Baylor Global Mission Teams Serve and Support Over Winter Break
Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-6275
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by Gabrielle White, student newswriter, Baylor University Media and Public Relations
WACO, Texas (Jan. 25, 2019) – Nearly 50 Baylor University students combined their academic disciplines and their heart for service by volunteering with Baylor Missions over the winter break in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the countries of Guatemala and Italy.
Through these transformational mission experiences that develop long-lasting connections around the globe, Baylor students used their skills and talents to contribute solutions to real-world challenges at home and abroad while discerning their calling. Along with faculty leaders, staff and friends of the University, these students shadowed physicians, volunteered at medical clinics, led sports camps and learned more about global and collaborative efforts to address various issues from world hunger to cross-border migration.
“Students come back to campus with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication to their academic and personal development,” said Holly Tate, assistant director for Global Missions-Student Engagement in Baylor’s Office of Spiritual Life. “They have a deeper understanding of how important their education is in helping them to become an ethical and kind leader in their fields. We also see students come back from a mission trip with a desire to make long-term commitments to the community and global partners they have gotten to know.”
Rio Grande Valley American Medical Student Association
The Baylor American Medical Student Association mission team of 10 AMSA members and a staff leader served Dec. 12-18 in the Rio Grande Valley cities of Olmito, Brownsville and Los Fresnos. This was the fourth consecutive year AMSA has served in the area.
“Having participated on many mission trips internationally and locally, I have learned that there is a great importance of building relationships with those you are serving alongside,” said Madison Godsey, a senior biology and anthropology major from Heath, Texas, and AMSA mission trip co-chair. “It is a fantastic feeling returning each semester and seeing similar faces knowing that you are a part of their lives. Each time we return, we know that there is continual support when we are not there and we are able to experience a tiny bit of the great service and humanitarian efforts in the Valley.”
As the AMSA mission trip co-chair, Godsey strives to educate and inspire students about global health care, varying cultures and their responsibilities as future physicians.
“This mission trip perfectly embodies what we stand for in AMSA and how we believe that, as physicians, compassion is crucial,” Godsey said. “Even if the students who go on the trip don’t want to pursue a career dedicated to serving in areas like the Valley, many are inspired to expand their ethnocentric worldview and practice empathy in their future as physicians.”
At the Loaves and Fishes free clinic, the team shadowed Rio Grande Valley physicians Dr. Stephen Robinson and Dr. Esmeralda Rivera.
“The trip to the Rio Grande Valley is a transformational experience,” Godsey said. “Every time that I have gone, I am in awe of the people that I meet and the interactions I am a part of. A few favorite memories from the trip include working in clinic alongside Dr. Robinson and Dr. Rivera. In shadowing them I learned how to show empathy and love as a physician. Whether they were praying over a patient or running around the clinic to find a voucher for discounted diabetes medication, they truly embodied the physician I want to become.”
The team also volunteered at the Respite Center, a Catholic center that provides basic humanitarian needs, and had the opportunity to interact with children and aid teachers at a local elementary school.
At the Respite Center, students had the privilege to serve meals, distribute clothing, hold babies while mothers had time to shower and regroup, and play with children “who have had to grow up far too fast,” Godsey said. The Respite Center gives those in need a warm meal and new clothing, which often restores their confidence and humanity.
Italy Global Hunger & Migration
On Jan. 2, 2019, a team of 22 students and two faculty leaders with Baylor’s Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) and Office of Spiritual Life traveled to Rome, Italy, to deepen their understanding of global issues particularly hunger and migration— and to consider how their vocation and avocation contribute to efforts of sustainable development and alleviating food insecurity.
Rome is at both the heart of international efforts to find solutions to world hunger and the center of a food security-related, cross-border migration crisis. Because of this, Rome was an ideal city to serve as an experiential service-learning lab for Baylor students, said Doug McDurham, director of public affairs for THI and a leader of the mission trip.
“Our goal was to inspire thinking and global service by introducing students to the philosophy, structure, and accomplishments of international, collaborative anti-hunger efforts,” McDurham said. “Students will understand how the United Nations agencies operate, as well as what opportunities for jobs or internships await them.”
Along with their focus on world hunger and migration efforts, the group took a side trip to meet with an advocate for Roma migrants in Florence, followed by an Epiphany service led by Pope Francis at the Vatican.
“Our trip was really more of a pilgrimage than a traditional mission trip,” said Josh Ritter, M.Div., Ph.D., assistant director for Baylor Spirituality and Public Life at Baylor. “It was a global learning trip, and it was primarily focused on developing the art of listening in order to become better civic interfaith leaders.”
Students also met with leaders at the United Nations agencies that address global hunger, as well as individuals and organizations that work with migrants and refugees in Rome and Florence.
“The trip was not just for our benefit,” Ritter said. “Visiting with folks, really listening to the richness of their stories, had a huge impact on them as well. They felt heard. They felt like they had a voice. In a world that sometimes attempts to silence the stories of immigrants and refugees, it is vitally important that our global society makes every effort to meet them, get to know them and hear their stories. It helped them process the traumatic experiences they’ve faced, and it gave them hope that others would carry their stories to others.”
Guatemala Sports Ministry
In partnership with Baylor Athletics, a team of 13 students served with Guatemala Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to show children how sports ministry draws people towards the Kingdom of God.
“The areas where they set us up to serve were areas where they had already built relationships with community ministry and church leaders,” said John Maurer, director of sports ministry at Baylor. “The relationships between FCA and local leaders proceeded us and continued on after we left. We were there to help bring a ‘little lift’ to what was already happening.”
Students, along with sports chaplains and staff, represented various teams and majors, but the mission trip encouraged them to work together to utilize the strengths of their teammates and global partners to serve and support each other as they discern their callings.
The team served in Guatemala from Dec. 12-18. Throughout the week the team led sports camps in Antigua, Canaan and Parramos. The team also experienced Guatemala through cultural exchange and fostering relationships with local communities.
“The most impactful part of the trip for me was when we delivered the water filters to the families,” said Raven Grant, a kinesiology major from Louisville, Kentucky and member of the Baylor women’s track and field team. “They were so happy to be receiving these and you could tell that it was life changing for them. I was so glad that we could give them this gift, these people don’t get the privilege of drinking clean water daily like we do. I got the honor of being able to pray over a family, while I was praying the grandmother placed her hands all over me and started blessing me in Spanish. I knew that the Lord was at work the entire trip but during this moment I felt the Holy Spirit and it was moving.”
Over spring break, Baylor Missions has organized 12 different mission trips to eight countries and four different domestically. New trips include the first-ever Baylor mission trip to Japan and a mission trip for first generation college students, who are going to be working together in the Dominican Republic to build a house for a family in need.
As part of Change the World in a Day Feb. 27 at Baylor Chapel, students will raise funds to help fill that house with furniture and appliances after the students finish the build during spring break.
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.