November 11, 2002
TouchPoint reaches out to Houston's internationals
___By Vanessa Garcia
___Union Baptist Association
___On a weekend that traded hurricane threats for heat, hundreds of international students came to the University of Houston Baptist Student Ministry to eat, play, sing and celebrate.
___Volunteers created a weekend experience this fall to celebrate cultures, build relationships for further personal evangelism and create new connections between campus ministries and local congregations.
___The weekend marked the revival of TouchPoint, sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union of Texas. TouchPoint is a periodic local mission effort mobilizing volunteers from across the state.
___This year's event--put together byHouston-area WMU leaders, Union Baptist Association staff and area campus ministries--focused on international students. Activities included a Friday night international meal, daylong festival, a Saturday dinner of grilled kebabs and roasted corn, and an outdoor movie on the University of Houston campus, as well as simultaneous student-led prayerwalks on two campuses.
INTERNATIONALS make s'mores at Touchpoint at the University of Houston.
___When approached by Christine Hockin-Boyd of Texas WMU with the opportunity to be a TouchPoint site, associational WMU director Carolyn Beall and associational consultant Karen Simons suggested the campus focus to accomplish several objectives.
___"We have more than 115 countries represented on the University of Houston's campus," said Simons, who helps coordinate Union Baptist Association's global/local mission efforts. "But we don't know what people groups are there. We could havesomeone on one of our area campuses right now from an area where we would love to have a church but where no missionaries are allowed. We don't want to lose this outreach opportunity."
View more photos of Touchpoint here.
___However, Simons also pointed out that reaching internationals usually comes from building long-term relationships rather than one-time evangelistic efforts. So while volunteers were trained on people group research and given cards to collect data, the Baptist Student Minister at the University of Houston and other campus ministers were involved from the initial stages of planning with hopes that the weekend efforts would support and encourage their connections to students.
___Students suggested giving the daylong festival its own identity, and FusionFest was born. Fliers, an ad in the campus newspaper and a banner stretched across the Baptist Student Ministry facility announced the event.
___When volunteers arrived at the University of Houston, they received cultural training from Theresa Thompson of Missouri City, Mo., who has trained teams of youth and young adults to enter international cities and practice ethnocartography.
___"People group research finds out who (a people) are, what they like, what it takes to reach them," explained Thompson. "The goal of FusionFest was to find out who internationals on this campus are, how to ask them questions and create conversation with them.... With ethnography, you go deeper and can talk about beliefs and worldviews."
___After spending the day among the students and volunteers, Thompson noted some significant first steps were realized.
___"One Indian woman told me that events like this are the only way she meets Americans," Thompson reported. "She's a biochemistry major, and she said that most of her fellow students were internationals. Through conversations and what I've seen thus far from the registration cards, I can see several opportunities for further connects with internationals."
___Friday evening, area congregations provided Tex-Mex, Puerto Rican, Nigerian, Cambodian, Ecuadorian and other ethnic foods for the international students attending a university-sponsored orientation on the BSM premises.
___"It was very interesting to see an Indian try to eat a tamale" said Donna McMahon, the local WMU coordinator for TouchPoint. As for initial planning on how to attract and reach internationals, she confessed, "I really didn't know what to plan. With internationals we knew food was a big attraction. I had never done anything like this."
___After months of meeting with the local WMU leadership, McMahon and her team settled on the meal, gift bags, festival, movie, prayerwalk and worship that would make up the weekend. Local churches and individuals were asked to contribute, and several thousand dollars came in as well as donations of everything from ice to items for all the meal preparation.
___Clay Bowers, pastor of Rittenhouse Baptist Church in Houston, rescheduled a church event to bring a group from his church and assist with FusionFest.
___"When I found out it was an international event, I really wanted our church to reconnect themselves with missions and realize the worldwide effect (they can have) in our own city. God has brought the world to our doorstep and we don't even know it."
___For the first time, TouchPoint was promoted as a family event rather than women-only event. Pastor Wayne Barth from First Baptist Church of Broaddus, his wife Diana, and their two teenage children chose to do mission work as a family and outside of their church.
___Ironically, volunteers learned that a couple of the internationals they hoped to minister to were actually serving alongside them.
___Chandraesekhar Swaminathan, an Indian graduate student who helped organize cultural events and campus publicity, was part of the planning that began last spring.
___Initially asked for feedback from an international student's perspective on the suggested activities, Chandraesekhar offered his help for the entire event.
___Chandraesekhar is not a Christian, but he felt so welcomed in the student ministry that he wanted to be a part of FusionFest.
___"Jason is a guy who expresses his thoughts (about God), but he made me feel so comfortable," Chandraesekhar said. "I don't see him as director of the BSM first. He's my friend."
___Volunteers concluded the weekend experience with prayerwalks led by University of Houston and Medical Center students on those campuses and a final worship time led by the worship team from the San Jacinto campus.
___Steve Inskeep, current president of the Baptist Student Ministry at the University of Houston, provided video coverage of the entire event while also responding to volunteer questions. He concluded that the event was a good start in addressing an ongoing need.
___"I can't get over the privilege and responsibility," he said. "It's a privilege to bring a part of the world in your building and a responsibility to be salt and light."
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
