Spoke Folk is a ministry that teaches high school and college aged students how to be missionaries in their everyday lives. If you are reading this, I am on Spoke Folk right now, so I wanted to let y’all know what exactly this ministry is all about.

On Spoke Folk people from all around the country meet up at a church that we call the home church, and spend the next 12 days together sharing Jesus. When we get to our home church, we learn a program, made up of songs, skits, and puppet shows that reveal the gospel and God’s grace to everyone there. We practice this program for a couple of days, while having training bike rides, devotions, becoming a family, and just loving like Jesus.

Once our program is done, we head out to share the good news. While we bike (usually about 300 total miles in a week), we always have a partner and it is just a great time to get to know people’s hearts. I can’t really explain it, but something about Spoke Folk just allows you to be your most vulnerable self, and that allows for relationships unlike others I have seen. You form a special bond with these people. We bike to a different church every day and get to share how awesome Jesus is with the people that come.

Usually when I tell people that I am going on a mission trip they always ask “ooh where are you going?” Whenever I tell them Im going to Minnesota or Indiana they are usually very confused because they are expecting for me to say somewhere like Africa or the inner cities somewhere. Spoke Folk is most definitely not your average mission trip. We aren’t building houses or feeding the poor, but what defines a mission trip? We share the love of Jesus both with the people that God leads to the church that day along with the people we meet on the road while biking. Where you are doesn’t matter. God will place people where they need to be to hear his word, even if its in the middle of nowhere, Iowa. Along with getting to reach other people, God strengthens us, and teaches us how to form relationships that keep us focused on Him, and teach us how to keep each other accountable, both when we are on a Jesus high and when we are at our worst. It may not be what you think of when you think of a mission trip, but let me tell you I have seen God change lives through Spoke Folk, and he changed my life forever in Michigan in 2012. God can use anything, and he can use all of you. Your location doesn’t matter.

You can carry your mission anywhere, and that is what Spoke Folk teaches us. It teaches us daily habits such as Bible time and spending just 5 minutes with the Lord everyday so that we grow closer to Him and learn how to share Him with those around us. We are all missionaries, whether you are in Africa or your hometown. Share His light, my friends.