College students serve South Florida churches
By Lauren Urtel
June 27, 2008
MIAMI (FBC)—Lending helping hands and willing hearts, eleven students are leading Vacation Bible Schools for small and underfunded congregations in South Florida this summer.
“This is a chance of a lifetime to share the Lord,” said University of Florida student Mary Katzman. “When you are on the mission field doing what God has called you to do, there is no greater feeling in the world.”
Katzman and ten other college students sponsored by the Florida Baptist Convention’s Sunday School department, are conducting VBS in nearly forty locations for Hispanic, Haitian and English-speaking congregations.
“Having grown up here I know this community needs help,” said Desiree Johnson, a member of Glendale Missionary Baptist Church in Miami. Johnson is serving as a summer missionary after completing her first year at Savannah College of Art and Design.
“ Miami is filled with things that are not of Christ. It is a diverse culture and we, as Christians, need to take the Gospel to all people of all nations. They are here in Miami.”
Eight students are working in the Miami and Gulf Stream Associations while three are traveling to churches with migrant ministries in the Big Lake, Royal Palm, Lake County, Tampa Bay and Peace River Associations.
Before leaving for their various locales, students receive cross-cultural training in Jacksonville and a prayer calendar to share with family members and friends.
The training not only gave students an indication of what to expect when they reached South Florida, “but it was a time to really get to know the people you would be serving with,” said Baptist College of Florida sophomore Amanda Carter.
“Studying together as a group helped build our fellowship. We are supposed to build each other up as brothers and sisters in Christ and this time helped us to know how to better serve each other.”
Their training was funded through gifts to the Maguire State Mission Offering.
The students serve for eight weeks, working with pastors and other local church leaders to reach children and families for Christ through VBS.
“It was difficult to leave people at home this summer but once I was here, God gave me a new perspective,” said Carter. “I have really had to lay myself aside and focus on what God is doing here. After five boys in my class accepted Christ, I knew I wouldn’t trade this experience to be anywhere else.”
Approximately one out of ten people enrolled in the student-led VBS will make a profession of faith in Christ this summer. In 2007, more than 2,000 community children and youth attended the student-led VBS and 216 made professions of faith.
“I have been amazed at what God can do through me and the people around me,” said Carter. “We are sharing the Lord and showing these kids a love they have not found anywhere else.”
Please remember the following summer missionaries in prayer: Yolene Almonor, Florida International University; Amanda Carter, Baptist College of Florida; Nathanael Gaston, Baptist College of Florida; Angela Griffin, Baptist College of Florida; Desiree Johnson, Savannah College of Art and Design; Mary Katzman, University of Florida; Morgan Martin, University of Florida; Ashley Morning, Miami Dade College; Amanda Spicer, Baptist College of Florida; Joseph Stemple, Baptist College of Florida; Luke Watkins, University of Central Florida.
