Two teams of East Texas Baptist University students spent spring break at sites 1,400 miles apart—building with a Habitat for Humanity project in Laredo and ministering in inner-city Chicago.

Habitat for Humanity Tierra Prometida Project in Laredo.

ETBU has sent a team to help Habitat-Laredo with various projects for nine years. The assignment for this year’s team of 11 eager novice carpenters was to build an 8-foot by 8-foot wood-framed shed.

“Since the Habitat houses do not have garages or carports, these sheds are very important for storage,” ETBU Baptist Student Ministry Intern Jarrin Peeples said. “We did everything from framing the walls and putting the siding on to shingling the roof.”

The motivation to work in the hot South Texas sun, instead of relaxing on a beach somewhere was “a chance to meet new people and to serve,” said Rusty Gauthreaux, a senior from Winnie.

Trevor Middleton insisted the time spent on the trip was not a sacrifice.

“I was privileged to have been able to be a part of Habitat-Laredo’s Tierra Prometida project, which means Promised Land,” said Middleton, a junior from Hawkins. The goal of Tierra Prometida is to build 50 Habitat homes. So far, 16 have been completed on a donated plot of land.

Allison Bradberry, a senior from Tyler, developed a relationship with a student from a private university in Illinois.

“I met a girl from Knox College while I was helping her shingle a roof,” said Bradberry. “She had many questions about what it was like to attend a Christian school like ETBU.”

East Texas Baptist University students (left to right) John Mark Francis, Elizabeth Huber, Ammellia Loucka and Bridgette Fletcher pause from picking up trash in a Chicago neighborhood. ETBU sent 11 students to Laredo and 30 students to Chicago for spring break mission trips.

“I know that some of the other groups that we were working with needed to hear about Christ,” said Kara Beall, a missionary kid who grew up in Papua, New Guinea. “Our group would seek out opportunities to share and talk with others about our relationship with Christ.”

ETBU worked alongside volunteers from schools located in far-away states such as Nebraska, upstate New York, Connecticut and Illinois.

While the students in Laredo were hammering nails and cutting boards, another 30-member team spring break missionaries worked in Chicago.

“The whole week was about building relationships with people in Chicago,” said freshman Jacque Austin of Arlington.  “The type of ministry I did was what I have started to call relational missions.”

Austin was impressed by how many nationalities she encountered in Chicago.

“One can literally see all different people groups in one concentrated area,” Austin said.

Elizabeth Huber, a freshman from Shreveport, La., said, “The experience in Chicago was one of the best in my life as I shared the love of Christ with others. I have grown up in the church, and I know the Bible says to love everyone, but I did not fully comprehend that concept until I went to Chicago.”

The ETBU students worked closely with the associational church planting team in Chicago, helping with one established church and four church plants.

The week consisted of distributing information about the church starts, surveying individuals as they met them on the street, serving lunch to the homeless, picking up trash and collecting canned goods door-to-door for a food pantry ministry.

“God taught me that mission work for me does not stop after my time in Chicago,” Lauren Shaddix of Tomball said.

“If I live on campus, then the ETBU campus is my mission field. If I go to Wal-Mart to buy groceries, then Wal-Mart is my mission field.”

The spring break mission trips were planned by both the ETBU Great Commission Center and Baptist Student Ministry.

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