2008-2009 McCarty Student Center Year in Review

As you all know, our efforts and activities are focused in three areas: Spiritual, Service, and Social. Many of our events and meetings combine these different aspects of our ministry. Weekly we get together for Bible Studies on Monday nights during both semesters, and everyone is invited. This past fall we studied cultural questions from a Biblical view focusing on issues like sex, drugs, rock and roll, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and others. In the spring semester we focused our study on distinct Bible doctrines such as the church, faith, baptism, and worship. On Thursday nights during the school year, we meet together for devotionals. Usually we sing for 30 minutes outside on campus before having a short Bible lesson from one of our guys. We close out the evening with a group prayer. Though these studies and devos are primarily of the Spiritual nature, we also make them a great time of social interaction and fellowship. Of our other spiritual activities, we have retreats and a mission trip. This past year, our Fall Retreat in October and our Spring Retreat in February were both held at the H.E.B. foundation camp. The retreat weekends are some of the best times of the year. We have speakers come in for the weekend and split our time between serious Bible study and serious fun. Our final and main Spiritual activity of the year is our Spring Break mission trip. For the past two years, we have been blessed with the opportunity to go to Jamaica to do an evangelistic campaign. In the spring of 2010, our students will be part of an evangelistic campaign in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. It is already an exciting time as we prepare ourselves for such an event.
The 2009 mission trip to Jack’s River, Jamaica, was quite a great event. Our mission team consisted of Trent Kennedy (campus minister), Joe O’Banon (elder of the University Church of Christ), Cliff Caskey (President of the McCarty Board of Directors), one former student, and eight current Texas State students. We had 98 individual studies (many with whom we had follow-up studies). Of these 98 individuals, 11 were baptized into Christ. Though many college students spent there Spring Break on vacation, our group was truly laboring in God’s vineyard!
Through the semester, we also try to have student-led service projects. This past year we had three main service projects. One was yard work for a 90 year-old former preacher who lives in San Marcos. Another was for a widow from the University Church of Christ who had fallen in her yard a number of times. Our students spent half a day digging rocks, boulders, and other hazards out of her country yard. Also, it has become a recent tradition for McCarty to send care packages to soldiers over seas. Last year we sent care packages to one of our student’s cousin and to one of our student’s brother-in-law.
Finally, our ministry consists of social gatherings. We have back to school parties, game and/or movie nights, holiday parties and the like. Though the focus of our ministry is not on entertainment, we do enjoy using our facilities to have good, clean, Christian fun.
If there is anyone you know who is a Texas State student or college-age in the San Marcos area, please put them in touch with us, so we can work together to get to heaven. Trent Kennedy