1. Use your college textbook purchases to contribute. Details are here. -OR-
2. Come by the building up to three hours prior to a Georgia Tech Football home game and buy a burger or hotdog at our cookouts! -OR-
3. Contact Pam in the BCM office for more information.
All money raised by the cookouts and student fundraisers goes straight to these missionaries!
Below are just a few of our students who ministered through the Georgia Baptist Collegiate SendMeNow Summer Missions Program in 2010! Read their stories and know that God is working around the world through the students of Seven Forty!
Thomas Stone - Yellowstone NP
I worked as a Yellowstone Christian Innovator at Yellowstone National Park last summer, and it was definitely the best summer of my life. The mission for the summer is to minister to your coworkers, and you will meet people from many different walks of life. I worked at Dairy Queen alongside Jamaicans, Hispanics, locals, and a fellow innovator. The ministry lasts for 10 weeks, so you have plenty of time to develop meaningful relationships. We didn’t see anybody accept Christ this summer, but I know that the innovators planted many seeds. You have to always be ready to share your story about what God has done in your life. Innovators at McDonalds were asked why they were so kind and why they didn’t go out and party like everybody else. You have to be ready to share God’s story. I was asked by a younger Christian about what a Christianity fundamentally is (amidst the confusion of many denominations). Also, you have to be ready to work responsibly—not hard for a Tech
student :). The employers in town were already asking our supervisor if they could hire innovators next summer.
Some innovators actually worked inside Yellowstone National Park; I cannot speak for them and their experience. I lived and worked in the city of West Yellowstone—just outside an entrance to the park. Living in West Yellowstone added some cool features to the summer. I stayed in a trailer with 7 other innovators. I shared a room with three other guys; we grew very close to say the least. :) We led Bible studies and Sunday school classes. We introduced each other to our new friends from work. We helped organize festivals in the city park for kids. We worked, played, and ministered together. I have been to many church services in my life, but I finally learned what a church really is. It is a group of believers working together as the body of Christ. God used 8 college kids and a small Baptist church (about 10-15 regular members) to make a big impact on the city of West Yellowstone. The innovators were very different in personality, skills, and interests; thank God that we were able to get along. But the diversity in the group is what made us so effective in ministry. Paul says, “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.” (1 Corinthians 12:18-20, NKJV) This summer, God showed me how He can masterfully bring together a group of believers together and use them as the body of Christ.
Oh yeah, Yellowstone is sooo beautiful, and we saw a lot of the park. We hiked around 100 miles this summer. We camped at least three times. We learned to wind surf, jumped off of a rope swing, kayaked, and went white water rafting. I wasn’t a huge outdoorsman before I left for the summer; I bought some gear and borrowed the rest. By the end of the summer, I learned to love the outdoors, and sharing God’s creation with other innovators and our coworkers made our adventures meaningful.
Look at the faces of lives that were touched this summer (the innovators are generally the Americans in the pictures :) ; many international students come to Yellowstone to work for the summer. See more pictures here.
by Thomas Stone
Chad Hendley - Russia
Well… How to begin? It was an incredible trip. The trip is kind of divided in my memory into two sections: the extreme camp and the English camp. For the extreme camp we spent 12 days in the Russian countryside with nothing but tents, “catamarans”, each other’s company, and the Word of God. It was mindblowing. The days consisted of Bible study, camp games, team building, swimming in the river, and eating Volodya’s amazing cooking. Interspersed in the average camp day were several days (and one night) during which we would completely pack up camp, load up the catamarans, and paddle on down the river, for 6-7 hours at a time. Over 12 days we paddled something around 72 miles down that river. We were best friends to say the least. The extreme camp was a physical, emotional, and spiritual battle. One thing I’ve learned to recognize from this experience is that wherever the Gospel is being preached, the Devil is out at full force to distract and destroy. God showed me a lot about myself on that river. I wasn’t quite as patient or humble as I thought I was. God has also shown me a great deal through the pastor of the church we worked with, Alexander Zanin. He is probably one of the best and clearest expositors of the Bible I have encountered. A loving man, but straight to the point. Through him God showed me that I read the Bible, I don’t study the Bible. And that’s something that needs to change. I think what I’ll take with me most is the memory of the people I met. I got to be a part of their lives for just a tiny moment in time, but I was there in the name of Jesus. It’s hard to imagine what kind of impact we made on those campers in such a short period of time. We couldn’t even really communicate with them! But I think they felt love that may have been absent in many of their lives… Many of them were orphans. And God works in ways we can’t possibly imagine. I do know the impact they have had on me, and I will carry it with me all of my days. At the end of the camp, one more child of God was added to the family. One life changed for eternity. It’s an incredible work we take part in.
To pick out a specific memory from the extreme camp, I will always remember the night paddle. We loaded up camp and hit the river around 12:30pm in the coolness of night. It was incredible. After many hours paddling in the blistering sun, the coolness of the night air was amazing. Ian and I were on a catamaran together, and we got completely caught up in the moment. Stars above… in the middle of nowhere in Russia… sharing the Gospel across the world. We started to pray… and pray… and pray. How long I don’t know, but it was an amazing time of praise and worship I will never forget.
The English camp was awesome as well. It was far removed from the hot nights in tents by the river. It was at a nice retreat center with showers and bathrooms! But the same kind of warfare was going on. Each of us was put with a Russian team for the week. It was great because we spent a lot of time with our group and really got to know those campers on a deeper level. Our role as Americans was really just to be an attraction for these campers. To love on them and show them how big our God is. That we serve the same God thousands of miles away, and we wanted to come all this way just to tell them about Him. I hope they understood that. The leaders and we got up at 7:00am every morning for an hour Bible study, and the day would begin. The campers would have an English lesson and then a Bible study before lunch. After lunch were games and swim time. In the evenings, every team presented a skit on the day’s theme, there would be some worship, and Pastor would give a message. The campers were incredibly creative! The skits really let the kids express their understanding of the day’s Bible lesson and reinforced the teaching in their minds. It was an incredible week in the word of God, and God was working in their hearts. Ten campers repented that week! It was incredible.
[This summer was] an amazing experience taking part in God’s work. I’ll never forget it.
by Chad Hendley
