Five minutes with Kam Risby

What victories has the college ministry at Coastal been able to celebrate lately?

One of the biggest victories we have seen in the past two years is the reach our ministry has had not only at Texas A&M Galveston, but also through the baseball and softball teams at Galveston College. Team members from GC make up about half of our Thursday night college worship services. … The student leaders in our ministry have been so faithful, keeping attitudes of perseverance and staying zealous in using their gifts and relational skills.

What’s one thing you are praying will happen over the next year among the students?

With our college outreach expanding to Galveston College and still in its early stages of ministry at a new campus, there tends to be a disconnect between students from GC and TAMU. Students from both schools don’t hang out a lot. I am praying that relational cohesion will develop, that the culture would shift. … I pray they would make the most of their time here and see the importance of investing in relationships and their Christian walk.

What’s something surprising you have learned about this generation of college students?

This generation feels so disconnected and isolated. I think back to when I was experiencing college ministry as a student. Students would gather on campus and hang out. COVID hit and messed that up. There’s comfort in isolation, and this leads to a lack of student involvement on campus or in coming to events. Students seem more reluctant to branch out these days. We have noticed this when we recruit students for ministry involvement. Campus organizations suffer from that, too.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned to this point of your life and ministry you know you’ll never forget?

The harvest is truly plentiful. There’s always going to be work you can do. Always things to do. Always more hangouts, more meetings, more one-on-one time, more Bible studies. It can easily become more about doing the ministry, and we can lose sight of the ones we are doing ministry for. Eternal life is about knowing God and making His name known. Out of the fullness of just taking care of our relationship with God, cultivating it, growing deeper … we have this desire to make Him known to others. It’s helpful to keep that order.

How can other SBTC churches be praying for you?

That the Lord would raise up laborers in our midst to go out into the world and make His name known. Students are not at Coastal very long: two years at junior college or four if they are maritime students at TAMU. Many transfer to College Station after two years. We have them for a very short time. We want to equip them to understand the gospel, to read the Bible, to do evangelism—the essentials of the Christian faith—before they leave us. And we pray that when they do go off, they will be lights and laborers on the campus.