texas bsm stuff

most of you know that i work at the baptist student ministry at the university of north texas, and i thought i'd fill you in on some of the exciting things that have been going in across the state and the world with our texas BSMs.

Go Now Missions is the missions organization that is a part of Texas BSM, and through this organization students like you are changing the world for Christ. Here are the Go Now stats for 2006-2007:



* Students served in 24 countries and 20 states
* 52 semester missionaries (serving in 10 U.S. states and 19 in foreign countries)
* 91 summer missionaries - serving 10 weeks (35 in the U.S. and 38 in foreign countries)
* 76 impact missionaries - serving 2 to 4 weeks (2 in the U.S. and 17 in foreign countries)



Financial Giving - $550,414.98 raise to send these missionaries
* $158,841 given by Texas campus BSMs
* $297,365.91 given by Partners in Missions
* $72,393.24 given sacrificially by the students who served
* $21,815.11 other gifts and offerings



269 professions of faith

118 other decisions

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The Focus Conference on September 7-9, 2007 was amazing. Here is a quick recap of the weekend:

* Approximately 2000 in attendance

* 350 served at mission opportunities in Arlington

* 1500 students trained in such areas as leadership, leading small groups, community building, sharing their faith, prayer, world view, cross cultural relationship with Muslim students, etc.

* 130 students expressed interest in serving as Go Now missionaries

Student Responses to ACT NOW opportunities
* 1085 students signed the BWA Micah Challenge Petition to end human slave trafficking

* $300 given to world hunger causes

* 44 letters written to religious prisoners around the world through Voice of Martyrs

* 313 Bibles addressed and sent to China through Bibles Unbound

* 3 water wells sponsored through Water for All

* $960 given to translate 40 verses of scripture into the Walmi language through One Verse

* 519 jars of peanut butter and jelly given to Mission Arlington

Check out the Focus pictures!

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CHECK OUT our Texas BSM stats:

* 131 Baptist Student Ministers including Directors, Associates, Interns, Campus Missionaries and other volunteers
* 120 Campuses
* More than 80,000 students personally touched by BSM
* More than 16,000 students involved on a consistent basis in BSM
* 27,000 plus evangelistic contacts with students

kanye vs. 50 cent

so have you heard about the rivalry between kanye west and 50 cent? the skinny of the drama is: both 50 cent and kanye are putting out new albums on sept. 11, and 50 cent says he will retire if kanye sales more albums than he does (click here to read the story).

a friend of mine (andrew crosby) blogged about the rivalry, and since i liked his idea, i thought i'd plug his post, here it is:
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so, i was reading a little online about the feud between kanye west and 50 cent. normally i wouldn't care at all and would just kinda laugh and move on. but then i saw that 50 cent said he would retire if kanye's album outsold his in their first week. and this got me interested. i think it's the civic duty of all americans to bring about the retirement of 50 cent, and i think i know 2 ways that this can happen on the grassroots level.

1. buy the kanye album and tell all of your friends to do the same. and

2. more importantly. make a trip early tomorrow morning to your music retailers such as best buy, circuit city, target, and wal-mart. go ahead and grab your copy of kanye's album and then move on to wherever they are displaying all of the 50 cent albums. then, load your basket with ALL of the 50 cent albums and move out of the cd section of the store. for wal-mart and target slowly start to unload your basket of 50 cent's albums as you move throughout the store. a couple of discs with the milk, a stack behind men's underwear, 3 or 4 behind some cans of soup, a stack in the arts and crafts section, etc. you get the idea. for best buy and circuit city you'll want to "reorganize" the discs. i'd say aim for the adult pop sections. your billy joels, neil diamonds, elton johns, etc.

uncle sam needs you. we can do it.

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i might just give in and go along with his idea... so what do you think? if kanye wins, would 50 cent actually really retire? we can only hope.