March 10, 1999

Vietnam experience started
Spurger on evangelistic path
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___During his second tour of service in Vietnam, Sonny Spurger flew his Caribou into Landing Zone English.
___There, he picked up the body of a young GI who had been killed only minutes before. The GI's blood covered Spurger's boots.
___"I looked at that blood all day," he recalled. "That night I made a list of the guys I knew who had died in Vietnam. I quit when I got to 20. There was not one name on that list that I could say had a relationship with Jesus Christ. Certainly, none that I had witnessed to.
___"I knew that I really was living in a world full of dying people who did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ."
___Spurger of Lancaster recently joined the Baptist General Convention of Texas Mission Service Corps office. He is associate director, assisting Sam Pearis in recruiting and coordinating volunteers to serve in long- and short-term projects in Texas, the nation and abroad.
___Spurger spent eight years in the U.S. Air Force following his graduation from Howard Payne University in 1963.
___After graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Spurger was pastor at First Baptist Church of Quemado before going to serve Clear Lake Baptist Church in Houston.
___He and his wife, Cindy, served five more years planting Northside Baptist Mission in Dallas.
___Then they moved to Lancaster, where he worked to start Crossroads Mission, a part of First Baptist Church of Lancaster. They served there 10 years.
___On the Mission Service Corps staff, Spurger will work with Dorothy Wilkinson, who also recently was named associate director. They will divide the work of overseeing 40 consultants and more than 1,200 volunteers in the state, as well as other tasks such as recruiting, promoting and training volunteers to serve in various mission projects.

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