More than 300 Alabama BCM students use spring break for missions

More than 300 Alabama BCM students use spring break for missions

For many college students, spring break is a time to catch up on schoolwork and sleep and maybe even hit the beach for a few days. But for more than 300 students from 15 Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM) across the state, it was a time to focus on missions.

A group of students involved in the Troy University BCM went to the Dominican Republic to work with Southern Baptist representatives Ryan and Emily Buttes.

The students spent most of their time on the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, UASD) campus.

“The presence of evil was evident on this campus, as there were many spiritual strongholds that have gripped this campus for the last several hundred years,” said Darreyel Laster, a sophomore at Troy. “There is a huge presence of religious cults on the UASD campus.”

It was very different from what Laster is used to.

“At Troy, there are 10 religious organizations for the 7,000 students on campus. For the 150,000 students at UASD, there are no religious organizations,” Laster noted. “God used this experience to open my eyes to what we have here and to (teach me) not (to) overlook the blessing of the BCM.”

He said the experience also challenged him to be more faithful in giving. “God used this time to allow me to see missions giving at work. He reminded me to be more faithful and diligent in my tithe so that His work can continue.”

Ryan Buttes applauded the students’ work at UASD.

“These students were sent onto the university campus and what they did in one afternoon, would have taken one missionary exponentially more time,” he said. “More people hear sooner with short-term teams.”

Emily Buttes added that short-term missions experiences also can “grow” and “mold” the students “into who He called them to be.”

“Short-term trips in college are what God used to clarify what He had for me in the future,” she said.

Bethany Rogers, a sophomore at the University of Alabama (UA), said God used her BCM missions experience during spring break to speak to her and through her.

“God used this time to remind me that we all deserve the opportunity to know Christ and His truth,” she said.

Rogers and other UA BCM students served in Acuña, Mexico, with Hope’s Children, a nonprofit, faith-based organization that aids underprivileged children and families nationally and internationally.

“Our group divided into four teams, doing everything from construction to work at a food bank to cleaning up an orphanage,” she said. “We laid the foundation for the work that teams in the future will come and finish. Others that come after us will be more successful because of what we started.”

For more information about BCM, visit www.thestudenthub.org.