OCEAN CITY, Md. (BP) – The air crackles with excitement at Ocean City Baptist Church (OCBC) as members prepare to welcome 300-plus international students for a hot, homemade meal.
Meals are served every Monday night during the summer. This is the second Monday in June, and downstairs in the church fellowship hall, Fenwick Island Baptist Church members, a large group of mostly seniors, bustle about setting out food.
They’ve made an all-American meal — fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and two tables full of homemade desserts including cakes, cookies and pies. The air conditioning isn’t working, so the workers take lots of water breaks and stop to wipe their foreheads, but the heat is not dampening their spirits.
Upstairs, a group of volunteers, including youth and summer interns from Mississippi, are making sure health kits, which are handed out to the students, are ready, and they’re prepping for registration. While they’re working, ladies from Landover Hills Baptist Church pop in with more health kits – actually, in the nick of time because the supply is running low. Meanwhile, the smell of food starts to waft up from downstairs.
Outside, greeters chat with the students as they head inside for registration and hustle down the steps to the humble fellowship area, set with tables, each with a flag from a different country as a centerpiece. The weekly servers hand out food and chat with the students. The young adults enter throughout the evening, and as groups leave, others come to take their spots.
After clean-up, Beth Fillis, wife of Fenwick Island pastor Mike Fillis, said she was surprised by how many students showed up, but then again, she’s seen some big numbers. “One year, we served 450.”
Fenwick Island is one of the many Eastern Baptist Association churches that prepare and serve dinners on a weekly rotation. The hundreds of students at the dinners represent a fraction of the 3,600 internationals in Ocean City on J-1 Cultural Visas. These young people pour into the resort town to help local businesses serve the whopping 8 million annual visitors, mostly in the summertime, who flock to the city’s sandy shores.
In addition to meals and health kits, the church also gives away free refurbished bicycles at the Monday-night dinners. Those are hit.
Ministering to international students at Ocean City started decades ago when Terry and Lynn Davis, who started OCBC in the late 1970s, recognized the amazing opportunity to share the love of God with these students. Their son Sean is now the pastor of OCBC.
“When we were little, we did beach patrol – giving drinks to lifeguards and inviting them to a free dinner and Bible study,” Sean Davis said. Now his family – wife Anna and children Charlotte, 15; Gwyneth, 13; and Josephine,11 – makes three generations involved in the ministry.
The dinners serve as a critical entry point for many students, where they get connected and learn about the many other events offered throughout the week, such as free surf lessons on Wednesdays and regular game nights.
“About 35 students show up to play cards and board games,” Sean said. “It’s a time to get to know them better in a relaxed setting and ask them what they know and how they feel about Jesus.”
Many are open and want to talk and ask questions. The church also offers conversational English sessions on Thursdays using a Christian curriculum.
Tim and Krista Ponder serve with OCBC in summertime to help minister to international students. They met while serving with OCBC in 2017 and began directing the ministry last year. The couple tries to connect with students in relaxed, organic ways.
“We organize and invite students to a pool party at a church member’s house, and we get some students to come to church and cook their cuisine for us and the interns, and we fellowship. Food is one of the biggest ways to connect with anyone,” said Tim.
Sometimes, students are cautious around Christians for various reasons. Krista told of a girl from Montenegro who wasn’t really open to building a relationship.
“She was very hard-hearted towards Christians,” Krista said. “She was from a religious background that was very ritualistic and she was hurt by the church.
“Then, In the middle of the summer, the girl became sick, and her friend called me. I came and took her to an urgent care center, then took her home, cooked her food, and took care of her. I told her, ‘Whatever you need, just let us know.’
“Just that simple act of care softened her heart. She said, ‘I can’t believe people want to help me and take care of me without expecting anything back.’”
The couple, who spend the rest of the year as Christian workers in Budapest, Hungary, keep in touch with many of the students and often are able to visit with them closer to the students’ homes in Europe.
“I’m so amazed at how the world comes here to Ocean City and we get to share the love of Christ with all of these students,” said Tim. “We all have the calling to make disciples of all nations and here, the world comes to you, basically to our own backyard. Our goal is to minister to students, love them, and see what God does with the seeds we plant.”
Each year, students make confessions of faith, and some are baptized. Others grow in their faith and seek baptisms or make other spiritual commitments. One young man made a profession of faith about a decade ago, went home to Kazakhstan, connected with a church and is involved in ministry to this day. Another was strengthened in his faith and became a pastor in England. There are many more examples of lives changed by this ministry.
“This is Baptist cooperation at its best,” Sean said, pointing to all of the Eastern Baptist Association churches preparing and serving meals, BCM/D churches making and delivering health kits, interns from the Mississippi Baptist Convention serving and sharing the Gospel, and many other churches who have partnered in some way.
