February 25, 2002

Texas Baptist Men board accepts missions opportunities
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AQUILLA--The Texas Baptist Men board of directors has accepted worldwide missions challenges that could total $300,000 more than anticipated budget funds for 2001.
___"In responding to these invitations from God, Texas Baptist Men is launching out by faith," said Jim Furgerson, executive director-treasurer of the men's missions organization.
___Meeting at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment, the board heard reports and approved recommendations from 20 ministry committees Feb. 15-16. Board members also honored Associate Director Don Gibson, who retired Feb. 15 after 20 years with Texas Baptist Men.
___At the recommendation of the Texas Baptist Men disaster relief committee, the board voted to register the name "TBM International" and make application with the U.S. State Department to be recognized as a vendor.
___That recognition would facilitate a rapid response to disasters outside the United States, said Jerry Bob Taylor of Brownwood, chairman of the disaster relief committee.
___Two years ago, the board took its first steps toward being recognized as a non-governmental organization for international relief when it established Texas Baptist Men Inc. as a not-for-profit corporation.
___Taylor reported that 2,722 Texas Baptist volunteers prepared about 582,000 meals for disaster victims in 2001.
___Ben Hanna, missionary to Serbia with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, reported on the needs of that eastern European country.
___The board responded by approving a recommendation from the medical/dental committee, pledging Texas Baptist Men's support for a medical facility in southern Serbia.
___Creating the medical facility, which would be staffed by indigenous Serbian health-care providers, would require an estimated $11,000 for infrastructure, plus additional thousands of dollars for medical equipment and supplies, according to Robert Mann of Arlington, chairman of the medical/dental committee.
___The board also promised to coordinate enlistment of volunteer medical teams on a monthly basis, with each team serving one week in the clinic once it is established.
___The group's agricultural/veterinary fellowship agreed to send a technical advisory team to Serbia in October to assist in a greenhouse project, as well as sending an agricultural and veterinary team to El Salvador.
___The board also approved a recommendation from the agricultural/veterinary fellowship committing $17,000 to a food relief project for the North Korean famine. The Korean Baptist Fellowship of Texas is spearheading the project.
___Board members also pledged prayer support for an agricultural development project in Guinea involving First Baptist Church of Anahuac. Pastor Gary Hillyard noted the project--developing a rice farm on a 250,000-acre federal land grant--will require an initial investment of $10,000, and it could grow to a $5.5 million project.
___The Challengers missions organization for teenage boys will send volunteers to Belize, Nicaragua, Kenya and the Ivory Coast in 2002, reported Larry Blanchard of Lindale, chairman of the Challengers committee.
___The Royal Ambassadors committee reported 813 professions of faith in Christ at Royal Ambassador camps last summer.
___Texas Baptist Men Builders involved more than 2,000 volunteers in building projects last year, according to Bill Pigott of Livingston, chairman of the builders' committee.
___The group agreed in principle to help construct a 40,000-square-foot temporary shelter for at-risk women in Lubbock. The project, My Father's House-Lubbock, is a proposed interdenominational ministry guided by the local Christian Women's Job Corps.

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