had powerful times of worship together as we saw nations join together, we had impactful messages shared, and I saw first- hand what it looks like for young leaders to catch just a glimpse of what God wants to do in their lands and how God can and will use them,” said Browning. Due to the current pandemic restrictions, Browning is working on multiple resource books The Awakening will provide to young leaders who can’t serve in person. “Bluefield College was huge in preparing me for this season of my life,” said Browning. I’m so grateful for the opportunities placed in my way to serve, to grow in servant-leadership, and to boldly dream while I was a student.”

International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) World Missions Ministries that focuses on equipping, resourcing, and mobilizing young people and leaders across the globe as they pursue God’s call on their lives. After graduating from BC, Browning immediately left for Oklahoma to serve as an Awakening intern for the summer. “It was during that summer of ministering alongside The Awakening leaders that the director approached me on a dirt road in the mountains of Spain following a youth camp and asked me to join the team,” said Browning. “Shortly after returning home from the internship I began the process of becoming a short-term missionary through the IPHC and then in October 2018 I moved to Oklahoma and took on my new role as The Awakening’s Coordinator of Public Relations and Communication.” Browning

19