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Missions Trip Impacts Students
(Posted: September 16, 2004) (Printable Version)
A five-week trip to China this past summer had a big impact on Scott Hinson of Paragould and Shawn Mabry of Charleston, such an impact that the two UA Fort Smith students want to go back.
Hinson and Mabry were two of 15 students from the Baptist Collegiate Ministry program in Arkansas who served on missions projects, with overseas locations including China and Taiwan and stateside trips including Camp Kenakuk in Missouri and Tahoe City, Calif. Hinson and Mabry, who are active in the BCM at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, were with a group teaching English to all ages of people in China.
Hinson said the trip gave him a better worldview and deepened his faith.
“It was the best experience of my life, no doubt about that,” Hinson said. “I’d like to go back next summer, and then, after college, I’d like to spend a few years, if not my career, doing this.”
Hinson said the trip impacted each of the UA Fort Smith students in very positive ways and that each one has a different story to tell about his experiences.
Mabry was just as enthusiastic:
“I do plan on possibly going back to China with my wife,” said Mabry, who will be getting married in January. “I’d like to go to the same area to do some follow-up with the students there.”
Mabry said he’d like to see if anything had changed in the community, to see the impact — or repercussions — of the “seeds we planted there.”
The students in Hinson’s group were all senior high age and college students. Many were headed for professional careers in medicine.
“Most of my students could speak English very well,” Hinson said. “They were eager to learn, so it wasn’t hard.”
Mabry had adult students, with many who were doctors, engineers and teachers.
“They all spoke English, but not fluently,” Mabry said.
One of the hardest aspects of the trip for both Hinson and Mabry were the “huge restrictions” placed on them. They were there to share their faith, but they had to be careful in doing it. Mabry said he hopes he and the other BCM students did make a difference to their students in China.
“I was able to challenge them to think about the spiritual side of life,” Mabry said, “at life’s meaning, because they are not asked to think about those things at all. They really are not asked to believe in anything. From the people we talked to, everything in society directs them to not thinking too much in depth about anything of importance. The (Communist) Party doesn’t view faith as important.”
Mabry said he and the other BCM representatives were able to help their students build confidence in their English speaking abilities, but helping them to think was the most important thing.
“That’s the biggest thing where I think I made a difference,” Mabry said. “I challenged them to think about life and why they are here, what their calling or purpose is, how important what they are doing is. I kept asking them ‘why?’”
He said many did become believers, but it was hard for some to do so.
“The older generation had been brought up in the Party, where a person could not share any belief with anyone,” Mabry said. “They were all focused on believing on themselves.”
Hinson said the trip had begun with a period of two weeks or more of relationship building. The company the students were with held a worldwide day of prayer and fasting specifically for this people group. The student missionaries also consecrated this day for prayer and fasting.
“Right after that,” Hinson said, “people began to open up more to spiritual issues. There was no one saved before that. But after that, 14 people came to know Christ in just the last eight days. It was very exciting.”
Hinson said the last night in China was a time of worship and sharing with the new believers at his apartment.
“Two of the people who had gotten saved the night before came and brought two friends to the meeting,” he said. “I and another missionary took them aside and shared the gospel with them.”
Hinson said the scripture spoke about man’s separation from God because of sin. They allowed the individuals to read about it in their Chinese Bibles given to them by Hinson and the others, and then they had the individuals explain what it all meant in English.
“This one girl said she was very nervous,” Hinson said, “because I was the first foreigner she had ever talked to. Then she said, ‘I think it means that I’m a sinner and that my sins have separated me from God, and the only way I can come into a relationship with God is by believing in Jesus.’”
Hinson said he was floored by this because it was the first time she had heard about Jesus.
“Then she said, “I thank you for coming. I believe in God, and I want to read the Holy Bible. I’ve been waiting all my life for you to come and tell me this.”
Hinson said she then grabbed her Bible and started crying softly, saying there were so many people who wanted to see and hear what he had just told her.
“Both girls got saved,” Hinson said, “and others have come to Christ through them. One of the reasons I think they’re so excited is that we explained that they are now part of a family, that we’re now brothers and sisters in Christ. This really, really touched them because of the one-child policy in China. It excites them beyond measure to have brothers and sisters.”
This was the first oversees missions trip for Hinson, 20, who is the son of Sheila Hinson and the late Lavon Hinson of Paragould. He now resides at the BCM facility on the UA Fort Smith campus. He is a 2001 graduate of Greene County Technical School in Paragould. He attended Arkansas State University briefly before starting at UA Fort Smith for the spring 2004 semester. He plans to be an English education major. He is a member of Grand Avenue Baptist Church.
“I see myself either teaching or being a missionary in a foreign country, whether it’s China or somewhere else, just wherever God might send me,” he said.
Hinson said the pace in China was much more relaxed than in America. Students especially relax in the summer.
“They don’t go and get part-time jobs like we do,” Hinson said. “They have fun and play. During their school year, the school life is harder for them than ours is. They go to school more hours during the day and take more classes. In high school, they might go 10 or more hours a day, with college students attending eight hours a day, five days a week.
“Education is very much emphasized in families,” Hinson said. “If you can go, you will.”
Hinson said their Chinese students sometimes taught them — taking them home for meals, teaching them to cook or going with them on excursions to various recreational activities. Hinson also said his students described themselves as “poor.”
“I wouldn’t consider them poor though,” Hinson said. “Everyone we dealt with had their needs met. They didn’t do without. They just didn’t have the means to have more ‘things,’ things we take for granted, all the excesses we gather up and think we have to have.”
Mabry, 23, is the son of Lee and Kathy Mabry of Charleston. He is a 1999 graduate of Charleston High School and will receive his bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in December. He is a member of Eastside Baptist Church. His previous mission experience had included a summer 2002 trip to Mexico City, but the China experience was his “first major one.”
Mabry also said he wasn’t the only one doing the teaching. He felt the Chinese taught him some things, too.
“The amount of respect and love they showed us really has challenged me to do the same to others,” Mabry said. “It’s really amazing how much they gave, both in time and of themselves to accommodate us in any way possible.”
Hinson and Mabry both agreed that the food was great — and cheap — during their stay in China, with a large bowl of a noodle and vegetable mixture costing only about 40 cents. They also ate at what would be termed “a really nice restaurant,” with 14 of them sharing a large meal for about $30.
Both UA Fort Smith students know they were a help to those students who needed improvements in their English speaking abilities. Both had heard about the missions trip through the BCM. They also know the greater depth of their trip was ordained for them and that God intended for them to go there.
Hinson said people are still coming to Christ because of the BCM work in China this summer and that being a part of the missions work can’t help but make a person face what must be done:
“How can you not go back when the need is so great? People are literally waiting for you to come tell them of the Savior.”
| Article by: Sondra LaMar, Director of Public Relations |
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