July 30, 2001
GUADALAJARA:
After Texans give, who will be willing to go?
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___GUADALAJARA, Mexico --Rick Jenkins stands alone in a sea of college students. He is the only Baptist campus minister for 300,000 students in Guadalajara.
___"We need more people to help," said Jenkins, coordinator of student work in Guadalajara for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. His "dream team" ofhelpers would be 15 American college students willing to give a semester or year of their lives to minister and study in Guadalajara.
RICK JENKINS
___ "The biggest need is to build relationships with students," Jenkins said. And Baptists from the United States have been able to do just that.
___A busload of 40 students from BaylorUniversity in Waco spent their spring break in Guadalajara earlier this year. "It was a home run," Jenkins said. Hundreds of Mexican students participated in activities planned by the Baylor group, and 15 to 20 Mexican students professed faith in Christ during the week.
Click to watch a streaming RealVideo interview with Rick Jenkins.
___Jenkins' desire to bring American Christian students to Guadalajara arose out of a class he taught at the Baptist seminary in the city. He asked his students what they would do to reach the college campuses for Christ if they had a blank check, if money were no object.
___"We want North American students to come tell us why they've become Christians," they told him. "We watch your television. We watch your movies. We see that North American students have everything they could imagine. If American students picked Jesus, we want to know why."
___Jenkins, from Atlanta, is a former Texas Baptist. He attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and was on staff at Sagamore Hill Baptist Church in Fort Worth. He has been a missionary in Mexico the last seven years.
___Working with the Baylor team was "probably one of the best things we have ever done," he said. "I couldn't have asked for more flexible students, more on-target students. ... They said they wanted to do personal evangelism." And they did, primarily by building relationships via the Bear Café, a coffee house ministry featuring games, a talent night, testimonies and spending time with Mexican students.
___Clif Mouser, the Baptist General Convention of Texas student ministries director at Baylor, "pursued me" in setting up the weeklong effort, Jenkins said. "It was a thing God really put together."
___Now Jenkins is looking to the future. Two American students already are scheduled to spend the fall ministering in Guadalajara. And while he's seeking students to give a semester or year to the effort, he's still open to shorter-term student volunteers.
___Jenkins noted a specific need for young men to come and minister. Many young women, he said, are willing to serve.
___Student volunteers do not have to speak perfect Spanish, Jenkins said. On campus, 30 percent of students are bilingual. They want to talk with English-speaking students. "They want to talk to an honest, living student," to know what they see on TV and movies is not everything there is to American life.
___"Partnerships are the best thing we have going on," the collegiate minister said. "All of Mexico would love to be in partnership with Texas Baptists," if for no other reason than the closeness of the state. Guadalajara is located about 700 miles, or an 11-hour drive, from Laredo on the Texas border.
___The spring break group "zipped down here with no problem at all," Jenkins said.
___When the Baylor students left, Guadalajara students asked if any others would be coming, Jenkins said. This year, there was only the one group. Next year, he expects three or four. But what he's really looking for are some students to give an even bigger chunk of their lives to Baptist work among students in central Mexico.
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