Each day brings new opportunities for God’s people in the Northwest to bless God and serve Him. Hurricanes raged in Texas and Florida, and NWBC Disaster Relief volunteers are responding to the tremendous need of our neighbors there. We currently have two teams in Texas, with more to follow. We will probably have NWBC disaster teams in Florida. We are awaiting the call to send chaplains, ash-out teams and others into the fire-ravaged areas of the Northwest, though blessedly the fires have destroyed few structures, as we understand. No ministry of Northwest Baptists reveals the power of our cooperative work quite like Disaster Relief. And wherever our DR volunteers go, they share Jesus.
Thankfully September has involved more than ministry in the aftermath of natural disasters. Five new NWBC churches began meeting in September. Three launched their worship services last Sunday, September 17. These new churches are in rural, urban, suburban and college communities. Praise God!
Speaking of new churches, last Sunday Paula and I were at Sunnyside Bible Fellowship, a two-year-old church pastored by Eric Simpson. Sunnyside is a town of about 16,000 people, 82 percent of whom are Hispanic! Did you know we have towns, large towns, in the Northwest that are majority Spanish-speaking? We have several that are. Pastor Eric also said that the school children are well over 90 percent Spanish-speaking. To address this Eric sought an associate pastor who is Spanish-speaking. Praise God that Darius and Raquel Bastias came from Bible college in Texas to serve alongside Eric and Kellie Simpson. Darius is from Chile. Raquel is from Honduras. They met and married at the Rio Grande Bible College and are now with us in the Pacific Northwest. Pray for them and for this church. We have a great need for Spanish-speaking pastors. We could start 20 churches tomorrow if we had 20 Spanish-speaking pastors.
One of the significant things God has done in recent weeks concerns a small church of mostly senior adults in McMinnville, OR. Grace Baptist Church is a small church with a big heart and meets in a retirement facility. At one time they had the dream of owning their own building, but God redirected their dream to that of encouraging people in our churches to become foster parents. Their dream is that foster children in the Northwest will have Christian foster parents from our NWBC churches, and that these children will come to know Jesus. The dear saints at Grace Baptist have given $50,000 through the NWBC to help make this happen. A grant process for our NWBC families is currently being configured. Information will be available at http://www.nwbaptist.org, or you can call our office for more information.
Additionally, Grace Baptist has given $110,000 from their building fund to help start new churches in the Northwest. Led by Pastor Richard Bryson, they came to see that new, young churches reach young families. The senior saints at Grace Baptist, with the humility and grace their name implies, have shifted their vision of owning a building to that of building churches that will prayerfully fulfill the original dream of the church to reach young families for Jesus Christ. An amazing group of people at Grace Baptist! Their gift of $110,000 will be used to receive matching funds from the North American Mission Board in the amount of $623,333. So, the $110,000 given by the church will result in $733,333 invested in new churches!
In a few weeks we will gather in Eugene, OR for the annual meeting of the NWBC. Blessing is the theme of our meeting and I hope you plan to attend. Additional information is included in this publication, but I want to express my personal desire that your church be represented. We will conduct the necessary business, but perhaps the most important thing we will do is encourage each other in the Lord’s work. I’ve been blessed in years past by the large number of young leaders and language church pastors and leaders that attend.
Without question the divisions in our nation have deepened. In the Northwest we are experiencing open hostility toward Christian values. Our state governments, and many of our city governments, are openly hostile to those who hold to biblical teaching on the most fundamental institution in the world, the family. In times like these God’s people need to pray, worship, witness and stand together. Isolated believers, and isolated churches, will lack the necessary strength to stand when the storm comes. It is always a good day to serve the Lord together in the Northwest.