‘Supply Day’ provides Southwestern Seminary, Texas Baptist College students with items to settle into ‘home’

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College students were offered a variety of supplies and home goods by Fort Worth-area churches on August 16 “Supply Day.”

Organized by the seminary’s International Student Services Office, and co-sponsored by the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) of Texas, local churches donated gently used furniture, kitchen appliances, bedding, home décor, kitchen wares, books, and children’s toys to students as they settled into the community on the first day of classes at both the seminary and the college. WMU of Texas facilitated the collection of supplies.

Due to the generosity and kindness of local churches, Supply Day, which had to be paused in the fall of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, found the seminary’s Recreation and Aerobics Center (RAC) teeming with many needed items. 

“This year, we had an abundance of donations that all seminary students were able to get more than what was expected,” said Firmato Rodriguez, director of the Office of International Student Services at Southwestern Seminary. The event serviced over 240 students, of which 76 were families.

Through the event “international students are able to reduce their personal expenses by attending this event and being able to have savings for the current semester and the following semester,” Rodriquez explained. “We’ve also been able to see our own international students from prior semesters be able to serve the new incoming internationals.”

On the basketball court at the RAC, as children rode around on their new bicycles and scooters, students of all ages and stages of life selected household items. In the RAC’s driveway area, students walked among couches, armchairs, bed frames, and dressers to find pieces to place in their homes. 

Yoonmi Cha, from South Korea, is a new Southwestern Seminary student working toward a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling. She has only previously been in the United States one other time to visit the seminary campus. However, Cha said Supply Day made her feel as though “the school really cares about the students.”

Cha found kitchen wares for herself and found simple items, such as a bathmat, for a friend who was in class. She explained the items she found were not things she “could live without, but if I have it, it is more convenient for me.”

Supply Day services all students. Rodriquez said through the event his office has “seen friendships blossom between internationals and American students as the American students will lend their time and service to help international students move their furniture to their homes.”

Camaraderie was apparent as students introduced themselves to one another as they stood in line for their opportunity to select items.

Three of those students are new freshmen at Texas Baptist College, Cameron Wormack, Gabriel Carvalho, and Daniel Frenzillo.

Wormack, a student from near Pittsburgh working toward a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies, said it was “very helpful to come in a grab some stuff” since he is 20 hours from home. Wormack attended the event to find “college things” to decorate his Fort Worth Hall dorm room.

Gabriel Carvalho, from outside New York City, is also working toward a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies. Carvalho had the same long-distance issue as Wormack. However, Carvalho was looking for “something to help me organize the room” in his new dorm room as well as books for the semester.

Though Daniel Frenzillo, a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities student from Farmersville, Texas, is closer to the campus than his new friends, he attended the event to find a book because he “knew a lot of books had been donated and that information is always good to have.”

Supply Day, which began in 1971, is held annually every fall at the beginning of the academic year.

Sixteen churches in the Greater Fort Worth area contributed to this year’s Supply Day. These churches included Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Gambrell Street Baptist Church, Agape Baptist Church, University Baptist Church, Woods Chapel Baptist Church, East St. Paul Baptist Church, First St. John Baptist Church, First African Baptist Church, Southwayside Baptist Church, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Christ Chapel Bible Church, Ridglea Baptist Church, Richland Hills Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Crowley, Baker Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Liberty Church of Mansfield.