Global Focus Week is the best week at Liberty University. Convocation becomes an international party, the student union is crammed with people and tables, and forms about everything from Rwanda to folk Islam are available. We can watch movies about the Ebola epidemic and enjoy soccer skills challenges too!

Maybe this seems like too much. Who can actually visit every table? What if you don’t feel called to a particular country or people group? Or maybe you’re the exact opposite and spend hours circulating the tables, discussing your missional life goals and past trips.

Regardless of who you are, here’s some suggestions that will help you make the most of this amazing week:

1. Visit the lonely table

Samaritan’s Purse is almost constantly flooded with people, as is Compassion International, but have you heard of Global Partners for Peace and Development? Did you know you can teach English in China with ELIC? Go find tables that seem emptier and lonelier than the others! Just because a table seems less frequented doesn’t mean their organization doesn’t have awesome opportunities.

2. Actually go to a forum.

They have slides scrolling through Convo, but I know very few people who actually figure out the details and attend a forum. I’m guilty of this too- I see a slide advertising a forum that perks my interest, but I never actually go. This year, my goal is to attend at least one forum and really learn about people and places I have never experienced. I encourage you to do the same!

3. Join World Prayer.

I’ve been a part of World Prayer since last semester’s Global Focus Week. It is led by a beautiful Iranian refugee named Nastinka who is the self-appointed mother of all LU students, especially missionary kids. Many of these missionary kids attend World Prayer, but everyone is welcome to participate. It’s not a Global Focus Week exclusive either! World Prayer meets every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. in the President’s Box in Vines.

4. Sponsor a Compassion child.

You saw all the children on seats in Convo. Maybe you denied your ability to get one. Maybe you’re praying about it. During the spring Global Focus Week of my freshman year, a Compassion partner spoke in Convocation. I told myself that I could not get a child, as I did not have a job. God, however, had other plans, and soon my twin sister was calling me from across Vines, practically yelling into the phone about getting a child and splitting the cost with another friend.

Now, we are the proud sponsors of Chimdessa, an 8-year-old boy from Ethiopia. I can tell you so much about him: he wants to be a teacher, his favorite color was green but now it is white, he has two siblings, his birthday is in August, he always asks us to pray that he will learn more about God, and so on. We send him letters regularly, special ones for his birthday and Christmas, and I try to pray for him regularly as well. It is a relationship like no other. Why are you hesitant? God did not make the world too big with too few of resources. You can sponsor a child.

5. Say yes to God!

Global Focus Week has countless opportunities. Take advantage of them! We only get eight of them and although that may seem like a large number, if we never truly participate in them, then we can easily waste all eight.

Scare yourself this Global Focus Week somehow, whether it be at a forum, sponsoring a child, researching trips, or just internationally focused prayer. God is bigger than we can imagine and so is this world.