Texas BSM witnesses 87 professions of faith since school began

God is at work on college campuses around the state of Texas. Since school began six weeks ago, Texas Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) has seen 87 students come to faith in Christ. Here are three salvation stories from BSM leaders about the life-changing experiences happening on their campuses. Join us in praying for more students to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as BSM students and leaders faithfully share on their campuses.

Joe Osteen - The University of Texas at Tyler BSM:

God has opened a door to the Nepalese community at The University of Texas at Tyler. One of our students who loves internationals, particularly South Asians, has been connecting with this community for the past year. He developed a great relationship with the president of the Nepalese Student Association and has become a person of peace into that community.

Through that relationship, we became friends with a Nepalese graduate student named ‘P.’ He had attended church with friends a few times and heard some of the Gospel. He came to the BSM to pick up a couch we were giving him the evening of our last summer Bible study. P and his friends decided to stay for Bible study and he asked many of the questions, even interrupting the speaker a couple of times. During the discussion time around tables, a Gospel appointment was set up for the next week for dinner time.

During that time, the Gospel was presented for almost two hours! P had lots of questions and wanted to meet again. He was given a “Do You Want to Know God Personally” booklet to read. The next day, he wanted to meet because he had read the booklet multiple times and had more questions. After two more meetings, a two-hour conversation during our annual move-in day ice cream social, and lots of prayer, P prayed to receive Christ.

Since then, he has begun meeting with a BSM intern for discipleship and has started attending FBC Tyler, where the missions minister has experience in Nepal and speaks Nepali. P has brought multiple Nepalese students to the BSM with him. He is excited about working to make sure his fellow Nepalese know the Gospel.

Abigail Pearce - Wayland Baptist University BSM:

On August 23, one of the girls on my leadership team named Faith was crying in the corner during an event. I led her to my office to see what was wrong. Faith was distraught over our friend Fer who is a foreign exchange student.

Faith and many others on our leadership team had been ministering and pouring their heart out to her over the past semester. Fer had expressed deep hurting to Faith and others. In response to this hurt, Faith would point Fer to the ultimate healer, Jesus. Every time Faith shared her faith in Jesus with Fer it seemed that a wall would go up and Fer did not understand.

As Faith cried in front of me she told me that Fer would no longer be coming to our school because of financial reasons and was leaving in just a few days for a college in Oregon. Faith was asking God who would minister to Fer while she was in Oregon? Would she no longer be allowed to be apart of Fer’s story?

The next morning I received a text from Faith saying she had good news and that she wanted to tell me in person. Faith came to my office and told me how Fer called her at 7 a.m. that morning asking if she could come over to Faith's dorm room. A very sleepy, but cheerful Faith let Fer into her room only to hear Fer say how much she needed God, that she could not handle the burden of this world alone anymore. Faith, excited as ever, was able to lead her to Christ that morning.

While we are sad to see Fer leave our campus, we are excited to see her leave as a sister!

Keith Platte - Howard Payne University BSM:

Cara is a freshman who lives locally and commutes to campus. She has had some heavy things in her life over the last couple of years and has seen some people close to her persevere because of their faith in Christ.

Cara was at the street fair on the night before classes began because she wanted to get involved in the school paper. She saw our BSM booth and signed up for more information. The next day, one of our leaders, Jessica, got her information and contacted her, and they were able to meet up that Friday. As Jessica discussed faith and campus involvement with Cara, she realized that FreshCo, our first year connection group, was going on at that moment in the BSM building. Jessica walked Cara over to the BSM building and introduced her to the group and to me.

The next Tuesday, Cara came back to our free lunch and found me. She said she wanted to know what it looked like to follow Christ. So, the next day we sat in our office with Karli, our CMI (Campus Missionary Intern), and Devin, our office worker, and we talked about being a disciple. Cara then told us that she wanted that in her life, so we got to lead her to receive Christ there in the office that day!

After meeting with Cara for a couple of weeks, she understood the basics of the Gospel story. She had never encountered the full story of the Gospel. Weeks after our first meeting, Cara was at our fall revival week and realized that when she was in our office, she was making a cognitive decision to follow Jesus. However, this past week, she said it clicked and she knew that she needed Jesus to rescue her from her sin. She thanked us for explaining the Gospel to her and making the Good News of Jesus clear to her. God used that to draw her into relationship with Him.