Discern Your Place in God’s Mission
What if a few months could change the direction of your life?
When Rachel Rubin was a student at Auburn University, she watched other students return from international ministry experiences with stories of deeper faith, transformed perspectives, and a growing passion for God's work around the world. She was inspired, but she also had doubts. Leaving friends, raising support, and postponing graduation all felt like significant obstacles. Still, she sensed that what she might learn and how she might grow were worth the risk.
Rachel served with El Oasis in Santiago, Chile while she was still an undergraduate at Auburn University. While there, she discovered an important truth: she wasn't bringing God to a place where He wasn't already at work.
"God was already just as alive and at work in Santiago as He was in the United States," Rachel reflected. Through friendships with students and families, she experienced the joy of building genuine relationships across cultures and gained a deeper understanding of God's heart for the nations.
What Rachel didn't realize at the time was that this season would help shape her future.
After returning home, she found herself thinking about the unique opportunity campus ministry created for students exploring faith and searching for community. Over time, what began as an impactful experience grew into a sense of calling. Today, Rachel serves with CMF's Globalscope ministry in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she has spent nine years helping university students encounter Christ through discipleship, Bible studies, retreats, and authentic Christian community.
Rachel's story illustrates the heart behind Global Residency.
Global Residency is an immersive opportunity for young adults to learn, serve, and discern their place in God's mission. Serving alongside CMF teams around the world for four to ten months, residents become part of the daily rhythms of ministry while receiving mentorship from experienced missionaries.
More than a ministry assignment, Global Residency is designed for formation. Through mentoring relationships, cross-cultural learning, guided reflection, pre-departure preparation, and debriefing, residents are given space to listen for God's leading and discern how their gifts, passions, and experiences might fit into His work around the world.
Not every Global Residency participant will be called to long-term missionary service. Sometimes the next step is simply the next step.
That's what happened for Isaac.
In 2025, Isaac spent eight weeks with CMF's Reach Internship in Thailand with Globalscope. Through relationships, ministry experiences, and life alongside the Grapevine team, God began stirring something deeper than a memorable summer experience. After graduating from Milligan University, Isaac took the next step by becoming one of CMF's first Global Residents. Today, he is serving in Southeast Asia, continuing to learn, grow, and discern God's direction for the future.
Though their journeys look different, both Rachel and Isaac demonstrate a common reality: discernment rarely happens all at once.
A summer internship becomes a season of deeper formation. A meaningful ministry experience becomes a clearer sense of calling. Curiosity becomes conviction.
Global Residency exists to create space for those next steps.
Rachel offers this encouragement to anyone considering an experience like Global Residency:
"You don't have to feel called to a lifetime of international mission work to take a few months to go and serve a community that could really use your presence and your gifts. You never know how those few months might alter the trajectory of your life, or the life of someone else.”
Whether you're exploring cross-cultural ministry for the first time, considering a future in missions, or simply seeking a season to better understand God's direction for your life, Global Residency offers an opportunity to learn, serve, and discern where He may be leading.
Come discern your place in God's mission.
Explore our Global Residency opportunities here. Or support one of our Global Residents here.