Tomorrow Paula and I will leave for Asia, joining 163 Northwest Baptists from 32 churches, to serve hundreds of missionaries living throughout Asia. Most of our mission team will serve several hundred missionary children, teaching them VBS, among other things. For example, Paula and six others will have 41 second-graders for nine hours each day.
There are a large number of kids in each age group, from newborns through high school. The volunteers from our churches have been preparing for several months to serve them, teach them, and love on them. This is the first such retreat these missionaries have had since 2009.
Each day we will have a worship service in which the missionaries will gather to pray and sing and study God’s Word. For many this will be their first time to worship in English, and to worship together, for three years or more. I will preach at some of these services. I will also lead a morning Bible study the first five days and would appreciate your prayers, not only for myself but for all our team. Other team members include a medical doctor, three nurses, security persons, technology persons, and two licensed Christian counselors.
Our volunteers are taking vacation from work and they are paying their own way. We have several mothers going who are leaving their children with their dads, grandparents or friends. Just yesterday I learned of one mother who is leaving four children with her husband, the youngest just two years-old. It’s humbling to see God’s people do such things because they love the Lord and they love our missionaries.
Also of interest is that 17 of the missionaries are from the Northwest or have served in the Northwest. These are men and women that our churches sent overseas, some 30 years ago, others more recently. We look forward to seeing them and encouraging them.
This mission effort of our churches is one more step in a partnership that the Northwest Baptist Convention of churches has with missionaries in Asia. Over the past two years, many of our churches have sent short term teams to serve alongside our long-term missions personnel. Most of these teams have sought to share the love of Jesus Christ in remote cities and towns in Asia where the name of Jesus is not widely known. For several weeks this summer one of our churches had 20 university students serving in an Asian university city, sharing Christ with college students there.
Words cannot express the gratitude I have for our pastors and churches. I believe that the growth in baptisms, church attendance, and Cooperative Program mission giving that we are seeing in the Northwest is due in part to our churches becoming more outwardly focused.
Churches that do evangelism and missions locally and globally tend to be more effective in reaching their neighbors with God’s love. Christians who are confident that Jesus Christ can save any person from their sin are more likely to tell others about Jesus. Believers who say with the Apostle Paul, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day,” are a powerful force in the world (2 Tim. 1:12).
Our team will return Aug. 11-13. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support.