TBC students sow seeds, produce fruit on mission trip to Oklahoma

Prior to leading a team of students on a mission trip to the University of Oklahoma (OU), Micah Englehart, associate director of Student Life at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS), prayed. The university’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry (OU BCM) had already seen more than 15 people come to Christ this semester. Englehart asked God to allow the seminary students to “enter the harvest there and sow many Gospel seeds that produce fruit.”

Ask and you shall receive.

The team of four Texas Baptist College (TBC) students, led by Englehart and Alex Miller, director of Student Life at the seminary, saw eight people come to Christ during a three-day mission trip to the university in Norman, Okla., during the week of fall reading days.

The TBC students – Madison “Maddie” Mathews, Kaitlyn Maloney, Samuel Ibarra, and Joshua Williams – set up at different locations on the OU campus with a large chalkboard bearing the words “Tell Me Your Story.” They asked OU students to write one word that described their life story, which they said opened up opportunities for Gospel conversations.

Southwesterners use “Tell Me Your Story” chalkboards to initiate Gospel conversations with OU students.

Mathews, a Cleburne, Texas, freshman pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in intercultural studies, said team members “were able to get in many good conversations and share the Gospel with many students. Two students that I shared with accepted Christ, and we were able to present the Good News and pray with many more.”

Mathews, who wants to do mission work when she graduates, said she learned a lot about evangelism in just a few short days of the trip. She also gained something more.

“I got a lot more confident sharing my faith with others,” she said.

Williams said he went on the mission trip “to grow my love for the Gospel and be better at sharing my faith.” When one student he shared with indicated he was ready to make a decision for Christ, “I began explaining to him what the decision meant, and after going through that, he prayed to receive Christ and I got him plugged in to the OU BCM.”

Williams, a Lubbock, Texas, native in TBC’s Christian studies program, spoke highly of the OU BCM members, noting that everyone he encountered “made sharing the Gospel look like a lifestyle. Going on the trip, I thought of evangelism as a ‘check the box’ type of thing. Seeing other students making evangelism a priority in their daily routine has challenged me to share my faith more with anyone willing to listen.”

It was the first mission trip for Samuel Ibarra, a Grand Prairie student in the Christian studies program. The Texas Longhorns fan quipped that he went on the OU mission trip because “I was encouraged to love my enemies during a week off of school.”

Ibarra said he learned the importance of Scripture memorization during the trip. “Reminding ourselves of God’s Word and being consistent in this spiritual discipline is so effective in ministry,” he said. He also had advice for anyone considering taking a mission trip.

“Pray about it, think about it, and go when the Lord wills for you to go,” he said. “It is worth it, not for the sake of making memories, but to be obedient towards the Lord.”

In addition to their evangelism activities, the students heard from ministry leaders and laymen in the area, including SWBTS graduates Max Barnett (’65), also a former professor of collegiate ministry at Southwestern; Shane Kammerer (’11), director of the OU BCM; and Brent Jenkins (’21), worship and college pastor at River Church in Norman. The speakers addressed leadership, being spiritually disciplined, decision-making, sharing the Gospel, and God’s heart for the nations.

Alumnus and former collegiate ministry professor Max Barnett shares with Southwestern mission team members.

“Speaking with these leaders was more than beneficial to my understanding of how to do ministry; it influenced how I understand personal faithfulness in my walk with God,” said Kaitlyn Maloney, events and activities specialist in the Office of Student Life at Southwestern Seminary. Maloney, of Van Alstyne, Texas, is a senior in the humanities program at TBC and saw the Oklahoma mission trip as “an opportunity to learn more about how to accomplish my own job effectively, learn more about college ministry, and get an opportunity to share the Gospel.”

Maloney recalled her excitement after seeing one student she spoke with come to faith. She hadn’t expected the conversation to end that way, she said, calling the result “an astounding display of God’s power and faithfulness.”

Both Miller and Englehart were pleased with the trip, with Miller noting, “It was great seeing students learn how to navigate conversations on a campus that is not only much larger than ours, it also has a lot of lost students on it.”

Englehart said the trip was not without challenges but added that the students had a great attitude the entire time.

“Because of seeing God’s faithfulness and getting to participate with Him in the eternally significant work of winning lost souls into the Kingdom, I think our whole group returned to Fort Worth inspired to live even more vigilantly as witnesses for Christ,” he said.