Many of you know that right after our trip to China, I was in Austin this past weekend. My college friends and I spent 4 days there to encourage our GFC Austin team and help out with whatever needed to be done. Little did I realize that our short time there would end up being like a mini summer mission trip.
We landed last Wednesday… and went directly to the campus, where we got a quick tour, did a prayer walk around the campus, and began meeting students: in the cafeteria and on the basketball court. On Thursday, we did a prayer walk, met students in the cafeteria, and then hosted a 5-on-5 tournament at the UT Austin Rec Center. The finale: a Texas vs. California all-star game! On Friday, we spent time on campus and then helped with all of the setup and preparation for the Korean BBQ dinner and TFN Bible study. Somewhere in between all of this, we helped our Austin team shop at Walmart, Target, a Mexican meat market for the BBQ, and Home Depot. We built things, edited a video, made a website, did publications, helped people move, and even did some legal work. One of my friends remarked, “I felt like we did more here in a day than we did in a week in Berkeley!”
But at the same time, it wasn’t all work. We got to see God’s heart for this campus as we met many students who opened up to us, especially over basketball. We got to see the students who first came to our Bible study and Sunday service. Not just a few… but 12 people! And we also saw just how much the gospel is needed there… UT is the top party school in the nation, but the partying also leaves behind a trail of victims. We felt our hearts going out for the campus, and I left Austin tired… but also so excited and hopeful at what God can do there. Since Austin has a lot of international graduate students, perhaps we may have ISM there one day as well!