Tara Marsh ‘23, of Ellwood City, PA, is now a junior communication major with an emphasis in writing and a minor in history at Geneva College. She found herself pursuing a degree in communication because she loves people, and communication is all about people.
She also found herself feeling led to help with Upper Room, a student-run ministry that her dad started when he was at Geneva in 1992. Marsh explains, “The essence of Upper Room is peers leading peers into the presence of God.”
When the school year is not in, Marsh spends much of her time in the mission field. She experienced her first mission trip when she was a junior in high school. She went to Peru for two weeks, and she remembers flying home and asking the Lord if she was called to missions. She says, “The Lord corrected me and said, ‘You’ll get to do missions.’” Marsh continued, “It’s not about my calling or what I get to do for me, but what I get to do for Him because I don’t live for myself.”
In the summer of 2021, Marsh spent three weeks in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of the Muslim country of Tanzania, Africa, that was colonized by Oman. Marsh explained how the few Christians who live there are heavily persecuted, and the church continues to be burned down.
Many Muslims have immigrated to Zanzibar, and Marsh ministered to Muslim women, as well as people who had a background of witchcraft. Throughout her time here, Marsh was dressed in a full Muslim garb going into the homes of people as a tourist wanting to experience Zanzibar culture. With this approach, she ended up having many great conversations with the women there. In her time in Zanzibar, 52 men and women gave their lives to Jesus.
This summer, Marsh is spending three months in Zambia, Africa, for advanced mission training (AMT) with Overland Missions. Marsh explains, “The program consists of learning in a classroom on the base in Livingstone, and then going out into the bush and practicing exactly what we will have just learned.” After she completes her training with Overland during the summer, she will be hired as a full-time staff member in their communication department to use photography and videography around the world.
Overland has bases all over the world and a total of 500 people currently on staff. Right now, there are about five or six Geneva alumni with Overland helping complete water projects and other projects. Just last year, 55,000 people got water through Overland.
Marsh says, “Through every season, He has called me to deeper surrender and humility. He has called me to lay down my own wisdom and good intentions and trade them for His own life. Yet through it all, in the lowest of places, He has built me, protected me, provided for me, and advocated for me like no one I have ever met. Even through tragedy and heartache, it has never led me to skepticism or doubt, but simply to the question, ‘Where would I be without Jesus?’”
Follow Tara’s mission at https://marshtarag.wixsite.com/overeveryhill
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