For Reba Mackintosh (07), her classrooms at Point Loma Nazarene University didn’t always look like the rows of chairs and desks in Bond Academic Center or the lecture halls of Fermanian. Instead, her classrooms were often city buses in Spain and lakesides in Armenia.
Majoring in business administration with an international business concentration, Mackintosh’s life has been marked by a sense of adventure and a heart to reach the nations with the love of Jesus. Her PLNU journey began with a trip that became the first step into a life-long adventure God was planning for her.
It all started with an invitation. As part of PLNU’s new student orientation, freshmen were invited on a backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevadas, and Mackintosh jumped at the opportunity.
“It was a true preparing and stripping,” she said. “I didn’t even realize until I was [back] at school that [it] was so important that I did that and got to experience that. The experience itself was cool, but the vulnerability and this spiritual kind of prep work that the Spirit did was super special, and I cherish that.”
Next came Spain. With the journey through the Sierra Nevadas already under her belt, Mackintosh went on a study abroad trip during the summer before her junior year. Taking a city bus in the 110° heat with no air conditioning, she arrived at a university in Seville.
“[It was] a really beautiful spot in the South Central area,” she said.
Mackintosh used a third-party program to study abroad, which offered a unique experience, since she arrived entirely on her own.
“[I] was [later] paired with a roommate, and we lived with a family,” she said. “I was able to take an international marketing class, which was my favorite. … [I] also had a language class, and it was awesome. It was a great experience.”
But Mackintosh’s travels didn’t stop there. Before her senior year, she took a trip to Armenia. In partnership with a program offered at Baylor University, Mackintosh had a life-changing experience connecting with the Baylor students and Armenian locals.
Their goal was to create a ropes course catering to Iranian youth who would cross the border illegally. They wanted it to be a space for them to come and be loved and seen.
“Our purpose was to just start conversations,” Mackintosh said. “So we had a realtor team that we met with. We were trained to learn local law around this kind of thing. I’m sure it was heavier on the meetings and discussions, but the part that I remember the most was this realtor team taking us along with their family to places. We went to the lake one day and just spent the whole day with their family.”
While Mackintosh was comfortable with travelling internationally (she had, after all, already explored the globe quite a bit), there were some challenges her team faced in Armenia. Mackintosh said there were some tumultuous experiences, including declarations of war in nearby countries. However, it broadened her awareness of her need to share the love of Jesus to the nations.
“That’s really the consistent takeaway,” she said. “All of it just winds down to, the world’s maybe not as big as what we think and we have a job to do.”
Today, Mackintosh works for Food for Hope. Although it’s not a faith-based organization, Mackintosh’s mindset of sharing the love of Jesus remains the same. Based in Colorado, she and Food for Hope both have a shared goal of providing vital nutrition to children.
“It’s neat to get to have these moments amidst our work where we get to testify or invite people to join us for prayer [and] ultimately pouring into kids, even through their tummies, so that someday they can look back and recognize that as the love of Christ,” she said. “That’s the hope. I hope He’s using it [in] that way.”
One of the people who inspired her to go into a non-profit like Food for Hope was her business law professor at PLNU, Bob Goff. While Goff doesn’t teach at Loma anymore, he’s now an author and the founder of Love Does, an organization that provides children with education in conflict zones.
“That’s really the consistent takeaway. All of it just winds down to, the world’s maybe not as big as what we think and we have a job to do.”
“The Lord was working it all along,” Mackintosh said. “Bob Goff was a big influencer there.”
Mackintosh joined the Food for Hope team in 2021, which has grown “probably times six or so since [then].”
“It was something God gave that fits me so well — it fits where our family is at so well,” she said. “I am just super thankful for it.”
Her family has strong ties to Point Loma. Beyond finding a passion for travel and non-profit at PLNU, Mackintosh met her now-husband, Jono, during his last semester.
“We were both in a Christian Tradition class, back-to-back with World Civ[ilizations] I,” she said. “We started to just walk between the classes together. … We struck up a friendship very easily, very quickly. Then in April that semester, [when] he was about to graduate, we made a bet that he would get a certain grade on a math test, and I won. So I asked him to take me to dinner — that was my prize for winning.”
The couple started dating that April, committing to a long distance relationship while Mackintosh was home for the summer and Jono went on a trip through Youth With a Mission (YWAM).
“It was beautiful, because it forced us to learn how to communicate,” Mackintosh said.
One year later, the two were married, and now they live in Colorado together with their three daughters. Their oldest daughter is 15, and as she enters her sophomore year of high school, she has college on her mind.
“Point Loma will always be so special to me,” Mackintosh said. “I feel like it’s weird being in North Denver, Colorado and [having] an opportunity to still speak up about the impact Point Loma had on my life. … Jono and I, both being graduates of Point Loma, we love it. … It’s a pretty significant part of our conversation with our kids in this season of life.”
Mackintosh and her family are still finding ways to share the love of Jesus, and have more adventures to come. She’s planning on returning to Spain in July, so she can show her family where she lived while she studied abroad.
For Mackintosh, her journey has just begun.
