51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ

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November 2025

Alum leading panhandle team to bless children worldwide

Rachel Bartel Bridges’ memories are strong. A longtime resident of Pampa raised by a pastor, Rachel remembers packing Operation Christmas Child boxes at Calvary Baptist Church with her mother and sister shortly after Samaritan’s Purse began the worldwide distribution program in 1993. The church has been a collection location for the area as well, so Rachel has literally grown up around the ministry.

So it only seemed natural when she was presented with the opportunity to take her volunteering to

the next level that Rachel, a 2012 graduate of the Plainview campus, said yes.

“Back in the summer of 2012, I went and spent the summer with my aunt in Louisiana and just helping with their business that they owned there,” recalled Rachel, who studied business at 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ and stayed to work as an admissions recruiter for a time after graduation. “She had a bunch of Operation Christmas Child materials out on the table, and I told her, ‘We don't do that till November. What are you doing with all these materials?’ And she told me that she was a year-round volunteer.”

Rachel had never heard of year-round opportunities, but she immediately knew she was interested in doing the same in the Panhandle. Five years later, married and working back in her hometown of Pampa, Rachel saw a Facebook ad for volunteers and put in her application. She had originally applied for a role as a media support team member, but soon a regional director had reached out, suggesting she fill the area coordinator position for the Panhandle Plains.

“And I really had a moment where I felt like I was too young for that role. I knew what that entailed because my aunt was one,” she recalled. “But I had to set that aside and really step into it because I knew that's what God was calling me to do. There had not been an area coordinator out here in the Texas Panhandle in many years. And really no team at all or at least there hadn't been one in a lot of years.”

Rachel stepped into a developing team for an area that then covered all the way from Perryton on the northern Texas border to Tulia, and from Shamrock on the eastern side to Clovis, N.M. At the time there were numerous churches packing boxes, but not much of an area team, so Rachel got to

work using her recruiting skills from her WBU days to put together a volunteer corps. Then in 2021, Samaritan’s Purse – the parent organization – multiplied the territory into two areas, giving Rachel the easternmost portion of the Panhandle that includes 14 counties.

“It’s a lot more manageable now; there are not as many miles to drive. I've been able to form relationships with people better now here since we did the multiplication,” she said, noting she only had two others on her team at the time. “I have 10 people on my team now and counting. God has really brought the people to fill the different roles that we have in our area team.”

The team includes a logistics coordinator that secures drop-off locations – there are four now – a church relations coordinator that supports the packing churches and tries to recruit new churches to pack boxes; and a prayer coordinator to lead prayer efforts year-round. There is also a community relations coordinator who works with community organizations and businesses that participate in packing.

Covering a sparsely populated area, Rachel’s group has been successful. Last year 67 churches in the area packed more than 7,100 boxes to bless children in Jesus’ name.

“It's been awesome to watch what God has done. For an area that is mainly compromised or has only rural churches and communities, that's a fantastic number for these churches of not more than probably 300 people,” noted Rachel, who now attends Calvary Baptist, where husband Steven has served as worship minister for the past 11 years. “A lot of them are just small churches packing shoe boxes that believe in this ministry. And we were really proud of that. God is just being faithful through our team.”

Rachel has been able to see more aspects of the ministry as well in her volunteer role. She has been

to the processing center in the DFW area for three years to serve, a location that handles thousands of boxes, using volunteers to check each one to monitor for unapproved items that might create customs issues. This year, she was chosen to participate in a trip to Ecuador to hand out shoe boxes to children, bringing the experience full circle for Rachel.

“We got to do three shoebox distributions there. And Samaritan's Purse has put together a program for the children to attend after they receive their shoe boxes called The Greatest Journey. It's a discipleship program for 12 weeks, and we got to see a class that was finishing y and they had a little graduation ceremony for those kids,” she recalled. “A lot of the kids will not finish school, and they'll never get to be a part of a graduation for school. So Samaritan's Purse likes to celebrate these kids with a graduation for completing something, and they get to wear a cap and gown and get a certificate with their name on it. Then they get a new Bible in their language when they finish.”

Seeing the fullness of the program reminds Rachel that Operation Christmas Child is not just a box of toys, toiletries and school supplies. It is an open door to an eternal impact.

