Brazos County Not Exotic Enough for Student Missionaries
The Texas A&M Christian Bubble™ boasts an impressive number of student missionaries. These students utilize school breaks to travel to new and exciting places, lending material aid and spiritual guidance, often working in some of the most impoverished places in the world. The Bubble proudly sends a high volume of students into such areas to provide necessary assistance, and many missionaries often comment on the powerful nature of their trips.
“I think the people of [impoverished country] helped me more than I helped them,” said every first-time mission trip attendee.
Missionaries often agree that seeing intense material poverty makes them more grateful and aware of their own blessings. It is often said that overseas travel is the best way for this realization to really hit home, despite the fact that they live in one of the poorest counties in Texas. The Bryan/College Station area, with its large homeless population and abundance of low-income families, is simply not as appealing to the servant-hearted missionaries that live in a potential mission-field throughout the year.
Eric Kenter, a sophomore accounting major who travelled to Zambia for four days during Spring Break, said, “Sure, 27% of Brazos County residents live below the poverty line, but how else would I have satisfied my wanderlust… I mean… the call to go make disciples of all nations?”
Kenter and his fellow missionaries raved about the incredible work they were able to do for the Zambian people: building a community center, repairing houses, and sharing the Word of God. They noted that these needs are so apparent in foreign countries, whereas here in the Bryan/College Station area, it is just a bit less glamorous to help out.
“I mean, I got to go out and buy long skirts, thick colorful headbands, and a new pair of Chacos— and it’s cheap because of the exchange rate!” said Economics freshman and foreign missionary Jordyn Haden, who raised $10,000 on her GoFundMe account for the trip- enough to buy school supplies for hundreds of the 4,600 children in Bryan who can’t afford them. “If I volunteered here in Bryan, I would just wear my normal clothes and wouldn’t get an opportunity to highlight my adventurous lifestyle!”
For Haden, whose Instagram bio now reads “craving coffee and adventure,” Nicaragua was an attractive place to go on a mission trip because of the country’s poverty and incredible, picturesque landscapes that look spectacular in profile pictures. She believes that her week of service made a huge impact in the community, and feels called to continue serving the world. When asked about her current involvement in other volunteering projects, Haden said that she was looking into another trip for Summer 2017. In the meantime, she will be focusing on fellowshipping with other missionaries while 14,100 residents of Bryan sit below the poverty line.
Editor’s Note: Please take a moment to check out some of the many local nonprofits that allow you to become part of the solution to raise our community out of poverty:
Volunteer Brazos County (a catalogue of local nonprofits)
He’s got the bro tanks, he’s got the neon snapback, and yeah, he’s riding his longboard by you in the dismount zone. Corpus Escort spent his entire freshman year thinking he was at A&M Corpus Christi, but somehow still made good enough grades there to transfer to College Station, where he remained living at Z Islander and throwing the raddest pool parties in town. Sometimes he writes, but mostly he just brings the brownies.