September 3, 2001
PASTOR TED KISER hugs a child in his Dallas congregation.
Small multi-ethnic church lives out big vision for missions
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DALLAS--"How big is God's love?"
___Paula Hayes raised the question as 45 Russian orphans gathered beneath the shade of a campground tree to hear a Bible story.
___"Let me show you how much God loves you," she said, extending her arms as wide as possible, palms forward. Then she called on a child to stand in front of her, close enough for his face to be reflected in her sunglasses. Once he was in place, she wrapped her arms around him, enveloping him in a big bear hug.
MEMBERS of Westmoreland Heights Baptist Church bless volunteer missionary Billy Hayes as he prepares for a mission trip with Buckner Orphan Care International. (Photo by Scott Collins)
___"That's how much," she said, holding him close and squeezing him vigorously. Hands immediately shot up all around her.
___"Me next! Me next!" the children cried out, eager for someone to embrace them.
___"That's why we were there for those children," she said. "We wanted to be God's arms of love around them."
___Hayes, a ministry assistant in the associational missions and administration section at the Baptist General Convention of Texas, went to Russia this summer with Buckner Orphan Care International. She was part of a 14-member volunteer team from Westmoreland Heights Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic congregation in the Oak Cliff section of South Dallas.
___The Texas Baptist volunteers sang, told Bible stories, taught crafts and led games at a summer camp for residents of an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia. They were among more than 400 volunteers traveling overseas with Buckner this summer.
___"There was such a hunger for hope--a hunger for love--in their little faces," said Ted Kiser, pastor of Westmoreland Heights.
___Some of the children had been abandoned. Others were placed in an orphanage when their parents were unable to provide for them. Some were the children of alcoholics whose addiction either killed them or left them unable to care for their families.
___For five days, the volunteers directed activities for elementary school-aged children from a St. Petersburg orphanage who were attending a summer camp outside the city. They also led a couple of Vacation Bible School-style sessions for 30 preschoolers at the orphanage in St. Petersburg.
WESTMORELAND HEIGHTS missions volunteers Ashley and Lindsay Hayes minister among Russian orphans at a camp outside St. Petersburg.
___Each day, the Buckner volunteers would travel an hour and a half by bus each way from their hotel in St. Petersburg to the Daylight Camp. At one time, the Soviet Union had used the camp as a retreat center to indoctrinate youth in communist principles.
___"It's quite a change from what it used to be used for and what's going on there now," Kiser observed.
___"I was impressed that when we sang Christian songs, the kids already knew them well. We were just there for a week, but it's apparent that Buckner is doing a great job in providing a continuing Christian presence. It was obvious that many of the children had been exposed before to what we were teaching."
___The summer experience was the fourth trip to Russia for Kiser but his first with Buckner. Dallas Baptist Association coordinated his three previous Russian mission trips.
___Hayes and her mother, Joanne Dandridge, had traveled to Russia with Buckner once before, delivering shoes and socks in Moscow as part of the Shoes for Orphan Souls project in November 1999. Her husband, Billy, and their teenage daughters, Ashley and Lindsay, joined her for the trip this summer.
___"Our people have been to eight foreign countries and four states in the last seven years," Kiser said. The church plans two mission trips each summer--one in the United States and one outside the country.
___Members have served in locations ranging from Latin America to Eastern Europe. Flags for each of those nations, and for the states where members have ministered, line the sanctuary walls at Westmoreland Heights, a church that averages about 125 in weekly Bible study and 200 in worship.
___The ethnic makeup of Westmoreland Heights Baptist Church reflects its neighborhood--about 65 percent Hispanic, with the remaining 35 percent divided between Anglo and African-American.
___The families who participated in the Buckner mission trip to Russia--Kiser, Hayes, Sanders, Martinez, Trujillo and Ramirez--reflected that same kind of diversity.
___"It just seems natural to us," Kiser said. "It's the way the world is. It's the way the workplace is. It seems natural that the church should be like that."
___Westmoreland Heights' trip to Russia involved more than a year of praying, planning and fund-raising. Church members participated in bake sales, garage sales, craft fairs and other events to send their "missionaries" to Russia.
___The total cost of the trip through Buckner was $36,400. By the time the church added up all the donations given and funds raised, they had $37,900 in the mission fund.
___"This is at a church where our yearly offerings total about $130,000," Kiser noted.
___Members of Westmoreland Heights also generously donated supplies for the mission trip. The mission team packed 14 large suitcases full of everything from marshmallows to craft supplies.
___A bag of soccer balls was among the supplies the Texas Baptists delivered to the camp. "When we got there, we found out all they had was one ball for all the kids to play with," Hayes recalled. "God provided everything we needed and more."
___Participants agreed that the most difficult part of the trip to Russia was leaving the children behind. The experience touched three families from Westmoreland Heights so much that they are meeting with Buckner to explore the possibility of adopting children from Russian orphanages.
___The image of one child in particular stayed with Paula Hayes. Dima was a solemn 6-year-old whose dark eyes reflected a painful past.
___"We had a hard time getting a smile out of him all week," Hayes said.
___Whenever anyone tried to hug him, he would stiffen his arms. Even when the Texas team met with the children on Wednesday to tell them goodbye, he refused to show any emotion.
___"Just as we were getting ready to climb on the bus, I heard him call my name. He followed us to the door of the bus to give me a hug," Hayes said, her voice cracking.
___"That's why we were there, to plant seeds in the lives of those children. They need to be reassured that God loves them."
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