By Carson McKinney
Hottytoddy.com intern
cqmckinn@go.olemiss.edu
Last weekend, the Ole Miss Baptist Student Union hosted an alumni reunion for members from the ’80s and ’90s to reconnect with one another, reminisce over photo albums and reignite fellowship.
One such alumna, Myradel Sibley, retail worker and foster parent, attended the BSU in the mid-90s and graduated in 1997. From a small town in Mississippi, Sibley found Ole Miss campus life a little overwhelming, so she turned to the BSU.
“I needed to find a space that was a little more contained, where I could get to know people and make relationships with people,” Sibley said. “I ended up here and made some great friends through those years who I still keep in contact with today. It was exciting to come back here and visually see some people that I haven’t seen in several years.
According to BSU director Morris “Mo” Baker, the event gave alums an opportunity to meet one another to renew friendships and build fellowship. Former director Keith Cating, who Baker says is “inspirational” for his discipleship and getting the current BSU building built, reunited with his former pupils on Saturday and Baker met many of them for the first time.
Baker encourages alumni members to network from anywhere in the country and support the Ole Miss BSU through word-of-mouth, donations and prayers.
“The goal of BSU is to be completely supported by churches and individual givers such as the alumni that are here today,” Baker said.
“Churches are our lifeblood. Our ministry is founded on trying to get students plugged into local churches. We want our students to have what we call ‘intergenerational fellowship.’ We don’t think they can thrive as a whole person by just connecting to college students; we want them to plugin here.”
Baker believes that in his time as director, campus religious organizations have grown more cooperative and respectful with each other.
“We have some strong collegiate ministries on this campus,” Baker said. “One of the things that I’ve seen a better job at is the respect each campus ministry has of the others. I don’t feel like we’re in competition; I feel like there’s a camaraderie there where we’re cooperating with each other.
The more each of us succeeds, the better our campus can succeed. If a student can’t find their way here at BSU, we would encourage them to get involved in a campus ministry that does seem to fit their needs and lifestyle better.”
Assistant Director of Equipping and Discipleship Kathy King believes that while Ole Miss’s tailgating and Greek life culture is very much the same as it was years ago, more students nowadays feel isolated and unsure how to connect with other students and organizations. To combat this and encourage students to join BSU, King says the BSU will continue its welcome events at the start of each semester as well as regular big group meetings on Tuesdays and “English corner” nights for international students on Thursdays.
“We’re constantly trying to build relationships, whether its people who are coming to our building or if we’re going out on campus,” she said.
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