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Mission NewsMOTLOW BAPTIST COLLEGIATE MINISTRY 2007-2008 School Year Report
1. Monday lunches – these meals are provided by churches from the three supporting associations. The $2.00 requested donation goes to our BCM Student Missions Fund. We had an average attendance of 107, from which we raised $4300.
2. Wednesday lunches – this meal is planned and prepared by the BCM Director. There is also a requested $2.00 donation, but the money received is used to purchase food supplies for the next week. After lunch the BCM Director or a student offers a brief Bible study. Average attendance for the lunch was 93 and for the Bible study was 46.
3. Bible Study – Fridays, 1:00 p.m. This was a time of in-depth Bible Study that we did in the Fall semester. The average attendance was 8.
4. Athletic Banquet – November 12. We hosted students from all the Motlow athletic teams as an outreach ministry.
5. Motlow student, Matthew Butner, went to New York City on a TBC-sponsored mission trip in October 2007.
6. Over the Christmas break, two students, Leigh Ann Pope and Megan Peebles, went to Mexico on a TBC sponsored mission trip.
7. We raised $228 for the Good Samaritan Ministry in Fayetteville, helped collect and distribute gifts for 43 children for Motlow’s Angel Tree program and raised $366 for tornado relief in Tennessee.
8. Four Motlow students were appointed as summer missionaries: Jonathan Smotherman (Philippines); Jeremy Wilson (Tennessee travel team); Emily Ingram (Deer Run camp staff); and Megan Peebles (Main and Mexico).
9. We participated in “Beach Reach”, a spring break ministry to thousands of college students in Panama City Beach, Florida, March 2008. In the mornings we provided a free pancake breakfast. In the afternoons we distributed tickets for the free breakfast and free van rides at night.
10. Hosted a luncheon for Motlow support staff in March 2008. Eighty-one persons were served.
11. Over the course of the school year, we distributed 175 Bibles and New Testaments from our building.
12. Summer BCM: we served a lunch on Wednesdays, averaging 32 in attendance.
13. Randall Taylor has ably led the BCM at the University of the South, Sewanee, since 1989. The Motlow BCM Director attends the Sewanee BCM meetings twice a month.
14. Additional activities of BCM Director:
Attended campus ministry training events in June and July, 2008.
Mandy Warden's Mission Trip to Australia I want to thank you so much for your support and prayers while I was in Australia. It has been a whirlwind coming back from Australia and processing through all that I have learned and being able to share it with you. I loved Australia! God's presence was totally with me there and saying those words does not do God justice at all or even begin to describe His goodness. I went to Australia knowing that my life would be changed, but I did not realize how significantly. In Melbourne, my team's ministry took many different forms, from talking to someone on the airplane or talking to someone on campus. Also, the hotel where we stayed at was a huge mission field. I was surprised at how many people from all over the world stayed there. My team and I became friends with many of the residents, and the next thing I knew we were having chats about God and Jesus left and right. It was a blessing to see people crave for truth. When I talked to a guy from England, Josh, he told me that there was something different about my team and I. He said that he did not know what it was, but he liked it. When I first met Josh, he told me he was atheist. By the time my team left, Josh said his faith had grown in God. We found that most of the trip consisted of planting seeds for Christ, because it was non-existent for the majority of people there. I pray we made the people we met aware of God and know that they can seek Him out. The first full week there my team and I went to Student Life's Mid Year Conference (MYC)in Albury, Australia. Student Life is the same organization as Campus Crusade for Christ in America. It is just called Student Life, because "crusade" is a scary word to Australians. MYC was a really good time for my team to bond in a safe Christian atmosphere, before we went out in the secular world and shared the Gospel. It was really cool to see people from all over the world come together for a common reason that was to worship Christ. The second week we went to Monash University and did an outreach event called"If I were God, I would..." We set up tables that had a poster board with that phrase and walked around the campus wearing sandwich boards asking people to finish the sentence. The responses ranged from silly to serious. While at Monash, I met a lady, Nivenka, that just had fourteen people in her life die within the past three months, and needless to say she was furious with God. My heart broke for her. She was such a sweet lady, and it was a blessing to love on her and encourage her to seek God. After a long conversation with Nivenka, over the course of a few hours, she went from being very angry at God to saying she needed to apologize to Him. My prayer is that God will put Christians in her life and carry the burdens of her heart. The three weeks we were there, my team and I went to royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT). Student Life was not yet an organization on campus at RMIT. So my team spent time raising awareness on campus about Student Life and its mission statement and goals. To inform people, we went around campus doing surveys, soularium, and hosted cookouts. On campus, I spoke with a few people who had seriously never thought about God, spirituality, or what was the purpose of life. I was amazed at how the culture is apathetic when it comes to spirituality and religion. I am not going to short change God though. He definitely was in our conversations and moved in peoples hearts. Over the course of the mission trip five people came to Christ. Praise Jesus! In addition we left many contacts for the missionaries living there to follow up with. Also, the last day for my team at RMIT, Student Life became a recognized organization on campus and had its first official RMIT Student Life meeting. Now college students (or uni students as they say in Australia) can have an opportunity to come into contact with awesome Christian people as I have in college and grow in their walk with the Lord.
How to be praying for Australia?
This is just a very brief outline of what God did in Australia. Yes, Australia was awesome, but most important was the people there. Thank you again so much for making this mission trip possible for me. I am very grateful, and may the Lord bless you. I pray that you feel God's love for you today, and know how great it is. "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love." Psalm 145:8
Your Sister in Christ
Mandy Warden
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