Hazel Green Baptist leads Mississippi BSU

The month of April was both exciting and "awarding" for Ashley Waldrep, a member of Flint River Baptist Church, Hazel Green, in Madison Baptist Association. Waldrep, a junior at Blue Mountain College (BMC) in Mississippi, was named statewide president of the Mississippi Baptist Student Union (BSU) for the 2008–2009 term.

According to her, the news came as a big surprise, but Tracy Moser, director of the BSU at BMC, said Waldrep was a natural choice for president. "Ashley has been involved in BSU since she first arrived on campus," Moser said. "She started a discipleship program through small groups in the dorms that has really grown, and she’s made a terrific impact on our campus."

Waldrep, a double major in biblical studies and English, also recently received honors for a one-act play she authored, "The Doctor’s Office." At the 2008 Southern Literary Festival, held April 11–12 at Southern Louisiana University in Hammond, "The Doctor’s Office," a comedy set in a doctor’s waiting room, took second place in the one-act play competition. "I was actually shocked to tell you the truth," Waldrep said. "This was my first serious one-act play that I wrote for my creative writing class. I wrote it the night before it was due after a day spent in a doctor’s office for a personal illness. It seems that doing my homework paid off."