Excitement fills the air for many in the Durant and Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) communities. After nearly a decade without facilities for its home, the BCM at Southeastern Oklahoma State University is celebrating the grand opening of its new facilities this month. Generous gifts, faithful prayers and dogged determination helped pave the way for the new building that sits strategically on the north end of campus.
Cris Lowery, BCM Special Projects Manager for Oklahoma Baptists, has coordinated the building campaign for the last several years. He acknowledges that the work had some additional help as well.
“The BCM project in Durant was full of God moments where the project only moved forward because the Spirit of God worked in miraculous ways,” says Lowery. “He worked through a group of local leaders who represented the Bryan Baptist Association, local churches, individuals, and the state convention.”
Though original efforts toward a new building began in 2012, very little happened until the project was rebooted in 2019. “We set out to begin the project anew,” said Garry McNeill (Durant, First) who led out in this new initiative. The work soon had local leadership, local input, a local architect and a local builder working together toward a facility that could best meet the needs of the ministry.
McNeill notes that fundraising work began in earnest in 2021, but inflation and post-Covid supply chain issues drove the estimated cost up exponentially. “We prayed for God to help lower that cost. And He did.”
Lowery applauds McNeill and the rest of the group in their efforts toward making this dream a reality. “They persevered through the challenging process, and when things looked dismal, God answered prayers again and again muntil the needed funds were acquired,” he said. According to McNeill, God provided in particularly astounding ways in the early months of 2023. The giving in those six months totaled approximately 70% of all that had been given previously, enough to meet the financial goal needed to secure a substantial grant.
The collaborative nature of the work is evident in every facet of the project. “[The work] continues even today as the building is in its completion stage and being furnished with funds made possible by donors,” said Lowery. Even the university got involved, working “hand in hand at every turn to ensure the project could be completed.”
Throughout the planning, fundraising and building process, the goal remained the same: enhancing the Kingdom ministry on Southeastern’s campus now and in the future. Trey Hedrick, BCM Director at SOSU since 2015, is already seeing that goal come to fruition. Though final touches are still being made, the BCM hosted a free lunch for students in their new building in January. Free lunches are one aspect of ministry Hedrick says the BCM has had to do without for the last eight and a half years.
Hedrick affirms that, in spite of the challenges, God has faithfully blessed the ministry that has happened in the meantime – including dorm Bible studies and corporate worship in university facilities. “The Lord continued to work among students, and we saw what ministry outside a building could look like,” he says, “[but] offering a free lunch has given us a lot of access to students who would not normally attend our events.”
The new BCM building also provides continuity for the ministry. Without a building, Hedrick and his team found themselves officing miles away from the university and frequently having to find new meeting spaces based on the availability of various rooms on campus. This became increasingly problematic as the ministry outgrew many of those spaces.
“I am looking forward to students knowing where to find us,” said Hedrick. “I felt really inaccessible in my old office, but now they can come over and find me or one of our staff members here if they need spiritual guidance or to have a conversation. They know there are people just across the street who are there for them and care for them.”
Will Sandmann, former student and current staff member of the BCM, echoed these sentiments. “I enjoyed my time as a student, but the fact that we have one place to meet every week is huge. Now there is some security in what we do. Even as a heavily involved student, I didn’t always know where we would be from week to week. Now, as a staff member, I get to hang out with students more, playing ping pong and things like that. I think I would have enjoyed that as a student.”
All those involved in the process desired to see the building become a tool in the Lord’s hand to reach far beyond its four walls and this moment in time. Lowery states, “This building has been designed to meet the needs of students and leaders for years to come and is a great addition to the campus at Southeastern.” Already the project and the space itself has opened doors for Hedrick to engage with faculty members he had not previously met, allowing for increased ministry on the campus.
“All of this is for the Kingdom,” says Hedrick. “The Lord has been preparing us for even greater ministry with the new building. He is already doing a great work on campus – freshman retention is up, students are sharing the gospel with other students. Every week this fall we were seeing students come to faith. We are so thankful for everyone’s generosity in making this happen,” he says. “We covet everyone’s prayers for the ministry.”
“I know it took a lot of prayers and support from a lot of people,” says Sandmann. “This is a collective work through our brothers and sisters in Christ across the state. As someone who has seen both sides, I am super thankful. We are really excited to see what God is going to do in the future through this facility.”
