SWOSU BSU/BCM Alumni Letter – Spring 2011

Dear Alumni,

Finals ended today and the students are moving home for the summer. I am sure we all remember those days and the relief we felt to have finals over for another semester. Some of the students will be graduating and hoping to find a job while others will go home to work and save money for the coming year of classes. More students are working year round to help offset the cost of going to college. This also has an impact on their involvement with BCM and the church. We are so grateful for the students God gives us to work with and invest in each year.

Here are some of the highlights for this past year. First of all we saw at least 5 students come to Christ this year. Two of those new believers are from South Korea and are here as a part of a partnership program between SWOSU and a university in South Korea. They are being discipled by some of our students and one of them will be attending Glorieta with us this year. Second, we had a team of 7 students and 2 directors go to Southeast Asia over the Christmas break. We had the privilege of seeing over 25 people come to Christ while there. Our long range plan is to lead a team to Southeast Asia every other year at Christmas time. In addition to this mission trip we also took a group of students to Nebraska to work with a church plant in Grand Island, NE. This new church is sponsored by Concord-Kiowa Baptist Association (that is the one Weatherford is in). We are also sending two summer missionaries to Grand Island to work with youth of the area and try to begin a youth ministry for the church. We also have a team going to South Asia in just a few days. We have worked diligently all year to raise funds to support these mission endeavors and also to partner with Christian Challenge at Ft. Hays State University in Hays, KS where Carin Cochran (SWOSU alum) serves. Mission work is such a big part of all we do here and it always has been a big part of SWOSU BSU/BCM. We have plans to go to Chile and Southeast Asia in 2012 and South Asia in 2013 as well as do Spring Break mission trips. Third, this year we saw over 60 students go through one of our levels of discipleship at the BCM. We believe we are preparing students to serve in the church in the near future. We want them to be grounded in their faith and growing in their faith. We want them to leave this ministry better prepared to be active and involved church members. Our vision statement is “Moving LIVES Forward…” and that is just what we are trying to do. We take students where they are when they come to college and we try to help them make spiritual progress while they are in college.

We continue to provide the following program through the BCM. We have FORGE on Monday nights at 8 p.m. This is our large group time of worship and learning. We have Freshman Ministry (they call it B.A.S.I.C.) on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. as well as discipleship groups. Each Wednesday at noon we have NOONDAY with a meal and a student speaker. We use other nights for special activities from time to time. We try to streamline our program and ministry to be able to have the maximum involvement from the students who want to participate with us. Through our strong emphasis on discipleship, evangelism and missions we feel we are giving students a strong foundation to build on throughout their lives. Our theme for the coming year is “Value Biblical Living” and we will focus much of our program on Bible study and Scripture memory throughout the year.

Over the past three summers we have done much work on the interior of the BCM building. The funding for this work came primarily from BCM alumni gifts. The work is 95% completed on the inside, but the outside of the BCM needs an upgrade as well. We cannot do this work without funding and we will not borrow money to put in a parking lot or do other needed projects. Maintaining a building is costly and since the building belongs to Concord-Kiowa Baptist Association it is their responsibility to maintain the building and grounds. We will ask them for help in these matters, but there are a lot more BCM/BSU alumni than there are churches in our association. We have one of the nicest interiors of any BCM building in the state and we want the exterior to look nice too. ALL ALUMNI are asked to consider making a gift to help with this needed work. We will not proceed until we have the funds necessary to complete each project. It took almost 5 years to raise the money for the interior work. I hope it doesn’t take as long for the exterior work to be funded and then completed. Many of our graduates have good paying jobs that would allow them to make generous donations to such a project, while many others have incomes that require a sacrifice on their part to make a donation to such a project. What will you do? What will you give? What will you sacrifice for this BCM project? PLEASE do not take away from your gifts to your local church to contribute to this project.

Another way you can assist this ministry is to consider making a monthly donation to the Operating Account of the BCM at SWOSU. Over the years the list of alumni and friends who make a monthly donation to this BCM has dwindled to just a couple of families. Alumni giving is one of the ways we are able to broaden our ministry and increase our budget. I cannot ask churches to increase their giving or start giving to BCM due to longstanding policies for BCM Directors. BUT I can ask alumni to help us in financial matters without any problem. I am confident that God is always going to meet our need and He is our Source and Supply. He may choose to use you to be a vessel to supply the need. Thank you for praying about this and considering making a donation to the exterior maintenance projects or beginning to make a donation to the Operating Account on a monthly basis.

SAVE THE DATE: October 15, 2011 is SWOSU Homecoming. The BCM will host a luncheon at 12 noon. Please join us and pass this newsletter along to those alumni who may not be on our email list. We do Homecoming for alumni so please come if you can. Let us know that you are coming so we can plan adequately for the food. Reservations are NOT necessary, but they are appreciated.