Mark and Kaitlin: helping college students find the way

You remember your college days, don't you? It was a whole new world, chock full of new experiences, relationships, and opportunities. You learned much about yourself, life, and the world around you. You made your own decisions, some of them life-shaping. You were also surrounded by new influences and voices vying for your attention. One voice that was likely not as prominent in the mix was that of the Church –and this is our rub. This is what keeps us up at night. It get’s our blood boiling. College is such a critical time in a person’s life, and yet the influence of the body of Christ is minimal here. We feel called to change that.

As of 2010, around 21 Million students attend one of America's 4,495 higher education institutions. Over 723,000 of these are international students coming to the U.S. from all over the world. These students will go on to lead and shape countries, companies, and culture. Indeed, college is a critical time in the lives of so many!

If more young men and women came to know and be transformed by the gospel during their college years, can you imagine the potential influence this would have on God’s kingdom? Can you imagine the impact the gospel would have on a student’s life? It is for these reason and more that we feel led to serve college students. Now, we can’t do this alone and nor do we want to! Would you consider serving alongside us?

Now maybe you can’t physically join us on campus (though you are certainly welcome to!), but you can partner with us in prayer and financial support. Yep, it takes both prayer and money to enable us to serve on campus, and when you support us in these ways, you play an active role in spreading the gospel on the college campus and changing students’ lives. Would you consider partnering with us? Read on below for instructions.

 The University of Texas at Dallas

After serving four years in Houston, we now find ourselves serving the students at UT Dallas! We are thrilled to join the Comet family and be part of what God is doing here at UT Dallas.

UT Dallas sits in Richardson, home to the Telecom Corridor and the headquarters of 600-plus key technology companies. UTD is home to about 28,000 students, with 8,000 being international students from more than 100 nations. We rank #1 in Texas and #9 in the nation for the largest percentage of international students on campus. In reaching out to this campus, we get to serve with a great team – Brady, Jourdan and Grace! Together, we are working to share the hope of Christ with the campus and equip students to be life-long disciples of Christ and disciple makers 

UTD sits in both Dallas and Collin County, also giving us a unique connection to the community colleges in both areas. Within these two counties, there are 150,000 college students. In addition to the BSM work at UT Dallas, Mark will be heading up strategy to reach out to the 53,000-plus college students attending the three campuses included in Collin College. Also, Collin will be adding two more campuses by 2020! It’s a big task to enable college ministry on all these campuses, but we serve a big God who wants all people to know Him se we are up for it! 

Ministries at the UT Dallas BSM: 

• Free Lunch (We partner with local churches to feed an average of 250 students (many who are international students) weekly, with the purpose of sharing the gospel and/or connecting students to our other ministries)
• Wednesday Night Community (Every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. we gather for worship, teaching and small groups. Students get to encounter God’s Word, genuine fellowship and living life together)
• Freshman Bible Study (A new effort! A small group focused on helping freshman connect to community and grow in their love for God)
• Discovery Groups (a small group designed for international students seeking to learn about the Bible and the life of Jesus)
• Student Leadership Team (a place where BSM staff can equip students to reach their campus with the gospel and carry out the ministry of the BSM)
• Mission Opportunities (this included Spring Break mission trips, partnerships with local ministries and service projects, as well as Go Now Missions, a short-term sending agency designed just for college students)
• Proclaim (a weekly time where BSM staff teach students how to share their faith and then they go out in pairs to have gospel conversations with their peers and to pray for the campus)
• International Student Community Group (a weekly gathering where we equip international students with career and leadership skills through discussions based the character of Christ)
• International Student Big Howdy Welcome Efforts (at the beginning of each semester, we partner with other Christian campus organizations and local churches to provide more than 1,000 airport picks for new international students, a free furniture giveaway, and Texas-themed welcome party to help students settle into life on campus and get connected with local believers). 

For more on the UT Dallas BSM, visit http://www.bsmatutdallas.org. 

Will you join us?

Would you consider partnering with us in ministry? By committing to our financial support team, you stand beside us in sharing the hope and light of the gospel with college students. Our positions are not salaried and we depend on the financial support of like-minded and generous donors. To join the financial support team or the prayer team, simply click on the button below. If you would just like to stay updated for now, subscribe to our newsletter below.

If you would like to make a gift online, click the above button to be directed to our specific giving portal. If you would like instructions on mailing us a financial gift, click here.