The compassion of Christ was the focus of the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s Converge Conference for students, held Feb. 1-3 in Myrtle Beach.
More than 850 college students, along with high school juniors and seniors as well as leaders from Baptist Collegiate Ministry groups and churches, attended the three-day conference.
“Our theme verse for the weekend, Matthew 9:36, makes it clear that Jesus was filled with compassion for the needs and hurts of the world,” said Ken Owens, director of the collegiate ministry group for the SCBC. “As his followers, we are called to be filled with that same sense of compassion and to be active in impacting the needs of the world with the power of the gospel.”
In each large-group worship time, students heard testimonies from believers who were committed to expressing the compassion of Christ in practical ways. Samantha Sammis and Amanda Chicago, from the College of Charleston, shared how God called them and other students to plant themselves – and the gospel – in one of the roughest parts of Charleston, the neighborhood near America Street.
Three Baptist collegiate ministers and their families shared stories of adopting children from other countries. Kendal Danford, who serves at Francis Marion University, told the audience, “Some may be called to adopt; not everyone is. But every Christian is commanded by Scripture to care for orphans and widows.” During the weekend, $3 from every conference T-shirt sold was sent to Hannah’s Hope, an adoption agency and orphanage in Ethiopia.
Mary Bachelor from Francis Marion and Joy Gearo from Anderson University talked about their summer mission experience in Swaziland, where they taught True Love Waits in a country with the highest HIV/AIDS rate in Africa.
Tyler Andrews, of Clemson University, joined conference worship leader Matt Papa in sharing how God had called them to serve an orphanage ministry in one of the poorest areas of India. Students and leaders responded by giving an offering of $3,652 to support the work of the orphanage project, which is sponsored by the International Mission Board.
“Those personal testimonies were so powerful and allowed everyone to see that God uses people who follow his lead to make a difference in the needs of the world,” Owens said.
Main speakers for the conference included Noel Yeatts, vice president for World Help, a faith-based humanitarian organization; Dustin Willis, student mobilizer for the North American Mission Board; and James Roberson, a church planter in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Students responded to Yeatts’ call to help rescue hurting and malnourished children through World Help’s Operation Baby Rescue. Students gave $1,642 to the cause, with $700 of it coming from Charleston Southern University students who fasted for one meal and gave the money to the cause. (See related story.)
More than 180 of the students took disaster relief training and are now ready to respond to potential disasters. Many of the students had already participated last December in a special disaster relief mission to help victims of Superstorm Sandy in Staten Island. – SCBC