Posted: 8/22/03
Non-Aggies find a home with international Aggies
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
COLLEGE STATION–Call them students. Call them summer missionaries. Just don't call them Aggies.
A team of five Baptist General Convention of Texas student missionaries assigned to work this summer at Texas A&M may not have fallen in love with Aggie tradition, but their hearts went out to international students on the campus.
The group encountered a variety of different cultures but tried to treat them all the same–with compassion, as Christ commanded, said Scott Seymour, a senior business administration major at Lamar University in Beaumont.
“We don't deal with different cultures; we deal with individuals,” he added. “We're not here to win cultures; we're here to win individuals.”
Student missions workers helped the international students combat loneliness and language difficulties by becoming their “conversation partners” and speaking with them for several hours a week at the Baptist Student Ministry building.
“It's been harder than what I expected,” said Michelle Standley, a junior industrial technology major at Lamar. “Each person is something new to learn. Each person has different needs. You can't read a book to know how to reach them. You just have to be friends with them.”
The students shared their faith with people who had no prior contact with the gospel, said Jade Anderson, a senior management and marketing double major at Texas Tech.
Internationals were interested in Christianity and responded with questions that expanded the missionaries' faith, Anderson said. The missionaries constantly studied the Bible to have answers to the inquiries.
Several team members said they learned to rely more heavily on God to give them strength in their Christian journey and wisdom to know what to say.
“It's definitely stretched me,” Anderson said. “Any time you spend time in the word, you're going to grow.”
Jenn Blakely, a senior English major at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, wanted to work on foreign soil this summer, but she found the summer experience in Central Texas more fulfilling than she imagined.
“I got to meet lots of different people, whereas if I was in one country, I would meet only that one type of person,” she explained.
But staying close to home is challenging, Blakely added. The temptation to visit friends was stronger than if they had served farther away. But the team stuck together and held to Christ throughout, she affirmed.
“It's not about going to the mall or movies,” she said. “It's about showing the internationals what being a Christian is like.”
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