Melissa Blankenship from Nashville, 29, is an International Campus minister at the Baptist Campus Ministry. She was a student at Western from 1997 to 2002. She graduated with a religious studies major. Her faith in Jesus means believing in something that she cannot see, believing in something not tangible but that is real.

Blankenship works with international students providing a minister who meets their physical, spiritual and emotional needs.

“Many internationals, especially from Asia, don’t know about who is the Lord that is why there are many missionaries working in China undercover,” Blankenship said. “When they approach us you can see that their faces reflect that they have troubles and when they start reading the Bible, praying and hanging out with Christian people, you see a big change, a spiritual change and physical appearance, you see a new creation only possible by God.”

Blankenship, usually through conversational English, hospitality, friendship and spiritual conversations, has the opportunities to share about who Jesus is and what he has done for us. She sometimes invites international students to her apartment to learn more about their culture and explain to them more about the Gospel.

“International students need to know that satisfaction comes from knowing who you are, a person of worth, created by a loving God,” Blankenship said. “The scripture talks about God’s heart from the nations meaning he desires all peoples knows him as savior and Lord and when I was given the opportunity to be involved with God’s word of reconciling or bringing the nations into God’s family I was excited to join him in that work.”