Missions teams go to Honduras and Nicaragua for

BY CAMRYN MANNING Staff Writer

Over spring break, two teams left OBU for missions work in Central America. One team, sponsored by Dr. Jack’s coffeehouse, traveled to Honduras with a house-building project in a rural community. A medical missions team traveled to Nicaragua to hold clinics in the region. Both teams had the same goal: to share the love of Christ with those around them in the communities.

The Dr. Jack’s team worked in the rural village of Suntular, Honduras. They nearly completed construction of two cinder-block concrete houses and gave the houses to residents that displayed the most need. The team worked with La Misión Bautista Dental de Honduras (The Honduras Baptist Dental Mission) in the area.

The Honduras team was led by senior Heather Brown who joined in August 2022. “When I heard about the potential to go to Honduras for a mission trip, I knew that this was the role I wanted to play in relaunching Dr. Jack’s,” Brown said. “Shortly after the first meeting, I became the philanthropy lead this trip.”

Junior Joey Whisenhunt was another Dr. Jack’s team member in Honduras. “Johan Eriksson is the director of the entrepreneurship program here at OBU, and he’s been wanting to do this ever since he got here,” Whisenhunt said. “I did a Bible study with him, and I’m also a project lead for Dr. Jack’s, so I had known about the trip for some time. I officially decided to go last semester.”

The team had great opportunities to share the message of Christ. “Different groups would go door to door to invite people within the community to our church services held every night,” Brown said. “At each house, we would ask for prayer requests and pray for them. Our translators would then repeat our prayer in Spanish, and it was just such a great experience.”

The team didn’t just build houses; they built relationships. “The lesson I learned was that even though there’s a language barrier, God still works through a simple wave or smile,” Brown said. “It’s the little things. When we would pass people on the streets or see them at our service, we could smile and give them a wave, and they would instantly light up.”

The Nicaragua team worked with Open Hearts Ministries to hold medical clinics in local churches. “This was my second time on the trip,” Junior Mikayla Long said. “We had a triage station where we took weight and vitals, a counseling station where we shared our testimonies and told them the gospel, a station where they saw the doctor and students scribed for the doctors and a pharmacy station where we delivered the medicine and told them how to take them.”

The clinics provided a medium for evangelism and connection with fellow believers in Nicaragua.

“Even through our medical work, we were able to share the gospel,” Junior Emma McCorkle said. “The number one takeaway I had from this trip was the joy and contentment in Jesus the people of Nicaragua show while still having so little in comparison to our culture. It was such an encouragement to experience that pure joy and hope.

The group had many opportunities to share the love of Jesus including fiestas at two different schools, door-to-door evangelism and counseling sessions with the clinic patients. “On the trip, we were equipped to share our testimony to lead people to Christ,”

BY JACIE SELLARS Staff Writer

The Pruet School of Christian Studies hosted “Keeping Faith,” a conference focused on recognizing and responding to child maltreatment, on March 28-29. “Keeping Faith” was held at Walker Conference Center and presented by Victor Veith, chief program officer of the Zero Abuse Project and founder of the National Child Protection Center. The conference will continue into April, which is Child Abuse Awareness Month and Sex- ual Assault Awareness Month.

According to Title IX Coordinator Christa Neal, the ultimate goal of “Keeping Faith” was to raise awareness about abuse in faith communities.

“Many times, faith communities and churches respond poorly to child abuse because they don’t know what to do,” Neal said. “They don’t understand it, or they don’t want to believe that these terrible things can happen. I think that having these training sessions and discussions will help that stigma and disbelief go away.”

Throughout the conference, attendees learned about child maltreatment in a Christian context. Veith has experience in teaching about abuse, creating programs and working on public policy issues with child protection. The conference sessions included a general overview of physical and sexual abuse and a discussion of the spiritual trauma abuse can cause. The second day of the conference included an interactive presentation where attendees looked at case studies and practiced responding to a mock crisis.

Dean of Christian Studies Jeremy Greer said “Keeping Faith” broadened his perspective on child maltreatment. “This conference opened my eyes to evil that I wish did not exist, but now I am aware that it does,” Greer said.

Attendees included representatives from the Arkansas Baptist Association, children’s advocacy workers, pastors and church volunteers. It was also open to Ouachita students, faculty and staff. Neal believes that equipping students is especially important. “The students attending will go on to be

Junior said. “God uniquely uses every person’s testimony if we simply share how he has changed our lives. I loved getting to do something I am so passionate about with some of my closest friends. It was so cool to see God work inside our group just as much as he worked in the hearts of the Nicaraguan people.”

Great lessons were learned and relationships made. “It was so inspirational seeing God’s joy and hospitality in these people,” Long said. “I learned that God’s love crosses any barriers and can be understood by all, even if you don’t speak the same language.”