Turning Everyday Activities into Missional Opportunities in San Diego

Ebbie Davis first arrived in San Diego in 2015 as a graduate student with the North American Mission Board GenSend student missionary program. In 2017, God called her back to the city to help replant a church. Her role included helping train other GenSenders who served each summer alongside a church plant or in a compassion ministry.

Ebbie said she is relentless in serving in her city “because Jesus is relentless in chasing after me, loving me, and forgiving me.” For her, “Authentic faith in Christ is dying to self daily and seeking His face.” She lives out her authentic faith in Christ by being consistent in her neighborhood.

“It is super important to recognize the importance of making our everyday activities missional opportunities,” Ebbie said. For example, she volunteers at the local elementary school near her church. “It’s beautiful to see how God has opened doors and hearts at the school,” she said.

Another example is her presence at the local grocery store. She and her roommates make a point to make conversations with the grocery clerks. They even have had the opportunity to pray with them on occasion. Ebbie and her roommates also go out of their way when buying gas to go inside to pay. They make eye contact and show the attendants the love of Christ through their normal everyday routines.

Ebbie said God doesn’t call us to be relentless alone—He calls us to be relentless together. In doing so, we become part of a family in Christ, something that makes all the difference for Ebbie and other single women. She said she meets single young women all the time who don’t have that kind of community.

“One of the deafening cries of city living is ‘crowded loneliness,’” she said. “It’s being surrounded by people constantly yet feeling completely alone due to lack of community or trust.”

Being a young single woman gives her opportunities to minister to other young single women because she can understand and relate to them. But, without the local church, Ebbie said, “I’d be those women.”

When we live out an authentic faith in Christ, it builds a family both in our local churches and also through students serving in our cities.

• Pray for GenSenders who are prayerfully considering serving in Ebbie’s city and so many other SendCities across North America.
• Pray for the GenSend church plants and compassion ministries in San Diego.
• Pray against crowded loneliness.
• Pray God would soften the hearts of Ebbie’s neighbors and that she and her roommates would be able to share the hope of the gospel with them.

Charlotte Watson lives in Georgetown, Texas, where she coordinates Women on Mission and leads others to participate in local missions and on mission trips.