NATCHEZ — While many college students likely spent their summer breaks vacationing or working for money, two Mississippi College students from the Miss-Lou spent their vacations answering a higher calling at the farthest reaches of the globe.

Brittany Allen, a 2007 Adams County Christian School graduate, spent two months delivering Bibles by backpack through the mountains of the Philippines, while her boyfriend Chase Caldwell, a 2007 Cathedral High School graduate, spent nearly three months in Nepal working to further the efforts or persecuted Christians there.

The couple said there’s no doubt they spent the summer doing just what God called them to do.

Allen said most of her days were spent delivering Bibles to small mountain villages the Philippines, and teaching the locals about Jesus.

Allen said while most of the people she encountered knew of Jesus, they didn’t know they could have a personal relationship with him.

“A lot of them did not see him as their personal savior,” she said.

Much of Allen’s time was spent working with translators, teaching villagers about the relationship they could have.

Most were receptive to the message.

“They wanted to hear what we had to say,” she said. “They were excited.”

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Caldwell was working to give small Christian populations the tools and encouragement they needed to become better Christians.

Caldwell said many of the Christians he encountered on his mission trip either did not have a full knowledge of Christ or were persecuted by other religious groups for following Jesus.

“We were there to work to change that,” he said. “They needed a lot of encouragement.”

But Allen and Caldwell likely won’t need too much encouragement to keep up with their work.

Allen, a nursing student, said she plans to continue similar, mission work as does Caldwell, once they graduate.

“God has bigger plans that what’s going on in Natchez, Miss., and bigger plans than Mississippi,” Caldwell said. “I want to be part of that, and everyone can be a part of that.”