February 2, 2000
18-year-old spins new
idea for mission funds
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___SPRING--Allison Lowry has a dream of clothing children all around the world in righteousness--or at least a "What Would Jesus Do?" T-shirt or a "Jesus Loves the Little Children" T-shirt dress.
___That's a big goal for even a Texan. But what's even more significant is that Lowry isn't far removed from childhood herself. She is an 18-year high school senior.
___"My first goal is to send thousands of 'gospel shirts' to missionary organizations around the world for distribution to Third World countries," she said.
___"My second goal is to provide funding for volunteer mission projects and other unfunded mission projects of missionaries and mission strategy coordinators around the world."
___One project that she hopes might benefit soon from the idea is this summer's youth mission trip from Spring Baptist Church, where her father, Forrest Lowry, is pastor.
___Allison Lowry will travel to New Zealand this summer as part of the church's innovative approach to global missions exposure. Youth from the suburban Houston church will split up to travel all over the world on mission projects.
___She already has secured an agreement with Texas Textiles in Tomball to produce the shirts for $5 apiece and the dresses for $10 apiece. By asking donors to fund distribution of the gospel shirts and dresses, she could give 50 cents from the price of each garment to the mission-support fund.
___"For this inexpensive price, we are able to bulk-ship hundreds of shirts at a time to missionaries and mission ministries around the world so they can get the gospel out in a very unique and creative way," Lowry said.
___She and other members of the Spring youth group also would take the shirts and dresses to their destinations this summer, she said. Inside the package for each shirt will be a tract sharing the gospel in the native language of that country.
___She knows the idea of being able to find people to sponsor 200,000 "gospel shirts," which is what it would take to pay for this summer's mission endeavor, might seem a little far-fetched to some. But she's stepping out on faith.
___"Do I think we will get enough people to sponsor 200,000 shirts and dresses? Why not?" she asked. "The world is doing a lot more than that to get their message out."
___Her father said he is proud of his daughter's efforts.
___"I'm proud that she wants to spend her last summer before college on the mission field, and if she can start a ministry that can have far-reaching effects, so much the better," he said.
___For more information on the project, e-mail Lowry at missionkids@hotmail.com.
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