Campus ministries reach out over spring break

Two Georgia College & State University campus ministries traveled to two very different parts of the United States during spring break. Both groups reached out to communities less fortunate while spreading the word of God.

The Baptist Student Union traveled to Arlington, Texas, while the Wesley House ministry decided to take their efforts up north to Philadelphia.

“Every year BSU takes a mission trip during spring break,” said Rebecca Helms, BSU intern. “Last year they did more of a construction type trip. I wanted to find a trip that the students would be more involved with and have contact with different types of people and age groups. I wanted them to come back with a new world view.”

This year the students of BSU worked with a ministry called Mission Arlington. “Mission Arlington is a Christian organization that was started 16 years ago by Tillie Bergin,” said Helms. “The ministry was created to share Christ throughout the Arlington area. They do a kid’s club called Rainbow Express. They work with over 400 apartment complexes in the Arlington area. They have apartment Bible studies and they give out clothes, furniture, food and so much more.”

While in Arlington, the BSU students got a taste of different cultures. One night in particular they got a little more than expected.

“Our bus was tagged by a Hispanic gang,” said Helms. “This was just a minor thing though. It was easily taken care of and added to the experience of the trip. One surprise I experienced was that despite there being 43 different personalities, there were no major differences that arose. All of the students were there for the same purpose.”

Although most of the people that the BSU students dealt with spoke little English, they found that these challenges allowed them to try new things.

“I saw the students rise to the challenge of stepping out of their comfort zones and doing things they never imagined they would do by sharing their faith through doing things like delivering furniture, groceries and speaking Spanish,” said Helms.

Emily Doyle, one of the mission’s participants, thought that the entire experience was incredible.

“The way it was organized was perfect,” she said. “The prayer that went into it and the way God used each one of our gifts was amazing.”

The students of Wesley House experienced similar things on their trip to Philadelphia. Wesley House went to North Philadelphia to repair several buildings that were being used to rehabilitate drug and alcohol addicts. This involved a lot of painting, moving furniture and installing new light fixtures.

“The students who went saw poverty and desperation like never before,” said Bill Baker, Wesley House minister. “Many said that they would never take for granted all that they had again. Many others said that they received a mission for their own lives. They also got to see how God can work in miraculous ways to change peoples lives, including their
own.”

Wesley House worked with a ministry called Worldwide Evangelistic Ministries, led by a man named Joey Perez.

“He was a former gang leader who grew up in the same neighborhood as the ministry,” said Baker. “He saw his brother killed right in front of him and was almost murdered himself many times. He experienced Christ in a very powerful way, and now he and his family minister to people in the North Philly area.”

Baker said that the most interesting thing about the trip was meeting people and hearing the stories they had to tell.

“We met a man that had been shot 32 times and still has a bullet in his head,” said Baker. “That same man is now a minister in Camden, N.J.”

Baker talked about one instance that specifically had a large impact on the participants.

“We saw a man there who had been addicted to heroin and had been homeless for seven years,” he said. “Jesus set him free, and he is now living at the ministry and works a full time job. It was an incredibly moving and powerful time. It was a tremendous testimony of how real God is and how he can change the most desperate of lives. We have seen things that we would never have seen without this trip and have been immeasurably changed. We know that we can never live the way we used to again.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 21 2003. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry