CENTRE — Jeremy Deaton, 22, says the world didn't open up to him until he became a student at Auburn University. By the time his classes began, Jeremy says he knew he wanted to work with animals, but for a time he wasn't sure why he was being led down that path.

Then, one day during a student worship service, the 2006 Coosa (Ga.) High School graduate heard about Christian Veterinary Missions.

“That's when it all just kind of clicked, for me,” he says. “I got on their website and realized I wanted to mission.”

Jeremy, who earned his bachelor's degree in 2009 and will become a licensed veterinarian in 2013, is also an ordained Baptist minister. He works with the Seattle-based group through his home church, New Bethel Baptist in Forney, and leads the Auburn chapter of Christian Veterinary Missions (CVM).

“Our whole focus is on veterinary mission work,” Jeremy explains. “We go to Mexico, Bolivia, India, Chile, Argentina, and even take trips in Alabama. We go in under the banner of a veterinary mission and that leads into the Christian mission work.”

Jeremy left July 2 for South America, where he'll spend a week helping build an orphanage in Ecuador with a group from Oxford. But he'll also be “surveying” for a possible return trip with his veterinary team from Auburn.

Jeremy's next CVM assignment leaves July 22 for India – but don't tell the folks in central Asia.

“Foreign missionaries are not allowed in India but they do allow veterinarians, so that's how we get in,” he said. “We go in and set up clinics for pets and offer spay and neuter services — and rabies vaccination. We do that, regardless.”

Jeremy says he expects to spend a lot of his time in the company of an animal few Alabamians ever see in person – free-roaming water buffalo.

“You get over there and the water buffalo are in poor condition, and they give very little milk,” he says.

Jeremy says a three-cent shot from a CVM volunteer can increase the milk yield by 2-3 lbs. per day per animal.

“That may not sound like a lot, but over there it is,” he says. “In Third World and developing counties, animals are life. That's where everything they have comes from.”

Jeremy says one of the biggest problems he and his follow missionaries face as they travel the world is a lack of education.

“In many places, the people don't realize that by letting their dogs run free they are creating a huge health problem,” he said.

Jeremy says he is seriously thinking about dedicating his career to veterinary missionary work after graduation. Watching him become animated as he recounts a trip to Mexico last winter, it isn't hard to believe he has found his calling.

Unlike in India, Jeremy and his fellow missionaries were welcome to reach past the pets and spread the Good Word in Mexico – and Jeremy took full advantage of the opportunity. During his stay, he relied on his fluency in Spanish to lead a local worship service and even handed out bags of donated toys to poor Mexican children at Christmastime.

“The animals are the least of my concern,” he says. “That may sound bad, but it's helping the people that matters. You're traveling to share Christ, and you're doing it without beating people in the head with the Bible. And that's the way I like to do it.”

For more information visit www.cvmusa.org or send e-mail to Jeremy at this address: jeremydeaton@gmail.com.