By Kade Loomis, Staff Writer
If you’re attending Ouachita, chances are there are people and names you are familiar with. Dr. Sells, the president; Dr. Duval, the man who wrote your Bible Survey and Interp books; Mr. Wagley, the campus ministries guy; the list could go on. But of course, there are people that only affect a small portion of people and not known by the whole campus. One such person is Jason Greenwich, director of the Grant Center for International Education. If you’re an international student, a TCK, or ever applied to study abroad, this name is very familiar to you. But to some students, he may just be the guy who gets up during the international chapel every year. So, who is Jason Greenwich? What’s his story?
Growing up, Greenwich was your average Arkansan boy. Until he turned nine and moved to Brazil. “From the second day I arrived in the country, I was put into a national Brazilian public, Portuguese speaking school.” Many would be overwhelmed by the task of language learning in such a situation, but children are surprisingly adaptable in such situations. “I really don’t remember learning Portuguese, it was just kind of absorbed as a kid, and by my second year in Brazil I was already fluent,” Greenwich explained. “By the time I was 18, people thought I was Brazilian.” For most of his childhood in Brazil, he lived in Florianópolis, an island city just off the coast and capital of Santa Catarina. When he left at 18, he moved to Arkansas and attended college at OBU.
During college, Greenwich went through the same uncertainty many students do, unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. “I majored in music because I loved it, but I wasn’t sure if that was going to be my future,” Greenwich said.
Greenwich explained how he was called back to the mission field. However, he was skeptical of the calling at first. “I tried to push [missions]away,” Greenwich explained. “I didn’t want it to seem like that was the natural progression of things just because my parents and grandparents were missionaries.”
However, the call to missions stayed with Greenwich. He prayed about it and eventually became certain that the Lord was calling him to serve as a missionary in Italy.
While serving, he connected with international soccer players and was especially able to connect with Brazilian players since he lived there in his childhood.At the peak, he was a chaplain-like figure to about 200 soccer players and helped nurture the fastest-growing church in Milan. It all came to a halt, though, when a major shift changed his and his family’s lives forever, forcing them to move back to America. “I was thinking, ‘How has it come to this? How do we restart from scratch?’”Greenwich said. “It was over. The life I had was shattered.” Greenwich felt called to serve in some capacity, but it was difficult to think of feasible options under his condition.
Therefore, he went to Ouachita. Ian Cosh, Greenwich’s predecessor, had contacted him about a month prior and invited him to come fill his role as he was retiring, to which Greenwich had declined. However, moving back to the US, things were different.
“I reached back out to him and [asked if the offer was still on the table,]” Greenwich said. OBU was very gracious. They were welcoming and understanding, providing everything for his family. “It was the softest landing for a terrible situation.” Greenwich ended up at Ouachita, serving the international students and improving the Grant Center.
Throughout his life, we can see God at work in his life. Leading his parents to Brazil, leading him to Italy, using life’s unexpected circumstances to guide him to Ouachita. All throughout his life, Greenwich has been guided by the hand of God.
“I love what I do here, and in a way it’s still ministry, and it’s still working with different cultures,” Greenwich said. This way, he doesn’t just interact with Italian culture, but from cultures around the world from Mexico, Austria, Argentina, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan and so many more.
