In a month when so many mission reps from around the world are on campus, it might be easy to forget the one woman who’s on campus pouring her heart into missions. Every. Single. Day. She’s been to 32 countries and back, and now she serves in Cairn’s Ministry Center.

I bet you know her name: Stephanie Bernotas.

Stephanie took over the Ministry Center just this year, but she’s not new to Cairn. An alumni herself, she served as an RA while being an undergraduate studying Social Work and Bible. The day of her graduation she left the MAC and went to jump on a plane for 11 months of missions with World Race. She went on to serve with Passion and then on a dude ranch in Colorado. Yet in August 2017 she seized the opportunity to return to Cairn by serving in the Ministry Center. In a few short weeks she had moved back to Pennsylvania and excitedly found herself back in a position to pour back into Cairn.

She continues to describe her return to Cairn as “one of the few times where it felt like Jesus said, ‘okay, you finally said yes,’ I’m going to open doors.” Furthermore, she says, “I kept thinking, not what do I feel like I should be doing, but what do I actually want to be doing? What has God equipped me to do? I love college students, I love missions and ministry, and even though I do a lot of event planning and coordinating in this position, I see this job as an avenue for discipleship.”

But her passion for ministry began long before Cairn. As a child the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot inspired her with “an urgency for missions, an urgency for people. Whether they’re here in America or overseas. They need the love of Jesus, and they need the gospel.” The first overseas missions trip she went on was to Honduras at age 13. There she was “struck by poverty” and had her first experience “of being broken” for the world.

She also came to understand that we don’t have to earn Jesus’ love. “Jesus loves you whether you are a martyr in Pakistan or you work at Starbucks.” She emphasizes “his plan for people looks different for everybody. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Pakistan or you work at Starbucks, there’s an urgency for the Gospel. As I’ve gotten older, either I’ve been called to go, or send, but at the same time there shouldn’t be shame if you’re staying for some reason, because there’s plenty of work to do here. We’re the ends of the earth to the other side of the world.”

Now, within the ministry center, Stephanie seeks to bring people into Cairn and send students out through her tri-fold duties. A main task is coordination chapel. She connects with alumni, pastors, ministries, and faculty to share with students in chapels. But more than mere logistics, she casts a vision for chapel’s purpose: “My vision is for people to see chapel as a gift that we’re giving you. You have to be there, but we’re not asking you to do anything. We just want to pour into you.” This has always been Cairn’s vision for chapel, but Stephanie now embodies that vision and seeks to carry it out.

Students spend roughly 200 hours sitting in chapel, and the 6 ministry credits also equal roughly 200 hours. It balances well between being poured into, and in turn, pouring out. Though she primarily handles paperwork for student ministry credits, she still desires to mobilize students in local ministry. “I want to help students think of creative ministry.” Additionally, she wants to “better resource students” to help them find ways to get involved that they love.

Mission trips are big part of student ministries. Stephanie is part of the Global Missions board, which approves Cairn’s mission trips. Stephanie then promotes, recruits, and works with students in fundraising. The month of January has focused Cairn students toward missions, and she’s excited to see over 50 students travel to six different countries for mission trips this Spring. And she’s just as excited about mission trips as she is about the local ministry, “I highly value getting students on the mission field, but it’s the same value I put on the ministry covenants because the whole point is that we’re doing something.”

“I want people to see ministry as an natural outflow, not a requirement (even though we still do require it of you). Bringing it back to the beginning with Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, the motivation for doing ministry shouldn’t ever be shame. It should be joy. On an academic side of things, there are responsibilities to fill, but that’s life. But I want the heart to be: look at the cool adventure Jesus calls us into. I get to love him and love the community. Get Cairn involved in the community. I can do something I love that I feel God has put in my heart to love, but that’s also having kingdom and eternal impact. It’s this idea of eternal kingdom impact as being a joy.”

Stephanie casts a beautiful vision for ministry at Cairn. Her position in the Ministry Center places her near the heart of helping others love what she loves: building an eternal kingdom with a joyful heart.