February 3, 1999

IMB appoints 54 in Houston service
___By Karen Simons
___Regional Correspondent
___HOUSTON--Texas Baptists got a first-hand look at a new style of appointment service for Southern Baptist international missionaries last week.
___The new look is due to an increasing number of appointments of missionaries to areas of the world hostile to Christianity. Often, International Mission Board officials decline to identify by name missionaries assigned to high-risk areas or, in some cases, even the people groups they are to work with.
___That was evident during an appointment service at First Baptist Church of Houston Jan. 24. As a parade of flags progressed down the aisle of the host

HEARING FOR THE FIRST TIME the good news of Jesus drew intense interest from this group of Mongolians, who recently heard about God's love through Jesus Christ from a member of a Christian church. Last week, Houston was the site of an appointment service at which the Southern Baptist International Mission Board sent out more workers to spread the gospel in places like Mongolia. Several Texans were among those appointed. (IMB photo by Charles Ledford)

church, some were traditional flags representing countries to which several of the 54 appointees for career or short-term service will be going. But other white flags represented unnamed people groups who will be the targets of first-time church-starting efforts.
___Missionary Chuck Quarles summarized the need to reach unreached people groups as he shared from a short-term mission experience in a remote Kenyan village. "An elderly woman asked me, 'Why has it taken you so long to bring this message to us?' In her haunting question I heard the pleas of the unreached and sensed the call of God to carry the gospel to the nations."
___As part of the evening's emphasis on IMB connections to Texas, IMB President Jerry Rankin noted that:
___ Almost 20 percent of IMB career missionaries call Texas home.
___ 63 Texans were appointed last year.
___Jana Kelley of Ennis said she saw great signficance in her Texas appointment. "While studying at East Texas Baptist University, I served as a BSU summer missionary with Mildred McWhorter, here in Houston. God gave me a love for the inner-city people whose culture was so different than my own. I knew God wanted me to surrender to international missions. I am being appointed in the same city where God called me to missions seven years ago."
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