Mission Dr Pepper Hour, Missions Fair show off global opportunities

Dr Pepper Floats are served to students Tuesday for the first time of the semester at the traditional Dr Pepper Hour in the Barf eld Drawing Room of the Bill Daniel Student Center. This week, Baylor Missions will be promoting the annual Missions Fair to students. Photo credit: Richard Hirst

Baylor Missions will host a sponsored Dr Pepper Hour from 3-4 today in Barfield Drawing Room, in advance of the Baylor Missions Fair from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow outside Waco Hall.

Baylor students for many years have performed missionary activities both locally and globally. For any students interested in the latter, the Baylor Missions fair is an opportunity to learn just what possibilities are out there.

The main purpose of the Dr Pepper Hour event is to act as a big kickoff for students to find out about international and domestic missions opportunities with Baylor in 2016. Although eight Baylor Missions teams will be represented there, over 30 teams will be going out next year.

The teams being featured include Colombia Community Development, Ghana Leadership: Education, Ghana Leadership: Community, Ghana Basketball, Urban Missions: Hunger in TX, Hunger in America and Zambia Women’s Leadership.

The Baylor University Missions Fair is a one day event taking place on Wednesday, with representatives from 21 different international missions and ministry organizations. They will provide info about their work and ways that students can be involved.

Each organization focuses on a specific area of Missions, whether Bible translating, teaching English in various countries, working with persecuted Christians or reaching people for the Gospel in specific areas across the globe.

“Baylor Missions is very excited about the wide variety of Missions opportunities that these organizations will provide Baylor students,” said John Hewitt, Ministry Associate for Missions Education and Global Missions. “The Baylor Missions Fair gives students an opportunity to learn the incredible things that God is doing throughout the world, and how they can be involved in a very real, practical way.”

Other organizations that will be present include Baylor Missions, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Village Schools International, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Restore Hope, Mercy Ships, Memphis Teacher Residency, Urbana 15, Go Corps, Camino Global, Open Doors USA, TEAM, Global Journey Missions, Forefront Experience, ELIC, The Rafiki Foundation, East-West Ministries International, Go Now Missions, Passport Inc and YouthWorks.

“Hundreds of Baylor students participate in missions every year, through Baylor Missions, through their local church and through missions sending organizations,” said Holly Widick, Assistant Director for Missions. “Baylor strives to provide students with opportunities to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to opportunities to serve around the world in impactful ways. Missions Fair gives students access to more opportunities to engage.”

The Baylor Missions Fair is not new, but can offer a great deal of new information to curious students, Hewitt said.

“Baylor Missions has put on some form of a Missions Fair for nearly 30 years, and we have seen it steadily grow from where it first started,” Hewitt said. “We hope that we can continue that growth and provide students with very opportunity available to serve Christ internationally through our office and these missions organizations.”