KIRKSVILLE – For as long as Campus Missionary Greg Xander can remember, street preachers have stood in the middle of Truman University’s campus yelling at students and pronouncing judgment on them. “It happened when I was a student, so this is history,” Xander says. To his great sadness, these experiences have fueled hurt, controversy, arguments, and frustration and have negatively shaped the way students understand Jesus. “People were giving a lot of truth without a lot of love,” he … [Read more...]
Central BSU equips students to share their faith
WARRENSBURG – At the start of the spring semester, Central BSU at University of Central Missouri put on their own evangelism training for their student leaders, plus any other students who wanted to attend. The goal was to better equip their students to share and defend the gospel. Kirtley, who has been apprenticing under Missionary Jerome Stockert for the last two years and will be going on staff with Collegiate Impact in Kansas City this summer, led nine students through the training. He … [Read more...]
College students transformed through conferences
JEFFERSON CITY – Conferences, concerts, and seminars: are they worth what it takes to put them on or attend them? Some might question if that time, energy, and money can be put to better use. This semester, Missouri college students have participated in a variety of local and national events. The fruit has been undeniably worthwhile. Students have come to Christ and recommitted their lives to Christ, felt called into ministry and taken new steps of faith, and been challenged to share their … [Read more...]
North Central Missouri College BSU connects Old, New Testaments through Passover Seder
TRENTON – A small town in Missouri might be the last place you’d expect to find a Passover plate of bitter herbs (maror), apples and nuts (charoset), and shank bone (zeroa) in celebration of Passover. And students from the local two-year college might be the ones you’d least expect to be holding those plates. But Campus Missionary Christina Boatright felt that a seder was exactly what the kids in her ministry needed this spring. “A seder gives a more accurate depiction of what Jesus’s … [Read more...]
MBCollegiate ministries find college students thirsty for gospel
KANSAS CITY – In the first two months of the fall semester, MBCollegiate ministries have found an abundance of opportunities to engage students on their campuses, and what they are finding is college students who are thirsty for the gospel. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a lot of guys this month [September],” says ministry apprentice Brent Masters with Collegiate Impact in Kansas City. “It’s been really exciting to be on campuses and share the gospel with students.” Masters has … [Read more...]
BSU, local churches feed MSU football team physically, spiritually
SPRINGFIELD – Sometimes God brings together all the right people, at the right time, in the right place for something unexpected but incredible to happen. The relationship between the Missouri State University football team and the BSU this fall is an example of just that. Campus Missionary Chris Wilson had been praying about the next season of ministry for the BSU. He had recently hired David Stone, formerly the pastor of Discipleship and Families at FBC Springfield and a board member of … [Read more...]
MBCollegiate makes global impact in Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri may not seem like the hotspot destination for internationals wanting an American education. Yet even on campuses in small rural towns, Missouri colleges and universities are home to over 22,000 international students. In 2019, Missouri ranked 15th of all states in the number of international students studying in the state, according to the 2019 Open Doors Report from the Institute of International Education. Hosting so many students from all over the world on our … [Read more...]
MBCollegiate alumnus passes on love for God, classical learning
POINT LOOKOUT – Christian Lingner had been homeschooled from the time he was of school age—something he considers a great blessing, as it gave him time to foster his interests, experience nature, spend with his family, and develop a love for learning. As the third of seven kids in a single-income family, private schooling wasn’t a feasible option. When he was sixteen, a unique opportunity arose: the chance to finish his last two years of high school in a private Christian school—at zero … [Read more...]
Missionary kid gains Great Commission passion through MBC collegiate ministry
POINT LOOKOUT – Tim Cheah grew up as a missionary kid, but it wasn’t until college that he began to understand what it meant to personally live out the Great Commission in every sphere of life. Born to Malaysian parents, Cheah spent most of his childhood on the mission field in Indonesia. His parents served through an organization called Ethnos 360, laboring to build relationships between the people and local churches in the area. In a predominantly Muslim country where animistic beliefs … [Read more...]
Summer missionaries encourage believers, share Christ’s love
JEFFERSON CITY – Summer Missions 2021 is under wraps. For the last two-and-a-half months, God has been on the move, working in and through college students as they serve across the state. From the kickoff at orientation at the end of May, this year’s internship program was off to a promising start. MBCollegiate Director Gene Austin, received even more positive feedback than usual following the training weekend. “Every year I hear in a general way how Summer Missions Orientation prepares … [Read more...]
Ky. student connects with MBCollegiate, becomes Mo. Baptist summer missionary
JEFFERSON CITY – The scope of MBCollegiate isn’t limited to Missouri college students. Sometimes a simple connection through a friend is all it takes to reach across state borders to impact collegians on other campuses in other states. Olivia Helm is one such case. Helm, a senior at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, learned of a Mexico mission trip opportunity over Christmas break through a Campbellsville friend who had done her undergraduate at Hannibal-LaGrange University. Now, … [Read more...]
BSU students from Missouri Southern State University partner to bring help, hope to Colorado
EAST TROUBLESOME, Colo. – In March, the Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief sent out the call that they needed teams to come to Grand County, CO to assist their efforts helping locals recover from last fall’s East Troublesome wildfire. Ignited on October 14, 2020, East Troublesome burned at a staggering pace, blazing through over 100,000 acres in one day, making history as the largest single-day wildfire burn in state history. By the time the fire was contained on November 30, 2020, it had … [Read more...]