According to Ren, three quarters of international students never set foot in an American home while they live and study in the U.S. She said some students shared after the trip that they were a bit hesitant when they were first matched with their host homes on Saturday night. After eating dinner in their homes and engaging them in conversation late into the night, however, the students opened up to talk about their lives, families, and beliefs.

“They cannot understand [why] all these people who do not know us [would] open their homes to host us. For non-believers, this is surely very hard to understand,” she said. “But all of them feel they are loved.”

The connections made between the families and the ability for the host home families to share the gospel so directly with the students is what made the trip such a resounding success, McKinney said.

“Most people don’t even have their neighbors in their homes,” McKinney said. “So it was just beautiful the way our families connected and shared the love of Christ with these people who had never had any interaction with any Christian families. … It was life-giving to our church.”

One poignant encounter shared by both Ren and McKinney was the interaction between Alex, a post-doctoral student, and McKinney’s mother, Janice, who just a week before had discovered that her breast cancer had returned and was classified as stage four.

Marifel recognized the woman’s needs, including her greatest one—Jesus. The pastor’s wife spoke to the woman about God’s love and shared with her the plan of salvation. In her hopelessness, the woman accepted Christ and was saved that day in the park. 

“I saw her go from someone distressed and hopeless to someone who had hope,” Marifel said.

The two exchanged numbers with an intent to stay in touch and a church deacon, Glenn, who lives near the park, offered to follow up with the woman. Two days later, Glenn saw her in the park and she asked him for a tent so she could have some protection from the elements while she slept outside. A week later, Glenn contacted the woman to deliver the tent, but she never returned his calls. Three weeks later, Glenn received a call from the woman’s mother with the news that her daughter had been found dead due to pre-existing health conditions. Pastor Arturo, along with other church leaders, was able to minister to the deceased woman’s family. 

“I was sad [about the woman’s death], but I thank God for meeting her at the park at the precise moment before she died,” Marifel said.

South Euless has proven to be a church with a special heart for evangelism. During the year and a half he has pastored the church, Arturo said he and his family have seen God move because of the love the church shares with the community. “God moves when we love people,” he said.

Arturo said the church intentionally reaches out to families of different nationalities, histories, and cultures—a calling the church has embraced. Consequently, it has brought diversity inside the walls of the church, which incorporates songs in six languages during its worship service: English, Spanish, French, Swahili, Filipino, and Russian. The church’s vision is to celebrate the cultures represented in the congregation and make everyone feel included, he said. 

South Euless is always looking for different ways to connect with the community. It offers a drive-thru food distribution and also delivers food to families living in nearby apartments. At one of those apartment complexes, the church held an event that allowed members to share the gospel with parents and their children. South Euless also offers a movie night that is open to the whole community. Last year, the church went to a local school and adopted low-income families to bless and connect with. 

“The church is experiencing, seeing, and tasting revival,” Arturo said. “They now come with joy, they don’t want to leave the church, they constantly invite other people to church, and they serve with joy and gladly give to special offerings like the [Lottie Moon Christmas Offering] we just collected.”

Prayer, Marifel added, has been the key to the revival the church is experiencing.

“Prayer is a big priority, especially on the part of the leaders,” she said. “We need to be a church that prays for God to move. We need to be faithful to saturate the church in prayer.”

How will the SBTC step into this vision? 

JL: The vision requires a new mission focus on mobilizing churches to multiply disciple-making movements in Texas and around the world. This is a renewed focus on mobilizing churches together to multiply their collective impact. Not just any mobilization will do. The church deserves mobilization that: 

• Is anchored in our three long-standing core values: Biblically Based, Missionally Driven, and Kingdom Focused. 
• Is measured by five markers: Prayer Energized, Evangelism Prioritized, Disciple-Making Normalized, Sending Maximized, and Partnerships Synergized. New Testament writers provide example after example of God multiplying these markers into disciple-making movements. Knowing that God multiplies these markers, we are focused on mobilizing churches toward them. 
• Is found on three strategic pathways: Resourcing Churches, Networking Leaders, Advancing Mission.

We come alongside churches, mobilizing them onto pathways that multiply their collective impact.

We are bringing this new mission focus into all that we do—mobilizing churches to multiply their impact.

When will the new mission focus be implemented?  

JL: The SBTC has already begun adjusting ministries to refocus on the 10-year vision. The hope is that within 36 months: 

• SBTC ministries will be fully optimized with the new mission.   
• 1,000 churches will be resourced and 350 revitalized.   
• 1,000 leaders will be connected to 75 networks.  
• 1,200 churches will be supporting 120 church plants.

The response from our churches to the new 10-year vision has been overwhelmingly positive. Moving forward together multiplies our impact, and together, we can reach Texas and impact the world. Additional information about the new vision, along with Lorick’s annual meeting presentation, can be found at sbtexas.com/mission-vision.

As for the congregation, attendance is around 150 now, and the pastor believes they’re on a steady growth track. They’ve started ministries for kids and students, and last year when the church took 18 students to camp for the first time, six committed their lives to Jesus.

This year, the amazing work God did at camp was mostly on the Sunday when they returned. They were planning to baptize three students, but the student pastor felt led to offer the opportunity to anyone who needed to take that step.

