By Sophie Acebo | Reporter
Chi Alpha, an organization dedicated to Christian fellowship, has recently been welcomed to Baylor’s campus.
Chartered in mid-September, Chi Alpha is dedicated to “spreading the good news,” giving a space to grow in Christian faith and even linking its members to local churches.
Chi Alpha’s mission is based on 2 Corinthians 5:20, which states, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Chris Hundl and his wife Hosanna are Chi Alpha missionaries and worked with a Chi Alpha chapter in Corpus Christi before making the move to Waco to serve as Baylor Chi Alpha’s directors.
“Within our leadership, there’s a couple campuses recommended to us where they would love to see a Chi Alpha, and one of them was Baylor,” Hundl said. “God has opened doors for us to be here; it’s incredible.”
McAllen sophomore Maddie Torres is the president of Chi Alpha and helps organize everything that the group puts on for its members, including large group services at 8:00 p.m. every Wednesday night in the Bobo Spiritual Life Center.
“That’s just a time where we can hang out and worship together,” Torres said. “It’s just a time of fellowship for us to take time away from the business of school and for us to focus on what should be our No. 1 priority.”
After these large services take place, Chi Alpha leaders can then help plug members into small groups for further involvement.
“The girls usually meet on Fridays and the guys meet on either Tuesdays or Fridays,” Torres said. “If you want to get plugged in, just go on Wednesdays first and from there, we can get you into a small group.”
Another way students can get involved with Chi Alpha is by helping them hand out flyers and spreading the word through their table on Fountain Mall. Their table can be found from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Hundl said that members of Chi Alpha can also look forward to a variety of service opportunities, including mission trips.
“Spring break, we usually stay local and serve local churches,” Hundl said. “Depending on student involvement, [in the summer] we possibly even take a trip to Latin America.”
During the summer, members also have the opportunity to go overseas and serve with the organization Live Dead, which helps plant churches for unreached people.
“We partner with those missionaries overseas and send teams to serve them over short-term trips and summer trips,” Hundl said.
Hundl said members can even find internship opportunities with these missionaries and serve even longer than a summer.
“One of the girls on our team actually served overseas in a country called Azerbaijan,” Hundl said.
Another internship opportunity members can get plugged into is working on-staff with Chi Alpha.
“Students that graduate have the option to serve on staff with us for an additional year,” Hundl said. “In that year, they work with College Station Chi Alpha, working through curriculum and material and graduate that year credentialed as a minister with the Assemblies of God.”
Hundl said that these internships can give students enriching experiences serving local and overseas missionaries to potentially move forward in other missionary work.
Hundl said that any student interested in Chi Alpha is open to join the group.
“Everyone is welcome,” Hundl said. “Joining, to us, just means getting plugged into a small group. To do that, just find any one of us and let’s become friends.”
For more information on Chi Alpha, visit their Instagram or contact Maddie Torres.
