Meeting People Where They Are...

The Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) building at Texas A&M is located in the Northgate area of town.  It is near the campus but surrounded by shops, restaurants, parking garages and bars.  On the weekend nights there is a lot of foot traffic around the BSM, mainly to the bars in that area which are the most popular in town.

Once a semester, the BSM hosts a late night pancake supper at their building and invites those walking by from the bars to come in have some pancakes and share some conversation.  The pancake supper goes on until after the bars have closed and a pretty good number of those who have just closed down the bars visit the BSM for the pancakes.

This past weekend my daughters worked at the pancake supper - or maybe it would be better to call it breakfast?  What do you call a meal at 2:00 am?  They told me of conversations with people who came in, many of course had had too much to drink.  Some were open to talking, some were even open to sharing with a team of BSM students their prayer needs.  Some were even open to being prayed for right there.  Some were not open to anything but pancakes.

My daughters also told me about a conversation that a BSM student named Eric (roommate last semester to Northsider Caleb Jenstch) had with  a student from India.  The student had just been in the US for one week,  had just gotten to the campus and was open to conversation.  Eric got to talk to him and got to share the plan of salvation with him.  It was the first time in his life that this Hindu, Indian grad student had ever heard about Jesus.  He was not ready yet to act on what he had heard but a seed was planted.

What would you be willing to do to share the love of Jesus with those who have not heard?  Would you stay up to 2:00 am to serve pancakes to college students who had been drinking?  What could you do right here in Victoria this coming week to show people that Jesus loves them and we do too?  Come to church this Sunday ready to deal with that last question.

For the journey...

Tim