Posted: 11/12/03
Missions options leave no excuse
for reisting call, messengers told
By Craig Bird
Texas Baptist Communications
LUBBOCK–It started with the slow, stirring wail of a single bagpipe. It ended with a pastor-wife team from a 17-member congregation that puts it money and its time where its heart is.
In between, the Nov. 10 evening crowd at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session heard about:
Handing out cold water and prayer at a fair.
Choral tours as evangelism in Spain.
Students testing well water in rural villages in Muslim Southeast Asia.
Hauling medical supplies via backpack into the interior of Costa Rica.
Wrapping Christ's love in Halloween candy.
Ministry via chainsaw.
A mission connection among Baptist churches in Duncanville, Lubbock and Rio Bravo.
It was missions night, and the single message was presented in numerous ways: All Texas Baptists are called by God to missions; the myriad options mean there are no valid excuses not to be faithful to that call.
The presentation mixed video clips, orchestral pieces, solos and congregational singing, skits, live interviews, letters and numerous personal testimonies to show the scope of how Texas Baptists are doing missions.
Student summer missionaries told of leading Bible studies in the parks of Vancouver, British Columbia, where Chinese immigrants made professions of faith in Christ and of a water safety project in Southeast Asia that distributed more than 3,000 copies of the Gospel of Luke in 130 villages.
Broadview Baptist Church in Lubbock reported on its Halloween ministry to a mobile-home park that involved church volunteers from youth to an 80-year-old woman. One resident, facing eviction after losing his job, met a Broadview member who was personnel director of a local company and who helped him get a new job. There were 12 professions of faith in Christ among the 300 residents who participated.
Kris and Shelly Riggs, IMB missionaries in West Africa reported on their work via video.
Texas Baptist Men volunteer Bob Mayfield reported on 14 projects ranging from Royal Ambassador camps to work in Iraq, China and Nicaragua.
Sylvania and Richard Magallenas testified to their call to missions with a small church in Rio Bravo while they were members of First Baptist Church Duncanville, how a job transfer took them to Primera Inglesia Baptista in Lubbock and they connected their former church home to their new one in a partnership.
First Baptist Arlington reported on a trip to Costa Rica last summer involving 24 people, each hefting 35-pound backpacks and hiking three days to a remote area to do medical/dental missions.
Wayland Baptist University's choir tour in Spain provided numerous instances where "God arranged it so we could share our faith despite the language barrier," a speaker said.
Otis Cook, pastor of Cornelius Chapel Baptist Church in Lubbock and his wife, Christine, told how "the smallest church in the BGCT" with just 17 members makes significant contributions to the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program. Through cooperative giving, the small congregation helps start churches and do missions far beyond their community, he said. "You can't beat God in giving. Whenever we get more than $500 in offerings, we find somebody to give it to."
At the conclusion of the missions presentation, messengers and guests gave $12,022 to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.