Medical, construction, teaching and ministry are some of the skills often needed in mission settings.
But henna storytelling?
It is when Neiby Rodriguez participates in missions. The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley student tells Bible stories using henna, a shrub-based dye most commonly used to decorate the body with temporary tattoos.
And for the past two years, Rodriguez has been lending her talent to an ongoing effort to establish a Baptist Student Ministry chapter at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, Rodriguez’ native country.
“It was really cool to be able to be used within my own people,” Rodriguez said. “When I was there, I was able to reach them and lead them to want to know more about God.”
That’s the aim of the Guadalajara mission. It has been a joint effort between Texas Baptists and the Baptist Convention in Guadalajara to establish a Baptist Student Ministry on the campus.
Organizers say the need is demographically urgent.
Home to more than 116,000 students, the University of Guadalajara is in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, where Christians make up 1 percent of the population.
An effort is underway to establish a Baptist Student Ministry chapter at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. (Photo/Sharon Hahn Darlin/Creative Commons)
The campus seemed like a natural place to increase those numbers because college students are open to questioning and wondering, said Daniel Rangel, director of the Texas Baptist River Ministry.
The ministry started in 2014 when the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley’s Baptist Student Ministry adopted the UG campus and made its first mission trip to the university.
For the last three years, students and leaders from the United States have taken weeklong trips to the Mexican university to encourage its campus missionary, train leaders and practice evangelism strategies they use on their own campus — such as soccer games, Soularium cards, fingernail painting, henna storytelling and more.
“There is a natural connection with our students being bilingual and being so close to the border, so it seemed like a natural fit,” said Robert Rueda, BSM director at at UT’s Rio Grande Valley campus.
“They have the best mission field in the world,” he said.
Rodriguez also enjoyed being able to encourage the campus missionary just as she has been encouraged in her own Baptist Student Ministry.
“People go halfway around the world to find people groups (needing to hear the gospel) when the same demographics are just a few hundred miles away.”
“The BSM really cares about getting us trained and empowered,” Rodriguez said. “The encouragement we are able to get here at the BSM, we were in turn able to give back [to the campus missionary] for a week.”
On her most recent trip, Rodriguez said she was encouraged to see more college students in church than the previous year and that they were truly engaging in worship.
Most states in Mexico have less than 10 percent evangelical Christians, making one of the greatest mission fields just across the border.
“People go halfway around the world to find people groups when the same demographics are just a few hundred miles away,” Rangel said.