Valley Missions/Education Center a gateway to missions, president says
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___HARLINGEN--Harlingen is one of those towns many Texans vaguely recognize by name but can't say precisely where it's located. Likewise, Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center in Harlingen is an institution many Texas Baptists vaguely recognize by name but don't know much about.
___If Bob Manley reads the future right, both those problems soon will disappear.
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| BOB MANLEY stands by a sign indicating the seven ministry areas of Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center. |
___Both Harlingen and the Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center are becoming strategic locations for Baptist missions work, according to Manley, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas institution.
___"With a few more dollars, we could have a first-class missions staging center here," he explains, pointing to Harlingen's deep South Texas location as a gateway both to Mexico missions and to ministry among the exploding border population.
___Part of that dream already is being fulfilled, as the institution has expanded beyond its original mission of providing a boarding school for high school students. As the name reflects, Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center now encompasses a wide range of services, including Valley Baptist Academy, theological training for laity and clergy through the Texas Baptist Leadership Center and Hardin-Simmons University, and college-level courses offered through Howard Payne University.
___The institution increasingly is offering its dormitories and food-service facilities to church groups on mission in the South Texas region and across the border in Mexico.
___Although Harlingen may appear to be off the beaten path for many Texans, it actually is a "springboard to the Americas," Manley contends.
___The potential at Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center is unimaginable, he insists, calling the institution a "sleeping giant."
___"I don't think the Lord has given us 90 acres in this strategic area by accident."
___Texas Baptist work through this institution began 55 years ago with the founding of Valley Baptist Academy to train international students. And the school remains "the cornerstone of what we do," Manley reports.
___Only about 20 percent of the students who enroll in the academy are Christians, but nearly 100 percent are Christians when they leave, he explains. "Large numbers come to Christ."
___Last year al
one, the academy recorded 135 professions of faith in Christ.
___The academy serves about 200 students annually, including a large summer session. Although all academy classes are taught in English, students who need to gain strength in their language skills are admitted first to a preparatory program.
___The academy plays a vital role in South Texas because of the high dropout rate (43 percent) in the region's Hispanic community, Manley explains.
___And that's something Texas Baptists must be concerned about for several reasons, he adds.
___"If you're going to start churches at the pace we need, ... it's only going to be as strong as its leadership. The better educated that leadership is, the stronger and more stable the church is going to be."
___While the academy enrolls students from various locations and family backgrounds, it offers a special place for those who need a second chance, Manley says.
___Several students are children of Baptist pastors in Mexico. Some are orphans. Some come from well-to-do families, while others come from extremely poor families.
___Scholarships are an essential ingredient in the academy's program. For example, the actual cost of educating one student at the academy for a year is $6,700. But the average pastor in Mexico makes only $200 per month, Manley notes.
___Forty percent of academy students come from the United States, and 60 percent come from Mexico and other countries.
___The academy's high-school program is fully accredited, and its graduates regularly go on to schools like Baylor or Hardin-Simmons or Howard Payne.
___Enrollment in the academy program has more than tripled over the past seven years, after it had dropped in the early 1990s to the point where leaders talked of closing the school.
___While addressing the academy enrollment issue, trustees also determined to expand the work of the institution, Manley explains. "Times have changed, and the ministry of the institution has changed."
___That's when Howard Payne began offering college-credit classes on the Harlingen campus and other programs were offered for laity and clergy alike.
___The scope of ministry now encompasses a Christian Women's Job Corps program that is helping 110 women this year get off welfare and into the workforce, youth leadership events, preaching conferences for pastors and support for local and Mexico missions efforts.
___Within the last year, 17 mission groups totaling 432 people used the Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center facilities for lodging and meals while doing missions work in the region. The center also hosted six construction teams and a group of physicians who operated 17 health clinics along the border this summer.
___In the last two years, the institution has helped start two churches in the area and assisted in another start. A group of students currently is working to start yet another congregation out of the center's chapel.
___"There's always something going on," Manley says. "Thank the Lord it's not all at the same time."
___All this happens on an annual budget of about $1.5 million, including about $576,000 in gifts from the BGCT Cooperative Program and the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center has many additional financial needs if it is to expand its ministry more, Manley explains. The biggest and most-urgent need is for new dormitories.
___Currently, students are housed in two-story World War II-era barracks that are kept neat and tidy but have experienced years of wear and tear that cannot be hidden.
___"We could probably double the number of students if we had new dormitories," Manley predicts, noting that any time prospective students visit, he always shows them the dormitories last.
___Bob Manley stands by a sign indicating the seven ministry areas of Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center. Below: The boys' dormitory.
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