March 10, 2003

Waco Baptists on mission with CBF
___ATLANTA--Missionary Anne Burton was inspired to service, in part, by her involvement at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco. And Burton, who serves among international students in Los Angeles, is not alone.
___Seven Calvary members, including Burton, currently serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship global missions field personnel in Los Angeles, Detroit, Paris and Nairobi, Kenya. The church partners with its "hometown" field personnel by praying for them, serving with them during mission trips and giving to CBF's Offering for Global Missions.
___By empowering and supporting Burton, Calvary is ministe

AMARILLO native Anne Burton celebrates the graduation of a friend from the Fashion Institute of Design in Los Angeles.

ring beyond its community to international students in Los Angeles. Burton teaches international students conversational English and helps them find a place of community and fellowship. In the process, she shows them God's love.
___Because many students come from parts of the world where missionaries cannot go, reaching out to them is "an extremely significant mission," Burton said. "The students who are coming here represent the leadership of the future in government, politics, economics, education and religion.
___"We've got to see the world that has come to us here in the United States and respond to the mission that God has given us."
___The shared ministry of Burton and Calvary is one of several highlighted through MissionConnect--the focus of CBF's Global Missions Offering spring emphasis. The offering's Mission Connect emphasis challenges individuals and churches to live God's call in their communities and beyond through volunteerism.
___MissionConnect features North American-based ministries and describes ways Texas churches can connect with the missions sites to help provide needed ministry resources. CBF personnel currently minister in Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Toronto.
___Besides its partnership with CBF field personnel, Calvary Baptist Church also ministers within its own community--a neighborhood once attractive to potential residents that now faces high crime and poverty rates. The church resolved to stay in the community, seeking to reach out to the neighborhood not by "fixing" it but by being in relationship with its residents, said Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell.
___Several members are doing this by becoming "intentional neighbors," moving into the neighborhood and providing an effective witness by building relationships. Calvary sponsors an English literacy ministry for the community's Hispanic residents, and many members participate in the local Meals on Wheels program.
___CBF field personnel Angel and Jason Pittman lived and ministered as intentional neighbors near Calvary. Now they serve in Detroit among some of the most neglected and impoverished people there.
___"Being in relationship with the poor changed my life," Pittman said. "It changed my view of why they're there and how they got there. It really gave me a desire to live life with them and to be a part of bringing hope and holistic ministry to the least of these.
___"Our church family has been very important in our process of being called and becoming missionaries," he added.
___

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