Path of construction

Michele Marr, For the Independent

On a pleasant March day, under clear skies and a bright, mild sun, 121

normally landlocked students from Texas Tech University in Lubbock,

Texas, stepped from two huge buses onto the warm sands of Huntington

Beach to begin their spring break.

From 3 p.m. until dusk on March 9 they walked along the sand. They

took snapshots of each other standing ankle deep in the surf. They passed

out handbills that said “Life Changing: experience worship with 120

college students.” They roasted hot dogs and melted s’mores for dinner.

Then they piled into their buses and headed for Santa Fe Springs.

From Sunday through Friday they would spend their days in places like

Norwalk, Bell, Downey, Brea, Garden Grove and South Normandy and West

Florence avenues in Los Angeles. They would sleep in bedrolls on the

floors of two churches in Santa Fe Springs.

This was MT6, short for Mission Tour 6, California 2002, a whirlwind

working vacation organized by Nine Thirty, the university ministry of the

First Baptist Church of Lubbock. Not your standard spring hiatus.

During the week the group held worship services at Huntington Beach

Baptist church. Pastor Gerald Squyres welcomed the students and said they

could reap great benefits from the tour. “We hope it will influence their

lives for a wholesomeness of character and help them to develop enough

spiritual depth to sustain them when crisis comes.”

This year’s tour slogan was “Never give up. Never surrender,” based on

scripture verses 12-14 in Philippians Chapter 3. The student’s wore the

motto emblazoned on T-shirts. It fit the challenge ahead of them.

“I’m tough,” said Bill Davis, coordinator of the mission tours for the

past 14 years. “They work hard. They get tired. But that is often when

the Lord works best in their lives.”

These students have worked hard already to get here. Each has attended

two required semesters of Bible study and discipleship classes, part of

the Nine Thirty, university ministry, known as The Challenge.

Under the direction of John Strappazon, the university minister at

First Baptist Church, they read and memorized scripture. Any student who

missed more than two meetings was disqualified for the tour. Those who

made the final cut paid for their own travel expenses.

During the weeklong tour the students worked every day and on Monday

through Thursdaythe students participated in praise and worship services

at the Huntington Beach Baptist Church.

They brought their instruments and their own sound system. They

brought the tools, ladders and scaffolding they needed to complete the

work they had come to do at more than a dozen church sites in both Orange

and Los Angeles counties. They hauled the equipment here in trucks and

vans on the 24-hour, straight-through drive from Lubbock.

They painted buildings, inside and out, laid flooring, installed

windows and doors, leveled ground for a parking lot and hung drywall.

At Huntington Beach Baptist Church they painted the exterior of the

education building and fellowship hall to match the church and installed

a new window in the nursery.

It wasn’t just their labor, but also their energy and their spirit

that many congregations said they appreciated. Alvin Johnson, pastor of

the Universal Christian Center in Los Angeles told the students, “You

have brought joy to our church and to our hearts.”

Davis pointed out that many of the students become pastors,

missionaries and Bible translators.

“They may not realize it at the moment, but the decisions they make

now in many ways form who they will be when they are my age,” Squyres

said of the group of students.

Strappazon echoed this thought in his closing message on Thursday

night when he read from Galatians 6.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

The one who sows to please his sinful nature will reap destruction; the

one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not

become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest

if we do not give up.”