TEJAS GLOBAL MINISTRIES

Tejas Global Ministries identifies the mission efforts of Tejas Ministries. The purpose is to carry out the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 by making disciples of Christ among all nations. We strive to encourage, and train students to get more involved in missions through prayer, relationships, discipleship, and support. We invest in developing disciple makers in other nations and to develop global partnerships with ministries and missionaries.

It is amazing how the Lord has placed these opportunities before us since the late 1990s. It is an example of one the many unpredictable ways the Lord has worked in the life of Camp Tejas.

LOCAL COMMUNITY

It began with Steven White’s efforts to begin a discipleship program for our summer staff. Along with the Bible studies, scripture memory, and accountability came the direct outreach opportunity of ministering to children in our local community of Giddings. The apartment ministry program quickly became known as JAM (Jesus and Me). It began at one apartment complex and has since grown to include the entire Giddings area with multiple opportunities to reach hundreds of children, youth, and adults with weekly backyard Bible clubs, service opportunities, and senior adult visitations. As our Summer Ministry Team has increased in size, so have our community outreach efforts. It has been exciting to see this local aspect of Tejas Global Ministries blossom over the years.

INTERNATIONAL SMT

A larger piece of Tejas Global Ministries is the participation of international students in our summer ministry program. It started in 2000 right after the launch of our first website. Students from outside our local circle of central Texas began contacting us about the Summer Ministry Team. In 2000, a student from Canada applied. We were not sure why a Canadian would want to spend her summer in the Texas heat, but she did – two summers in a row. In 2001, two more Canadians joined her. The Canadian trend continued into 2002, but joining them was one student from South Korea. At first, we were very unsure about a South Korean on our staff. His culture, ability (or inability) to speak English, and interaction with our American staff were all concerns that quickly disappeared. The trend increased and blossomed each year. In the summer of 2007, we had 16 international students from 9 different countries on the Summer Ministry Team including three students of career missionary families.

The unique ministry for Christ that these students add to our summer is awesome. The Lord has provided an aspect of ministry that we could never plan or predict. The ministry moves in both directions. They minister to us by their variety of cultures and by their amazing testimonies of how God is at work around the world in countries most of us have never entered. We don’t enter, but they do. The opposite direction is our opportunity to encourage them in their walk with Christ so that they are stronger lights of truth as missionaries in their home countries. TGM is our way of sending out followers of Christ into the harvest.

To God be the glory!