May 15, 2000

IN GALVESTON, Mission Service Corps volunteer Raj Samuel (below) directs Mission Galveston, an outreach to the homeless and poor. (Photos by Toby Druin)

Missions volunteers turn the tide in Galveston
___By Toby Druin
___Regional Correspondent
___GALVESTON--Janice Brooks has her own application for the saying "find a hole and fill it." When she finds a ministry hole or need, she fills it with a Mission Service Corps volunteer.
___Brooks and her husband, Joe, are the Mission Service Corps coordinators for Galveston Baptist Association, although he recently has been slowed by health problems.

VANDA BENTLEY ministers to residents of Fort Crockett Apartments, where she has converted the kitchen cabinets of one apartment into bookshelves.

___At last count, they were shepherding 27 other workers ministering in apartments, interim pastorates, discipleship training, to the homebound, to patients and families at the University of Texas Medical Branch, to the homeless, to people with catastrophic illness, coordinating care of the Chuckwu septuplets and as itinerant missionaries in Belgium. And that's just a partial list.
___"Without Joe and Janice Brooks, we could not do most of the exceptional ministries we do in Galveston Baptist Association," said Kyle Cox, director of missions.
___"I can't think of an analogy that would move fast enough to describe Janice. She is vivacious and a go-getter, and so is Joe, but because of his health he has had difficulty recently. Both are extremely good to work with and very supportive. She never tires or slows down once she takes on a responsibility."
___Mrs. Brooks has had missions on her mind almost all her life. Her father was a pastor

REBECCA YOUNG and her husband, Ziff, direct His House, a ministry to the families of patients at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. She became a Christian at 9 and at 15 "was miserable," she said, when she felt God was calling her to missions.
___"My idea was the back corner of Africa, and I didn't want to go that far from home," she said.
___Time passed, however, and no confirmation came from God. It wasn't until after she had married Joe and they were stationed with the military on Okinawa that the right doors began to open--and then it was difficult at first.
___"For the first 10 days we were there, I was miserable," she said. "I would go to the beach and cry. Finally, I realized we were going to be there for two years and I needed to make the best of it."
___Soon, on a trip to the commissary at the southern end of the island, they discovered Central Baptist Church. On their first Sunday there, Pastor Dwight Dudley, a missionary, said in his message that he was there because God had brought him there and the people

JANICE BROOKS, Mission Service Corps coordinator for Galveston, laughs with Kitty Millard (left) and Teresa Boling during a prayer meeting for Mission Service Corps volunteers.

were there to help him. The Brookses joined the church the next Sunday, and doors began to open.
___That afternoon, a couple visited them and said they were buying a boat for mission trips around the island and asked the Brookses to join them in a ministry called "Fishers of Men."
___After returning to Texas, they were active in their church, Nassau Bay Baptist Church, but weren't involved in missions until one day when he came in and announced he had been called to be a missionary.
___"I thought he would get over it," she said. "But he didn't."
___When Texas Baptist Executive Director Bill Pinson spoke at the church, Brooks met him. Soon Sam Pearis, coordinator of Texas Baptists' Mission Service Corps, came to talk to the Brookses about the Mission Service Corps consulting position for the area, which then included half of Union Baptist Association and all of Galveston, Gulf Coast and San Jacinto associations.
___When time for Mission Service Corps orientation came, Mrs. Brooks realized her husband was serious about it. "But I didn't see how I could do it; I was still working, and it was such a huge job, I didn't see how we could do it in 20 hours a week. I knew Joe couldn't do it without my help, but I was still working. I had to find a way for me not to work."
___They left the orientation on Thursday, she said, and when she went back to work on Friday her boss and his wife were waiting to tell her they had lost a major account and

REVECCA YOUNG joins in prayer with others during a Thursday morning prayer time at Rockview Church in the Mall.

would have to let her go.
___"I told them not to worry, that this is what is supposed to happen," she said. "Joe called me on my way home, and I told him we didn't have a problem anymore."
___Mission Service Corps is a national program supported by the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It provides training, prayer support and resources for short-term mission volunteers.
___Here are some of the ways Mission Service Corps is making a difference in Galveston:
___ Mary Ernst operates a catastrophic illness ministry out of First Baptist Church of Alta Loma.
___Ernst is a registered nurse who got the HIV virus when she was accidentally pricked by a contaminated needle. She eventually could not continue her work as a nurse, but she wanted to do something. Mission Service Corps helped her put together a ministry to people with catastrophic illnesses.
___Ernst has enlisted others, including a pastor's wife with hepatitis C and a woman who has lost a son to AIDS, and now leads classes on grief. She also has established support groups.
___ Raj Samuel, a member and deacon at First Baptist Church of Galveston, is director of Mission Galveston, which serves the city's homeless and others down on their luck. With help from about a dozen volunteers, who distribute clothing and groceries and the gospel, the center is open each Monday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 and on Sunday for worship at 3 p.m.
___The building housing Mission Galveston was provided by a Missourian, Fred Lennon, who wanted to begin a ministry that would share Jesus Christ, Samuel said. It was a former hotel, and the part of it occupied by Mission Galveston previously had served as a bar, a club and a "drug pit." Renovated by a group from Union Baptist Association, it now serves a higher purpose: In March, 24 professions of faith were registered there.
___ Ziff Young, a retired aerospace engineer, and his wife, Rebecca, direct His House, a ministry to patients undergoing out-patient treatment at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Patients and their families stay at the house rent-free if they cannot afford other accommodations.
___His House is a two-bedroom residence that previously served as the parsonage of Central Baptist Church. Four hundred people volunteered 3,500 hours of work to renovate the house.
___The ministry provides housing for the patients and their families and addresses their spiritual and emotional needs, including sharing the Christian faith with them. Three professions of faith have been recorded among more than 80 people--26 of them patients--who have stayed there over the past 16 months.
___ W. A. and Vanda Bentley direct a ministry to residents of the Fort Crockett Apartments, a sprawling 140-unit complex just off the Galveston seawall. Most of the residents are senior adults.
___Bentley produces a newsletter that links them together, and Mrs. Bentley directs a social program that includes parties for the residents, an exercise program, including water aerobics, and a women's club Bible study.?
___

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