May 8, 2000
Texas clan mixes family, missions
___By Mike Creswell
___SBC International Mission Board
___MORSANG-SUR-ORGE, France--Seventeen volunteers, mostly Southern Baptist and mostly from Texas, are hammering, sanding, painting, hauling, cleaning and doing electrical repairs on a French Baptist church building on the outskirts of Paris.
___Such a scene is hardly news any more, because Texas Baptists are doing projects all over the world most weeks now. But start counting this particular team and you'll find 11 of them are from the same extended Texas Baptist family.
THREE SOUTHERN BAPTIST MISSIONARIES who serve near Paris brief visiting Texas Baptist volunteers during a mission trip to the French capital. Prayer guides in hand, Nita Reynolds of Midway; Nancy Wall of DeMotte, Ind.; Sherry Reynolds of Dexter, N.M.; Monica McCarty of Huntsville; Mariah Reynolds of Midway; missionaries Peggy and Don Williams; Rose Goudeau of Huntsville; Lynn Neathery of Huntsville; missionary Norma Stimson; Luci Howard of Huntsville; and Sharon Reynolds of Huntsville prepare to pray as they stand before Notre Dame Cathedral. (IMB photo by Mike Creswell)
___Nita Reynolds of Midway stops refinishing a gate to explain how her mother-in-law, Annie Reynolds, raised 14 children, much of that time as a widow. A strong-minded woman now 94 years old, she rode a motorcycle for the first time when she was 90.
___In matters of faith, she has been just as adventuresome: She got her family riled at her early on in life, when she turned from the Church of Christ to Southern Baptist and never looked back.
___Nita Reynolds says Annie's clan now has grown large enough to need a monthly newsletter and a web site to keep track of family members and news. They'll have 140 for Christmas dinner at a rented community center. Enough gather for July 4 they can put on their own fireworks display.
___She starts counting off family members and says 95 percent of them have become Southern Baptists, although she clicks her tongue over one Lutheran in the bunch.
___Beyond the sheer size of the clan, though, the real "glue" that helps hold them together is missions.
___One of Annie's sons, Reed, felt led to do a missions project back in 1979 after seeing a challenge in a Church Training quarterly. Since he put up metal buildings professionally, he figured he could help put up churches. He lined up his brother, Buddy, to help on that first outing to Nevada.
___Since then, the brothers have helped construct or renovate church buildings all over the United States--usually two or three projects a year. In Morsang-sur-Orge, Buddy Reynolds counts off the states where he and family members have done missions projects: Texas, Oregon, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama,Georgia, Tennessee, Wisconsin--plus a few projects in Mexico.
IN MORSANG-SUR-ORGE, on the outskirts of Paris, France, G.G. Reynolds and his daughter, Monica Reynolds McCarty, paint a wall while other team members work on a building. Missions is a family affair with the Reynolds clan: 11 of 17 team members who came to renovate this Baptist church building are family members. He is a member of Elwood Baptist Church near Midway. She is a member of Second Baptist Church in Huntsville. (IMB photo by Mike Creswell)
___Last year, family members worked down near the Mexico border and built a church near Raleigh, N.C. Later this year, they'll work on a pastor's home in Washington state.
___Nita figures 20 of Annie's 54 grandchildren have worked on mission trips so far. And the number expands every year; they also enlist friends and fellow church members along the way. This year, a daughter of G.G. and Nita Reynolds, Mariah, a high school freshman in Midway, was along to help paint, and had a paint-speckled nose to prove it.
___At one point in Morsang-sur-Orge, G.G. painted a wall with his daughter, Monica Reynolds McCarty, a horticulturist who's a member of Second Baptist Church in Huntsville. G.G. and Nita are members of Elwood Baptist Church near Midway.
___"Elwood's not really a place; there's just a sign on the road. Midway has a population of 333 and that number's stable enough they painted it on the water tank," G.G. observed.
___With Buddy roaming the church to keep people busy and in supplies, the team worked together like experienced pros. But asked about the importance of missions to his family, Buddy reacted like you'd asked him why he breathes.
___"'Missions' is a big word that really doesn't mean much," he said. "Every day is a mission! I don't see any difference between this and going to work. Every day is supposed to be a day that you give to the Lord."
___Because he and his family members have talents for organizing and building, they see it as an obligation to use their talents for God's kingdom. "If God gave you a talent, he expects you to use it for his glory. And that's what we want to do, is dedicate our lives and our talents for him. When you sweat for the Lord, it's good and it's honorable," he said.
___"This family is based on prayer and God's love. That's what Mrs. Reynolds has taught her children," Nita added.
___As the team members wrapped up a week's worth of work, nobody was happier than French Baptist Walter Paoli, a bivocational pastor who also works full time as an accountant for French Baptists.
___"To have Christians come from another land to help us is very encouraging. Also it's very practical and important for us because with our small numbers, we do not have the resources to carry out expensive projects like this," he said.
___Two other happy members were Gayle and Norma Stimson, who called Texas home before heading to France as Southern Baptist missionaries. The church was started by French Baptist leader Daniel Thobois, whose family has helped Baptist work get started across France.
___The Morsang-sur-Orge church was left with a freshly stained exterior plus a sign out front that now lights up again. Just the sight of Americans coming all the way to France to do such dirty work caught the attention of many people in the neighborhood, and some attended Sunday services for the first time.
___Toward the end of the week, G.G. Reynolds was musing over whether they should start an overseas division in the family mission work.
___If they do, there should be plenty of workers: Beyond the 54 grandchildren, there are now about the same number of great-grandchildren. And last February, the family celebrated the birth of Annie's first great-great-grandchild.
___To all appearances, her family will be in the missions business for years to come.
___
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