UTD: Busy schedules and meaningful conversations

The second halves of spring semesters in college are a whirlwind. Students don’t get to ease back into class after spring break; instead, they hit the ground running. The two weeks after spring break have been full of tests, projects, papers and assignments for students at the University of Texas at Dallas. “School” is named in the prayer requests from every girl I meet with weekly.

Kinsey ClineBut in the midst of the busy-ness of school, there is room to implement spiritual disciplines, and especially lessons learned during spring break. Many of us went to Beach Reach on South Padre Island this year, and it definitely had an impact on everyone involved.

At UTD, a good number of students already are sharing the gospel on campus diligently. We have seen growth in our free lunch ministry because of this, as well as heard story after story of continued relationships and conversations between members of our student leadership team and their classmates, roommates and acquaintances who do not yet know Jesus personally.

BSM returns after spring break with as much fervor as classes. The Tuesday after we returned from South Padre, we hosted Lunch-a-palooza, a free lunch outside the school’s Student Union, and served 1,500 students. Texas Baptist Men and volunteers from local churches handled the food, freeing our student leaders to meander through the crowd, sit with students eating lunch and have spiritual conversations.

My fellow campus ministry intern and one of our freshmen student leaders were able to talk to a couple of girls who have attended some of our other events this semester. Another student leader had an especially moving conversation with a girl from one of her classes who said she grew up Catholic but feels distant from God and lacks Christian community. 

One meaningful connection happened between Dexter, our BSM president, and a particular young man a couple of other BSM students had met in previous weeks while doing campus evangelism. They heard some of his story and realized he shared a major with many of our friends—friends who have actually begun a Missional Community based around their major and who get together frequently to study and build relationships.

He seemed interested in this, so when they spotted him at Lunch-a-palooza, they sent Dexter his way. Dexter was able to talk to him about his relationship with God, and then meet up with him over the weekend to share more of his personal testimony. Now they are looking for a good time in their schedules to begin reading the Gospel of John together.

These are the types of relationships we desire to see. This is why we do things like Beach Reach—not so we can serve Christ for one week of our lives, but so that we will be spurred on to serve him every day of our lives in every situation in which we find ourselves. It is encouraging to see God continues to move in and through our student, even when the semester gets busier and busier.

Kinsey Cline, a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, is serving with Go Now Missions as a campus missionary intern at her alma mater’s Baptist Student Ministry.