Texas Student Finds London Is Mission Field

by Mike Creswell

LONDON- "I was surprised to find so many people don't know about Jesus," said Texas Baptist Ram Torres of Beeville, Texas.

He and 73 other students and leaders saw a London far different from the British castles, Big Ben and Parliament most American tourists see. They worked a week in north London, crowded with immigrants and refugees from around the world, including many from "Last Frontier" countries closed to the gospel.

The students were taking part in the first week of M-Fuge, part of the Centrifuge program that is a hands-on missions camping program sponsored by LifeWay and Southern Baptists' International Mission Board. Of almost 20,000 students who will take part in Centrifuge this year, about 1,500 will participate in M-Fuge programs in England, Wales, France, Mexico and Venezuela during June, July and August. 

Southern Baptist missionaries who work with groups of M-Fuge students in London say the idea is not just to just give the students a missions experience, but to actually do missions that will ultimately help get churches started among some of the world's hardest-to-reach people.

Although it was the first time Torres had flown overseas, he said the real highlight of the week for him was visiting in the home of a Romanian family where a woman had just watched the video they had given her about the life of Jesus. "We shared Christ with them and it was interesting to see how they lived and all," said Torres, age 17.

"It was a bittersweet experience," Torres summed up the week. "I was so happy to travel and visit different people. It was amazing, learning about their cultures. But, unfortunately, most of their cultural backgrounds did not allow for them to accept Jesus, let alone hear about Him," he said.

"This depressed me but I was motivated to keep on sharing the Good News," he said. The M-Fugers distributed more than 1,500 videos on the life of Christ in the first two weeks, but Torres said many doors were closed in their faces and they heard "not interested" many times.

Torres is a member of First Baptist Church in Kenedy and lives in South Texas Children's Home, sponsored by Texas Baptists.

For more information on the M-Fuge program, check LifeWay's website at: www.lifeway.com/fuge.

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