March 24, 1999

In Houston, spring break
ministers learn flexibility
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___HOUSTON--They were supposed to be running an outdoor coffee house, but the unexpectedly cold air in Houston had put them out of business before they ever got started.
___So the Baptist students from Navarro College improvised.
___They began punching the crosswalk button at the nearest intersection, and when the passing cars stopped at the red light, the students offered them cups of hot coffee. Soon they had given out 60 cups and 60 brief witnesses to surprised

SOCCER drills were part of the sports clinics students conducted during Spring Break in Houston

strangers.
___Temperatures in the low 30s threw cold air on a variety of outreach ministries planned by the Navarro students and students from four other Texas schools at the beginning of their spring break March 14. But it didn't dampen their enthusiasm.
___They were learning how to share their faith, and they were learning how to be flexible.
___"You have to be flexible; that's the main thing here," said Michael Harvey, a Navarro student from Corsicana.
___Things got better the next day, as temperatures rose and children turned out for sports clinics and day camps at two of the three scheduled locations in Northwest Houston.
___The sports clinics and day camps were a mainstay in the weeklong outreach effort coordinated by Baptist Student Ministries at Texas A&M Kingsville, Navarro College, Alvin College, Laredo Commu-nity College and San Jacinto College.
___The students were breaking new ground, and not just because Sunday's cold weather stole the punch from their plan-ned outdoor block parties and coffee houses. This was the first year of a new collaboration between Baptist Student Ministries at the five smaller schools, a collaboration organizers hope might do for urban ministry what Beach Reach on South Padre Island has done for resort ministry.
___Most of the student ministry directors and many of the students involved with the Houston project have done Beach Reach in the past. But this year they wanted to push the limits of their comfort zones even more.
___"A lot of students were already going to the beach, and they have a great ministry there," said Beth Smith, Baptist Student Ministries director at Navarro. "But some students need another place."
___Placing students amid the difficult ministry needs of urban centers like Houston is necessary to help Texas Baptists achieve their goal of reaching the whole state with the gospel, added Robert Storrs, Baptist Student Ministries Director at A&M Kingsville and architect of the Houston project.
___If students learn how to do block parties, coffee houses, sports clinics and day camps at projects like this in Houston, they can take that knowledge to their current home churches and future home churches and reach even more people who need to hear of God's love, Storrs said.
___Giving up spring break to travel to the transitional Spring Branch area of Houston "is not a glamour trip," explained Todd Johnson, Baptist Student Mini-stries director at San Jacinto.
___Rather, it is a heavy dose of "everyday life," he said.
___And that could be a life-changing experience, Smith predicted. "My students have been learning to share their faith, but to come

A BULLETIN BOARD sorts out assignments for students ministering in Houston during Spring Break.

on a trip like this and actually do it ... I pray that will change our campus."
___More immediately, though, three churches in a hard area of Houston got a boost for their own ministries. The three participating churches--First Baptist of Spring Branch, Long Point Baptist and Spring Woods Baptist--are located in a once-affluent area hit hard by the oil bust of the 1980s and still going through economic and demographic transition.
___First Baptist Church of Spring Branch, for example, once drew 1,000 people to Sun-day school and worship, but today runs closer to 250 in its Anglo congregation, an increase over where it was just two or three years ago. The facility also is home now to a Hispanic congregation and a Korean congregation.
___The college students helped First Baptist Church and the two other nearby churches begin collecting information from area residents through door-to-door surveys.
___That information will help guide development of future church ministries, while at the same time sending a message to the community that the churches care, said Pastor Jim Koonce.
___"We want to make sure the community knows that we have a group of folks here who want to meet their needs," he said.
___Students participating in the Houston project said they hoped to gain valuable ministry experience, but most of all they hoped to be faithful to what they believed to be God's direction.
___"God told me to come," said J.B. Cantu of Kingsville, noting that he is a reclusive person by nature but senses God is shaping him to be more bold in his witness.
___For many of the students, that very measure of listening to God's voice was the key to the whole week.
___Success will be "if I feel like I didn't pass up any opportunities when the Lord told me to do something," said Rebecca Hailey, a San Jacinto student from La Porte.

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