“It is truly a gospel opportunity. So much so that the ministry has nicknamed the shoe boxes ‘GO boxes’ to stand for gospel opportunity,” she said. “They work with local ministry leaders to do the distributions because they want those pastors to have an opportunity to do evangelism. And then a second reason they want to work with the local ministry leaders is so they can do the discipleship, the follow-up with the children. And so again, it's equipping these ministry leaders with resources to do what they're called to do as pastors: evangelism and discipleship in a place where they just have very limited resources.”

Rachel’s team is currently ramping up for National Collection Week, which happens in churches

across the country Nov. 17-24 this year. Once boxes have been collected, shipped to a regional processing center and then sent on their way around the world – a process that takes all year given the 11 million boxes that were packed last year alone – the area team begins a campaign to thank packing churches, recruit repeat and new partners and start the process all over again.

But it’s worthwhile work for Rachel, who works part-time as ministry assistant for the Top Of Texas Baptist Association. She’s also involved in her church and is mom to Lucas, 7. Operation Christmas Child calls, recruiting and speaking engagements at churches take up the remainder of her time on a regular basis.

“The most rewarding part for me is just the family. I feel like I've gained another family through year-round volunteering,” says Rachel. “And another thing, my why, would be I don't know of another ministry on this scale that is doing evangelism and discipleship. That is important to me to see that both are done and by ministry leaders in the local church, in these communities where the shoe boxes are going.

“If you're packing a shoe box, you're opening the door for someone in another country to hear the gospel. And that's what I love about this ministry.”

For more information on a drop-off location near you, or participating in Operation Christmas Child, visit this . 

  

Devotional: Compassion needed here

The dictionary gives about 30 synonyms for the word “compassion.” Words like sympathy, tenderness, tolerance, kindness and charity.

Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

The opposite of “That’s a tough situation. Hope somebody will help them.”

Sure, we can’t support every charity. But that doesn’t absolve us from supporting any to the extent we can – children’s hospitals, destitute animals, food for the hungry, wounded veterans, to name a few.

True compassion is demonstrated in action: We don’t just say to a sick friend, “I’m thinking about you.” We take a meal to their home, fold their laundry, clean the bathroom, listen to them

recount their physical woes.

Jesus demonstrated his compassion in healing the sick and feeding the hungry – the multitudes he probably didn’t know on a first-name basis, any more than we might feel compelled to help victims of natural disasters or great calamity even though we’ll likely never meet them. The book of Matthew recounts several instances of Christ feeling the suffering of those who came to hear him preach.

But Jesus also demonstrated compassion on an even more personal level when he raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. John 11:35-36 says Jesus wept when he went to Lazarus’ grave. It made an impression on those who witnessed that deep emotion: “See how he loved him.”

Sometimes we learn details about the lives of our friends, our relatives, our business associates, our students – details that could push anyone’s heart to the breaking point.

That information may be gleaned by really knowing and caring about each person, treating each with dignity and respect, practicing empathetic listening.

As we feel led to help in whatever way we can to alleviate the problems and suffering of those “far away,” a whispered prayer might be: “God, you have been compassionate to me. Help me have that same spirit toward my friends and associates I see almost every day.”

Danny Andrews is a 1972 graduate of 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ and served as the director of Alumni Relations for ten years, retiring in 2016. He spent many years in newspaper reporting and as editor of the Plainview Daily Herald. Retired now in Burleson, Danny and wife Carolyn, a WBU Ex, have three children who all attended WBU: Brandon, EX, Kayla, EX, and Brad, BA'07. 

 

From the History Files

This month's history recap continues a series about some of the historic buildings on the main campus in Plainview, where 51Æ·²èÔ¼ÅÚ was founded in 1908.

While most students on the Plainview campus have called various dormitories home over the decades, for a special group of students, "home" was the married student apartments located on the northwest corner of campus near the Hilliard Field. Three identical complexes were home to 8 apartments each, reserved early in their history for only married students. Allison-Conkwright, Goodpasture and Collier Halls are still in use today, with few changes over the decades. 

The three partially brick buildings were added in 1960 and 1961. In years where married students were quite common -- after wartime, for instance -- the apartments stayed full, as did some

temporary structures called homettes. But in the last few decades, students marriying in school or coming already married has declined to such degree that the apartments are more commonly used for seniors or honor students these days. Not much has changed in these structures over the years. The university picked up both the Llano Apartments on 7th and Oakland streets and the Marquis Apartments at 8th and Fresno and those also are home to married or older students.

 

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