Southwestern mission team sees prayers answered on OU campus

Seventeen Students from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College (TBC) spent their fall reading days in Norman, Okla., where they partnered with the Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in campus evangelism and prayer, which resulted in 28 persons professing faith in Christ.

The week began with a prayer walk around the OU campus.

“We kind of walked the campus, prayed over it, and just asked the Lord to go before us before we started witnessing,” said Cruz Wilkinson, a TBC sophomore from Granbury, Texas, pursuing his degree in Christian Studies through the 5-year program.

Each morning began with prayer and preparation before heading to the campus to engage students through a “one-word testimony” activity. Students were invited to describe their life story in one word on a whiteboard, following which members of the mission team could connect and draw from it to turn into a Gospel conversation.

Working in shifts on the campus, the Southwesterners faced a variety of visible successes as they shared with students. Wilkinson said one morning he saw seven people come to Christ on the first day. But in the afternoon, Samantha Stoffels, a TBC sophomore from Keller, Texas, pursuing her degree in Intercultural Studies, experienced some discouragement from an initial lack of interaction.

“People kept kind of rejecting us, they weren’t wanting to talk,” Stoffels recalled. “But the few conversations we did get to have were awesome.”

But she continued in praying intentionally during her preparation time before heading out.

“I had two main prayers,” Stoffels said. “I was like, ‘Lord, I want to be able to talk with people, and I want to be given a burden for the lost today.’ And then I also really would like to talk with someone … of another world religion, and just get to share the Gospel with her or him.”

Her prayers were answered as she spoke with numerous people, including a Hindu woman whom she shared her testimony with.

Paul King, a TBC sophomore from Austin, Mo., pursuing his degree in Christian Studies through the 5-year program, had a similar experience, having prayed on Tuesday night to encounter someone who would help him grow as an evangelist.

“I prayed like, ‘Lord, I pray tomorrow, I have conversations that challenge, refine, and push me out of my boundaries,’” King recounted. “‘So I rely upon you. And if You’re willing, I pray I may lead someone to You, but if not, I pray I’d be a faithful sower.’”

The following day King would have a conversation with a transgender person, an ex-Jew, and in an hour-and-a-half long discussion on free will and morality with an atheist.

Wilkinson recalled similar experiences of initial discouragement followed by answered prayers as well.

“A lot of people had just been walking past, and I remember praying,” Wilkinson said. “I was like, ‘Lord, just let the next person I talk to come to Christ.’ And literally, the next person that I talked to, it was so cool.”

He recalled this same cycle of prayer and answer repeating over the following days, taking special delight in an encounter he had with a Catholic, with whom he discussed the truth of salvation by faith over works. By the time they had finished speaking, the Catholic had completely changed his viewpoint and became connected with some members of the BCM, an outcome that Wilkinson admitted he had never seen before.

“The Lord was very much moving on OU Campus,” Wilkinson said. “So, that was just awesome.”

In between shifts of sharing the Gospel and meeting with students, the missionaries would meet with local BCM leaders and experienced missionaries for discipleship sessions meant to help them learn and grow.

“It was kind of cool, because the trip was set up as in the mornings, and early afternoons, right after lunch, we got to pour into other people and evangelize and talk with people,” Stoffels said. “And then those evenings, we got to be poured back into and spiritually fed by the OU people there.”

King said the trip led him to realize his own weakness and limitations and his need to rely on Christ’s strength.

For Stoffels, the largest impact came in realizing the strength she could find just by taking the time to meditate on the Gospel and become a better tool for Christ.

“I’m always doing, I’m always wanting to do more things and more,” Stoffels explained. “But when am I stopping and just being and being in His Word and learning how to become a person the Lord can use?”

By the end of the trip, Wilkinson described a renewed sense of dependence on God and a deepened bond with his teammates.

“Imagining heaven rejoicing for all of these people was just so cool. It was just so life-giving, so fulfilling,” Wilkinson said. “I grew really close with my brothers and sisters from SWBTS and in Christ. … These relationships that we established there, I see them here now. It was an experience I’ve never had before. So, it was just really, really cool.”