August 21, 2000
Texas volunteers complete five-year partnership with Australian Baptists
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___After more than a week of ministry, Andi Scott wondered if her missions team in Australia had done anything helpful. Then, at the last worship service, during the last verse of the invitation hymn, an older couple came forward to publicly profess faith in Christ.Seven teenagers followed.
THE JONES FAMILY in New Castle, New South Wales, assisted Texas volunteers during a recent mission trip that wrapped up the "formal" partnership with Australia Baptists. Daniel, Peter, Jenny and Naomi Jones are members of Bel-Air Baptist Church.
___"There was not a dry eye in the place," said Scott, a member of Celebration Fellowship in Fort Worth and part of a three-person mission team that ministered at Lower Clarence Baptist Church in Maclean, New South Wales, Australia.
___Louise Fisher, a member of Southside Baptist Church in Granbury who served on the same team as Scott, noted that 19 people walked the aisle that night. The church did not normally have a public invitation but was willing to do one at the Texans' request.
___Texas Baptist churches sent 155 people to work in 30 Australia congregations July 12-25, said Don Sewell, director of Texas Partnerships for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The trip ended the "formal" Texas-Australia partnership that began in 1985.
___"Although our formal partnership ends this year, I know we will still be sending teams of Texas Baptists to respond to the invitation of individual churches next year," Sewell said.
___The volunteers on this year's trip reported more than 180 professions of faith and 128 recommitments to Christ, Sewell said. Those figures are conservative, he said, because they reflect reports from only 21 of the 30 teams.
___"We saw a lot of conversions this year, and we had an overflow of positive response from the host pastors," Sewell said.
___"I don't think I've ever had as well-rounded a volunteer group," he said. It included teenagers and senior adults, medical personnel and construction workers, those who had been Christians 50 years and those who are relatively new Christians. All of them wanted to "serve the Lord together, and they did so harmoniously. They were very representative of who Texans are."
___David Appleby, pastor of Fairmont Central Baptist Church in Pasadena, traveled to Australia several times during the partnership. He said he is amazed at the growth in spiritual maturity that takes place on both sides of a partnership. Those people who go expecting to have an impact on others soon realize "the kingdom has impacted them," he said.
___But the impact is just as great on the other side.
___"I'm really impressed with where (the Australia churches) have come to from what I experienced in '85," Appleby said. In 1985, a big church would have about 60 people. Today, some Australian Baptist churches average 200, 300 and more in attendance, he said.
___"Partnership missions has been a key ingredient in revitalizing Baptist work there," Appleby said. "I don't think there's any question to that. ... Some of these churches literally incorporate these things into their ongoing program." He also noted that preparing for the mission teams is part of the revitalizing process for the host church.
___Barry Camp, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Waco, described the Australians as a "very gracious people, hungry for Bible teaching."
___Through interacting with the Australians, Texas Baptists gained a new perspective and found their own faith energized, he and others reported.
___Lee Price, youth minister at First Baptist Church of Hereford, led a team of 16 youth and six adults from his church. The purpose of the church's youth ministry is "to reach a hurting world with the love of Jesus Christ," he said. "We definitely feel like the trip we took through the Baptist General Convention of Texas was a great aid to be able to do that."
___Price said he has seen a "huge change" in the church's youth since their return. "Their worldview has changed tremendously in how they reach out and minister. ... They have more of a desire to do ministry, and they're doing a better job of recognizing the needs of those around them."
___The teenagers from Hereford also realize better that "God is a huge God," that he's doing things all around the world at the same time, Price said. "They were able to see the sovereignty of God, and that's a mind-boggling concept for youth."
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