Testimony Tuesday: A heart for missions

by Bella Agnello

Ben Spacek was born into a family with a legacy of faith, dating back generations. Growing up in Reading, PA, he was surrounded by a wealth of Christian influence, knowledge of missions and love for the Gospel. Now a senior Accounting major at Cedarville University, he reflects on the path God took him towards missions.

God called Spacek to himself one Sunday afternoon, after hearing the gospel in Sunday school. Though little at the time, Spacek understood enough of the lesson to ask his parents about it on the car ride home from church. They reexplained the gospel to him, that he — though little — still sinned and needed Jesus to forgive him of his sins. When they got home, they sat in his bedroom and helped him pray to God, to ask for forgiveness.

As Spacek grew older, he went to church, attended Christian school and learned from his parents what it looks like to be a Christian. Around eight years old, his family started going on 1-week missions trips to New York City — a tradition that would last for the next ten years.

“It got me away from the Christian bubble,” Spacek said. “It really helped me from such a young age to see the need.”

Even so, Spacek treated the trip as most kids would: like a vacation.

“I just played soccer with the kids and maybe got to say a few things about the gospel,” Spacek said. “It was still definitely an impactful trip for me, and I definitely still learn things through it.”

Around age 12, Spacek decided to get baptized. God taught him the importance of baptism, which is a public declaration to his church that he believes in Christ. At the time, he struggled with public speaking. Though he was scared, he obeyed God’s push to share his testimony.

God continued to push Spacek deeper in his faith in high school, where he convicted him of his fear of man. While with his family he felt the freedom to express his full personality, he struggled to be himself outside of his home, fearing what his peers thought of him.

“It prevented me from getting to know people deeply,” Spacek said. “[I had] a lot of surface level friendships.”

During his sophomore year of high school, Spacek learned to overcome this fear as he learned to make his faith his own.

“I realized there’s more to life than just what people thought about me,” Spacek said. “I started to read the Word more on my own and actually strive to want to have a relationship with God. At that same time, he was delivering me out of that struggle.”

God continued to show Spacek much of himself when he stepped foot on Cedarville’s campus as a freshman. He enrolled as an Accounting major, not having a true passion for it but learning about it from going into work with his dad as a kid.

However, God was not done showing Spacek what else he had planned for his life.

That December, Spacek’s mom told him and his brother that their church planned a short-term missions trip to Poland. His answer was an immediate yes.

Spacek was excited to be able to share the gospel however he could, despite the language barriers. Amidst his hope to the gospel known, he knew he had a greater desire to go on the trip that surpassed his desire to evangelize. “My main motivation for going was, ‘Wow, Europe is so cool,’” Spacek said. “I love different cultures.”

Yet, in the span of one week, God changed Spacek’s heart and charged it for missions. He left Poland feeling filled and refreshed, wanting to return the following summer.

In the fall, Spacek returned to Cedarville to start his sophomore year in Accounting. While attending a lecture in his Business Analytics minor, he had the sudden realization that something was terribly wrong.

“They’re speaking a foreign language, and it’s not even a missions class,” Spacek said.

Almost without hesitation, Spacek dropped the minor and replaced it with a Missions minor. These classes taught him everything he needed to be well-informed and well-equipped when he returned to Poland that summer for six weeks, then the following summer for nine weeks.

This past summer, Spacek worked in Word of Life’s teen summer camps. The weeks presented him with trials as he learned what long-term missions looks like. God pressed to him the sweetness of James 1:2-4, which says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

This newfound perspective fueled him with a joy to perceive where Christ was working in the little moments, as well as the moments that marked people for eternity.

“The joy in ministry is seeing that moment in their brain when something clicks, and then they realize who Christ is and how they should be living fully for him,” Spacek said. “It’s an amazing thing for me to see and witness because that moment is a life defining, life changing moment for them in their faith and walk with Christ.”

Now stepping into his senior year, Spacek found assurance that God is calling him to serve him through ministry. Whether that’s as a pastor, on a missions board or a missionary, he looks forward to working in and for the church.

Spacek looks back at his story, in awe at the traces of grace that drew out a heart ready to steward his life for God.

“If you look back on my life, who I was literally just a few years ago, it’s like a complete transformation of my heart and my whole being and like that alone shows the power of God,” Spacek said. “Through that now, I see no other option but to serve Him fully with all I am for the rest of my life. Because of that, he deserves all glory and praise, because of the internal transformation in my own life.”

Bella Agnello is a senior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys antiquing, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.

*photo caption 1: Spacek with his friends

*photo caption 2: the Spacek family