August 20, 2001
This summer missionary found her
place without leaving home
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___EAGLE PASS--Bicri Hernandez was born in Mexico, has served as a Baptist Student Ministry summer missionary in the Dominican Republic and has prayerwalked in Costa Rica. But this summer, she found a mission field much closer to home.
___Hernandez served as a River Ministrysummer missionary at Iglesia Bautista Peniel in Eagle Pass, the church where her father is pastor.
BICRI HERNANDEZ
___"In a way, it's been an open door. There are no barriers. I know my culture, and I know the people," she said.
___When Hernandez was 10 years old, her father felt the call to ministry and moved from Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley. The family lived in South Texas for six years and then moved to Temple, where she graduated from high school.
___After graduation, she led Vacation Bible School at a Hispanic church in the Valley as part of Helping Hands, a short-term summer missions program sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas River Ministry.
___About that time, her parents moved to Eagle Pass, where her father, Eliezar Hernandez, established a pediatric practice and became pastor of Iglesia Bautista Peniel.
___Working at Peniel this summer allowed Bicri to fulfill the field education requirement for her master of divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she is a Eula Mae Henderson Memorial Scholarship recipient. Woman's Missionary Union of Texas makes the scholarships available to women in Texas seminaries who are preparing for service in missions or missions education.
___As a River Ministry summer missionary at Peniel, she handled administrative responsibilities and worship planning, helped with visitation and led Bible studies.
___"I like Bible study. I like preparing for that. I like sharing what God has placed in my heart. I think it's the most satisfying job in the world to see how sharing my relationship with God and what little he has taught me can make somebody find hope and find faith," she said.
___River Ministry and its summer missionary program for university and seminary students are supported by gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___Throughout the summer, Hernandez found her own faith strengthened by the example of Peniel church members with limited resources who serve faithfully in missions outreach along the border.
___The church collects an offering each month for the Casa Hogar orphanages in Piedras Negras. And recently, Peniel called Juan Maycotte as associate pastor to give their bivocational pastor more time for volunteer medical missions with Casa Hogar.
___Marta, a single woman who volunteers each month at the orphanages--cooking, cleaning and spending time with the children--particularly inspired Hernandez.
___"She is challenged by not just talking about Christianity but incarnating it," she said. "She is willing to just give love. That, and maybe a little food, is all she has to give."
___In the process of sharing the gospel in her own Spanish-speaking culture, Hernandez also found opportunities to reach across cultural barriers to befriend a student from France.
___Celine, a self-proclaimed atheist, lived with the Hernandez family for two months while completing a business school practicum in Piedras Negras.
___For three of those weeks, the business student and the seminary student lived under the same roof. They worked on their field education assignments and wrote reports, talking about their differences and similarities.
___"It was neat to come home and be a missionary for the summer and have somebody to minister to at home, 24/7," Hernandez said. "Basically, I shared my life with her."
___In the process, she learned that Celine loved music. Since part of Hernandez's responsibility at Peniel was worship planning, she told Celine about the songs at church and invited her to participate in the music ministry.
___She did, and soon the atheist business student from France started taking off work a half-hour early on Wednesdays to attend choir practice at the Spanish-speaking church.
___At the end of Celine's time in Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Hernandez gave her a Gideon New Testament printed in English, French and German.
___"You have to trust God's sovereignty," Hernandez said. "You don't know how far God's word and God's word in a song penetrates.
___"God works in mysterious ways, and I trust that it will remain in her memory, even though she returns to a very atheistic home. ... I pray for her every day."
___
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