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HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY sophomore Jeff Copeland shares his crayons with a child at one of the five children's ministry sites where HBU students served during a spring break Mexico mission trip.
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Texas students hit the road for spring break missions
___The gospel flowed as freely as suntan lotion during this year's spring break, as Texas Baptist college students volunteered in ministries from the beaches to the deserts and from the inner cities to places of isolation.
___Sparked by the enthusiasm of Baptist Student Ministries programs statewide, hundreds
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STUDENTS witnessed at South Padre Island during Beach Reach.
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of students from both Baptist and state universities united in what has become an annual concentration of ministry and evangelism.
___BSM groups traveled to the colonias of Mexico, the beaches of South Padre Island, various inner-city missions and even the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
___More than 40 students from Hardin-Simmons University traveled from Abilene to Washington for a week of door-to-door visitation, evangelism projects, children's ministry and drama presentations.
___Love Company, the drama ministry team of the Hardin-Simmons BSM, not only presented skits at the noonday ministry of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington; they also helped serve the noon meal there for the homeless and working poor.
___Hardin-Simmons students also served at Johenning Baptist Center in Washington, helped clean up a low-income apartment complex, taught children in day camps and painted a suburban Washington church.
___Back home in Texas, several hundred BSM students combed the beaches of South Padre Island telling people about Jesus during Beach Reach, one of the oldest continuous spring break ministries of Texas Baptists.
___The Baptist students talked one-on-one about Christ with 7,500 of their peers and led
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STUDENTS Amy VanValkenberg and Kim Contraous, both sophomores at Texas A&M University in College Station, lift a rock while clearing ground at Iglesia Buenas Nuevas in Nuevo Laredo. (Photos by Dale Peacock, Charles Richardson and Becky Holt)
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156 to first-time professions of faith in Christ.
___On and near the Texas-Mexico border, other BSM students tackled a different set of challenges. Students participated in medical clinics, child-care programs and church construction projects in places like Laredo and Guadalajara.
___"I received a renewed vision of how happiness isn't found in circumstances or dependent upon what I own or want, but it's seeing my daily needs met by God," said Annetta Box, a junior at Houston Baptist University who traveled with her BSM to Acuña, Mexico.
___HBU sent six teams--two medical teams, two children's teams, one construction team and one sports team--to the Acuña region.
___"Each of our teams was able to meet many needs of children and adults as we spread out across seven different communities during the week," reported Kristen Brock, religion editor for the Collegian student newspaper at HBU.
___"This was especially evident in a family of seven who lived across the street from one of our combined medical and children's team sites," she said. "A mother brought in four of her five children to see Kerfoot Walker, leader of the medical team. After examining them, Walker diagnosed all four as anemic. From a translator, he discovered the children probably had only one meal a day at school because of financial difficulties. After the family left, Walker sent two students across the street to the family's house to make a list of supplies they needed.
___"The students entered
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CAROLEE EGGER of Hardin-Simmons University befriends a youth at the Johenning Baptist Center in Washington, D.C.
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the two-room dwelling and spoke with the mother. They found few groceries, no propane with which to cook and nowhere to keep cold or frozen foods. Members of the medical team and my children's team bought groceries, water, propane and pots and pans for the family. In addition, we brought them back to the camp for a meal during the week. Although at first the mother had been embarrassed by our generosity, she began to cry out of gratefulness before we left."
___The students, too, spent their own time weeping over the conditions they encountered and the love they shared with the children and adults of Acuña.
___"My faith and my passion for God have been renewed," said HBU senior Angela Gardner. "My perspective has changed from one of caring for my needs to caring for the needs of those around me, and I have rediscovered my passion for missions."
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REGINA RUSK, a fourth-year medical student at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, examines a child in medical clinic near Acuña, Mexico. She worked alongside students from Houston Baptist University.
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___Students from Texas A&M returned to the same church the university BSM has assisted the last four years, Iglesia Bautista Buenas Nuevas in Nuevo Laredo.
___This year, they laid a foundation for a porch or an area for a Sunday School class to meet at the church. Others conducted Vacation Bible School at a nearby orphanage.
___They were moved by the commitment and vision of Pastor Pecheco, said Jeff Heubner, a junior construction science major.
___"Going down there and seeing how Pastor Pecheco lives his life for God and how he is there every day, always faced with the burden of poverty--it would be so easy for him to lose track of why he is there," Heubner said. "As college students, we can't do what he does every day, but we can come down and pitch in a little bit and help encourage them."
___An increasing number of the Texas Baptist students speak Spanish and therefore enjoy the opportunity to practice their skills on spring break mission trips. But they also enjoy
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LAUREN HAMILTON of Hardin-Simmons University traveled to the Washington, D.C., area with her campus Baptist Student Ministry. She used her art ability to enliven a youth classroom at Bren Mar Baptist Church of Fairfax County, Va. (Photo by Charles Richardson)
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being able to share the message of Christ with the people they encounter.
___Michael Ramos, a freshman at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, used his Spanish skills in Nuevo Laredo through door-to-door visitation and street evangelism. He led several to faith in Christ, without aid of a translator.
___"Sometimes I find it difficult to speak in Spanish, but I always know that Jesus is there to help me when I fall," he said. "When I fall here in Mexico, I fall because I don't know a certain word in Spanish. But I just know that whatever I say and if I show love that Jesus has given me, then that love will be seen to them and that's what I want people to see.
___"Even though I can't speak Spanish perfectly, I want them to see the love that Jesus has available for them."
___Baylor University students this year inaugurated a long-term relationship with missionaries and students at the University of Guadalajara.
___Forty-two students and two staff members from the Baylor BSM traveled to
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JEFF HEUBER, a junior at Texas A&M University, mixes concrete at Iglesia Bautista Buenas Nuevas. (Photos by Dale Peacock and Becky Holt)
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Guadalajara.
___"For several years our staff prayed about an opportunity to link up with a missionary or adopt a country to focus on for a few years," said Rae Wright, associate BSM director.
___The Baylor students' ministry in Guadalajara this year was primarily "friendship evangelism," which relies on building relationships with the Mexican students. The students' principal ministry was to spend time with their peers at the University of Guadalajara and then to share their faith on a personal level.
___The personal nature of evangelism was an important part of the trip's success, said Erik Milam, a Baylor sophomore.
___"Our ministry consisted of going to college campuses in the area and inviting the students to coffee houses each night," Milam said. "The purpose of the trip was to build relationships with the students in Guadalajara and eventually try to share the gospel with them."
___This type of evangelism is especially important in Guadalajara because most of the students view religion as a cultural, rather than personal, experience, said Katie Burk, a freshman from Spring.
___Having a long-term relationship with the Christian students in Guadalajara rather than treating the area as a one-time mission project will allow students in Baylor's BSM to build on previous ministry experience and to work together with Mexican Christians in Guadalajara and possibly in Texas, Wright predicted.
___Written by Managing Editor Mark Wingfield with reporting from Texas Baptist Student Ministry, HBU Collegian, Baylor Lariat and Hardin-Simmons University communications office
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