“Making a difference in this world for Jesus Christ” is the hope and desire of many who go into ministry. Audrey Neal, the new volunteer director of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries group at Erskine College, is one of these individuals.
Audrey Neal, second from right, poses with members of the 2006 Kids Connection team for Baptist Collegiate Ministries.Neal is a recent graduate of Lander University, where she was very involved in the BCM. As a student, she served as the ministries coordinator and mission fundraiser for three years, and as president during her senior year.
Neal also participated in many of the mission trips that BCM sponsors, including the Kids Connexion team that travels in South Carolina to minister to children.
Having spent so much time in BCM leadership roles, the decision to become the volunteer director for Erskine was an easy one. Neal said, “I always had a heart for college students, especially working at Lander over the past few years. Trying to help them grow in their faith, and them challenging me as well, I developed a heart for college students.”
Neal not only had a great opportunity to develop a heart for students, but also gained leadership skills needed to be an effective ministry director under the guidance of Lander’s campus minister Scott Smith.
Speaking of Neal, Smith said, “One of the greatest gifts that we have in campus ministry is to help train our students to be leaders and then challenge them to go out and lead.”
Smith is thankful he has seen how one student has come “full circle.” BCM exists to connect students to Christ and thereby connect Christ to the world, and Neal’s decision to give back to the ministry that gave so much to her is a great example of this mission statement in action.