September 11, 2000
Givers get back when missionary aid needed
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SEAGRAVES--Sometimes a giver becomes a receiver.
___First Baptist Church of Seagraves has a history of supporting the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions. Now other Texas Baptists are helping the church with mission work of its own through the same offering.
___Rick Smith, pastor of First Baptist, said one woman in the church was "just floored"and "walked away in disbelief" when he told her the offering was helping the church start a Hispanic congregation in town.
___For years, the woman had supported the Mary Hill Davis Offering through the church's Woman's Missionary Union, Smith said. When he told her money from the offering was helping her own church start the mission, she almost felt guilty, thinking other churches might need it more.
___People at the Seagraves church are "just humbled that they're receiving back" some of what they have given to missions through the years, Smith said. "That's a wonderful picture of this church's attitude and vision."
___Seagraves is a town of about 2,600 people nestled amid the cotton and peanut fields and the oil wells on the high plains of West Texas, southwest of Lubbock.
___The pastor estimated 55 percent to 60 percent of the population is Hispanic. "Many people do not realize it, but this area is becoming predominantly Hispanic," he said.
___Agriculture and oil are big business in Gaines County, which is a world leader in both. Giant "irrigation circles" spread water across the broad plain. And oil wells dot the landscape with the seemingly endless up and down motion of the pumps.
___But those industries need a lot of manual labor, Smith said; therefore, Hispanic men and women come to the area with their solid work ethic and their desire to earn a living.
___"If the farming is good, then they need people to work the fields, chopping cotton, hoeing fields," the pastor said. A farm hand can expect to work 14 hours a day, but it provides "good money" compared to what can be earned in Mexico.
___First Baptist had launched a Spanish-speaking mission once before, but a farm strike in the mid-1970s decimated the Hispanic population and, therefore, the congregation.
___"Gradually folks began filtering back in," Smith said.
___The new mission began in 1997 as a "Hispanic fellowship class" during First Baptist's Family Vacation Bible School.
___After the week of VBS, the Hispanic group began meeting separately for worship on Sunday in First Baptist's education building.
___The mission became known as Templo Bautista Getsemani.
___Within a few months, the mission hosted a bilingual revival meeting and, as a consequence, outgrew their space in First Baptist's main building. They moved to an activity center a few blocks away, and the mission soon called Paul Ramirez as pastor.
___In spring 1998, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Permian Baptist Association began financially assisting the new work.
___The mission continued to grow gradually and consistently, and leaders began to look for a building or site for the congregation to purchase.
___"Every possible door had been closed tight," the pastor said. "We prayed, prayed and prayed that God would open some kind of door."
___Just when the situation looked hopeless, the congregation received word that the local Church of God had closed.
___Within one week, a verbal agreement had been reached for the Baptists to buy the Church of God building for $40,000. The BGCT Church Starting Center provided a low-interest loan of $50,000 to the congregation. The building, which includes an attached parsonage, is now valued at $140,000.
___"These are the kinds of things God did for us," Smith said. "No one person could have done this. It was God who had to bring it to pass by opening each door at the right time."
___Johnny "Juan" Guzman became Templo's first full-time pastor in July. "We've been visiting," Guzman said of efforts by him, his wife and others in the church. The people in Seagraves are friendly, and there are many who need the gospel, he said.
___To reach people, Guzman said, "you need to show them you love them."
___That's what Texas Baptists have done through their giving to the Mary Hill Davis Offering, Smith added.
___"If it wasn't for the Mary Hill Davis Offering, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing. There is much joy in Seagraves these days over the work that the Lord is doing."
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
