Brandon Moore serves as the Conway Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) director where he loves to help students explore their faith and lead them to obedience.
Our BCM’s across the state have an incredible opportunity to meet college students where they’re at and engage them with the Gospel. It’s not a stretch to say that every single day, a college student on one of our campuses is hearing the Gospel – potentially for the first time.
In Conway, we are actively ministering to four campuses – University of Central Arkansas (UCA), Central Baptist College, Hendrix College, and University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton (UACCM).
Below you will read a firsthand testimony from one of our staff members about the impact she has been able to have on the students at Hendrix. The ministry she has been able to do there, and the ministry Hope White has been able to do at UACCM has been invaluable. Students are growing in Christ, sharing their faith, and new people are hearing the Gospel every week.
God is changing lives on that campus. One was saved last semester and a few others have committed to a discipleship relationship this semester.
Hendrix Ministry Update
The small but rather captivating college campus of Hendrix is filled with students who are dedicated to their college education, friends and beliefs. Some students have more secular beliefs while there are others who have more spiritual beliefs. They are a persistent body of students who refuse to give in to failure. While the studies may be challenging, they never fail to have a good time, as there are always campus activities and events happening.
Since I am a staff member for Conway BCM, I am limited on what I’m allowed to do on campus. Upon my arrival on the campus, I first go to the Religious Life Office where I grab my nametag and sign in. The Religious Life Office has been nothing but welcoming and is an advocate for Conway BCM. I am allowed to go anywhere on campus; however, I am not allowed to actually approach students.
This keeps students from feeling they are being coerced into discussions about religion. Hendrix has fostered an environment inclusive to all religions, thoughts and beliefs that we must respect. I am so appreciative of getting to be on campus, but I am sure you can imagine the way to meet and approach students has to be creative and innovative.
Over the past five months, I have been working on building relationships with students on the campus. Through ‘tabling’ in the Burrow, the first floor in the Student Life and Technology Center, meeting one-on-one with students, and connecting with them through social media, I have been able to establish relationships with seven students.
Last semester was filled with learning the atmosphere of campus and familiarizing myself with the pace of campus life.
I have been able to have many conversations with believers and non-believers on campus. These conversations have covered various topics such as Scripture reading, addressing politics, the wide range of their religious beliefs, moral issues, praying, sharing testimonies, unpacking church hurt, the Gospel and the list could go on and on! The students are asking questions and even if I don’t know the answer (which is most of the time), I know Who does know the answers, and we find them together through the Word of Truth!
With the semester starting up mid-January, I knew it would be most beneficial to start tabling the first week of classes.
Each Thursday this semester, I have bought five-dozen donuts, cut each one in half, and passed them out to students. My intentions behind doing this are none other than meeting students and getting to know them through intentional conversation. There are no surveys, nothing to fill out, just a donut if you want one!
From doing this twice so far, I have been able to meet so many students and have already connected with one girl! We will be having a Gospel appointment soon!
The approach to sharing the love of Jesus on this campus must be slow, kind, patient and loving.
Jesus was a friend to all people. He took water from a Samaritan woman, befriended a tax collector and sat with sinners. He is a great example of how we should love people.
Understanding His approach to the lost world and His love for me, I can walk in His way and love these students the way He wants me to. When the students at Hendrix believe in something strongly, they become so passionate about it that they simply cannot stop talking about it. They genuinely want everyone to know and believe what they believe. What if the thing they so strongly believed in was Jesus?
My vision and prayer for Hendrix this semester is that they would have a desire to seek after the Lord with their entire being. Psalm 24:6 is my cry for Hendrix. “Such a generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of God of Jacob.”
This generation is bold and ready for a fight. What if what they were fighting for was to seek after the face of God?
-Carly Espejo, Conway BCM