“He made the plea and we ended up baptizing 17 people that day,” Napier said. “We had men taking off their boots and emptying their jeans pockets and getting in fully clothed, women in dresses and jewelry with makeup and hair done, and they’re climbing into the water, just being obedient to the Lord.”

Also this year, Freedom Hill hired a Spanish-speaking pastor from Venezuela who is building a launch team for Freedom Hill en Español. 

“He’s got an ESL class started and they do a dinner on Friday nights to gather people and build community [and] cast vision,” Napier said, adding that in the past year, more than 100,000 Venezuelans have migrated to San Antonio.

Within a five-mile radius of Freedom Hill are 289,000 residents, and that number is expected to grow to 320,000 in the next five years, the pastor said. He emphasized that Freedom Hill already is a multigenerational, multiethnic church aiming to look more and more like worshipers in heaven.

“We have a whole section of people out there because I’ve invited them,” said Curtis Green, a mechanic who has been attending for two years. “I tell them if you don’t know Jesus, you need to come to Lingleville Baptist Church. The Holy Spirit is in the building. It’s amazing.” 

Rancher Gary Clayton, a member for six years, said he invites people to church everywhere he goes—grocery stores, gas stations, banks. Clayton said the church hosts events frequently, including crawfish boils, father/son campouts, crochet clubs, and family nights, making it a popular center of activity in such a small community.

The church offers the ministry for people in their 20s and 30s, a ministry called Overcomers for those recovering from life-limiting choices, a marriage ministry called Reengage that meets on Sunday nights, and vibrant opportunities for men, women, students, and children. 

“It’s such an easy church to fall in love with,” Clayton said. “We have a pastor who is on fire for God and the Holy Spirit just moves in our church. It’s a phenomenal place.”

All things to all people

Ecclesia Community Church has been rooted in community service since beginning as a plant in 2020. That was also the year something else started—COVID-19. So just as the church was starting up, everything began to shut down. 

Undeterred, Martinez led the church to use its facility to start a food distribution ministry. God opened the doors for Ecclesia to receive a large supply of food each week that not only provided for the community, but also for other churches to distribute. 

“Every week, there were about 3,000 families who came to get food and hear the gospel,” Martinez said. The food ministry is still going strong today, holding monthly food distributions and even partnering with an aid organization in the Central Texas city of Waco. 

The food ministry was just the beginning for a church that has continually made necessary changes to better suit the specific needs of its community. For example, Martinez planted Ecclesia with the idea that it would be an English-language church. However, God showed him that to be relevant to the diversity of families in a community on the Mexico border, the church would need to be bilingual. Even so, the church has learned that while many adults speak Spanish, their children communicate better in English.

‘Great encouragement and great learning’

The Bible-A-Thon, as the church calls it, becomes a time of fellowship, with church members providing three free meals per day plus homemade snacks and treats. Churchwide response has been positive, with multigenerational participation, something member Jim Mitchell praised. Known to tear up at the event’s conclusion, Mitchell said the reading “crossed all generations—children, teenagers, middle-aged parents, and senior adults” and provided a “great time of fellowship.”

Reena Brookins brought her teen girls Bible study group to read for hours last year. Carl and Kym Thomas and their entire family attended most of the 2022 reading. “It was beautiful,” Ackley said of the family’s participation.

Methods vary. Some younger kids perform skits. Last year, member Ross Prebish even sang Obadiah to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song, while his wife, Jennifer, not only paired up with another member to read Genesis but also prepared lunch.

Enthusiasm continues to grow, but the focus remains the same. 

“That first year, we stepped out in faith … stressing that God’s Word will go forth as long as we have breath in our lungs,” Ackley said. Often in the early days, a solitary reader kept the narration going. God will bring participants, she added, but “even when you are tired or alone in the sanctuary or surrounded by 60 people, it is about His Word.”

Said Western Hills Pastor Richard Allen: “It benefits the members. They really enjoy listening to the Word being read audibly all day. There’s great encouragement and great learning.”

The effect can be hard to explain, Allen said, but “14 hours a day hearing the Word of God encourages you. It changes people. A week of hearing nothing but the Bible read changes you.” 

Allen estimates that 70 percent of his congregation, which runs 75 on Sundays, participates at some level in the Bible-A-Thon.

A battle to adopt

The Bratchers became certified to foster in 2021 and had their first placements—including Isabel, the daughter they would eventually adopt—in July of that year. For a short time, they also fostered Isabel’s biological sister.

Counselors warned the family the sisters would fare better if they were split up and that separation might help with healing, but because the Bratchers were “adoption-minded,” both sisters were allowed to stay with the family. For a variety of reasons, Isabel’s biological sister eventually went to live with another family.

Meanwhile, the Bratchers started the process of adopting Isabel—who is lovingly also called Izzy. “This began our fight,” Michelle said. The process stalled in court. The couple’s attorneys eventually sought a trial, hoping a jury might see the “common sense” behind allowing the adoption of a girl who was already so loved.

“The system refused to listen to what was best for Izzy, until one month prior to trial,” when the district attorney intervened and allowed the adoption petition to proceed, Michelle said.

“We gave all glory to God, that even in the tenuous waiting, insane stress, constant prayers, He still came through like our knight in shining armor! It wasn’t in our timing; it was in His,” Michelle said. 

“TBHC was right there with us the entire time, holding our hands, and staying steadfast in prayer. We waited over two years to adopt Izzy,” Michelle said. The adoption was formalized in September 2023.