Associational leader rounds up Palo Pinto churches for missions

January 13, 2003

Associational leader rounds up
Palo Pinto churches for missions
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___MINERAL WELLS--Peggy Gibson lives by a simple credo: "If you're not a missionary, you're a mission field."
___As leader of the missions team in Palo Pinto Baptist Association, her goal is to involve everyone in missions, regardless of the size of the church they attend.
___"Our association is made up of one large church, or what is for us out here a large church, and several smaller but extremely active churches, and a lot of other really small churches," she explained. "Many of these really small churches never have been on a mission trip because there was no one to lead it. Tho

MIKE Hazlewood, Rita Mauldin, Shawn and Peggy Gibson, John Baker and Cy and Barbara Gibson pray over Ljubljuana, the capital city of Slovenia, during a fall prayerwalk.

se really small churches are the reason I want to do associational mission trips."
___Gibson, who was a medical officer in the Air Force for six years, views missions as carrying out orders from the Divine Commander in Chief.
___"When I was in the military and received my orders, there was no paragraph that said, 'When you get around to it,' or 'when you have time,'" she explained. "The Great Commission is the same way--we are to be doing missions."
___So far, she has found at least two projects to open up avenues for missions. Last August, seven churches in Mineral Wells joined together to provide school supplies for more than 650 children.
___Children also were given free immunizations and haircuts. Parents received information about local assistance programs. The event, held at First Baptist Church and staffed by 75 volunteers, featured snacks, balloon animals and face painting.
___Gibson was thrilled with the volunteer spirit of those participating.
___"Templo Bautista gave us $250 their children had raised during their Vacation Bible School, and some of those kids were at our Back-to-School Fair," she said.
___The greatest blessing comes from watching God provide for needs each year, Gibson said.
___"The first year, we meticulously planned for 200 children and God sent us 400. We then received a last-minute donation and wound up with $50 more than we needed. You could see God's handwriting on the wall. He sent those 400 kids to us so we could get the blessing of seeing God provide."
___The mother of twin 12-year-old daughters also won't forget the smiles on the faces of children helped by the mission project.
___"We gathered with one purpose in mind, to help the children of our community," Gibson said. "When they walked into school on the first day, they looked like all the other kids. It used to be that they went down to the counselor's office on the first day and she gave them supplies, but all the other kids knew. That was a good thing, but I think this is better."
___In October, Gibson also led a prayerwalking team of eight people to Slovenia, a country with only four Baptist churches.
___"I was hoping for a larger number and was a little disappointed with the small size of the group, but eight turned out to be the perfect number," she said. "The churches are so small if we had 15 or 20 people, we would have split up all the time because we would have overwhelmed them," she explained.
___Gibson hopes to take another team each of the next few years, however.
___The tiny nation south of Austria is predominantly Catholic, not Muslim, which makes them more open to Christianity, Gibson said. It also holds other points of appeal for the people of her primarily rural association.
___"It's really rural, which is another reason our people could really relate," she said. "It's just such a beautiful little country, but it is spiritually dark."
___Randy Bell, a missionary to Slovenia who once was youth minister at First Baptist Church in Mineral Wells, was the draw for the association's first trip to the country. But now the pull comes from knowing the needs of the people of Slovenia.
___"My husband, Shawn, and I went over initially to map things out and then returned with the team," Gibson said. "The people there were so excited that someone came to see them and then was interested enough to go and get a team together and come back. I'm really looking forward to developing relationships with the people there."
___She also plans to develop intergenerational mission trips closer to home.
___"What I see in most churches is youth doing mission trips and adults doing mission trips and not a whole lot mixing," she pointed out. Yet she believes families doing missions together can be life changing.
___"Telling kids about missions is great, but that is not enough. The next step is for them to actually do missions and also seeing their parents doing missions. Whatever you see a family doing together is the heart of that family."
___Gibson's larger dream is that the associational mission activities will stir churches and other groups to begin planning mission trips and activities of their own.
___"I wish I could get the message out to everyone in our association that you don't have to be an ordained minister, a seminary graduate or a Bible scholar. If you have a pulse, God can use you."
___

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