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Baptist Campus Ministries Year in Review

Baptist Campus Ministries: Brad Simmons
Monday, January 1, 2007

The last year has been both challenging and exciting for Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM). Challenging, because of the difficulty in reaching American students at WSU and exciting because of the way God has used international students to reach other students for Christ.

During Spring Break, BCM took a mission trip to Boston to work with a group of people working to plant churches among the 250,000 college students in that city. It was an eye opening experience for the students to see what life is like on the east coast as well as on campuses filled with so many who do not know Christ. We worked with two church plants, one at Tufts University and another at Northeastern University, talking with students and engaging them in spiritual conversations to gauge their interest in a church focused on reaching students.

The Mission, a new church made up mostly of international students, continues to meet in Lindquist Hall at Wichita State University. In January I went with three leaders from that church to LifeImpact, a collegiate conference in Oklahoma City focused on discipleship, evangelism and missions. On Mother's Day, The Mission met at River Community Church and baptized five students from three different countries and two different continents.

This fall, Karl Timmons has taken a leadership role in the church and has served as the main teacher at our Sunday service. Sundays are truly a multicultural worship gathering. On any given Sunday thirty to fifty students gather from over a dozen countries to worship and pray together.

By the time you read this we will be preparing to welcome dozens of new students to WSU. Many of these students will be coming to the United States for the first time and will be excited to experience American culture. If you would be willing to spend time with an international student by having them in your home from time to time or by helping with intensive English, let me know.