PLEASE NOTE: This event has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Go to www.kybaptist.org/missionaries to learn about these and all of our Kentucky missionaries. Pray for them (and maybe even send a note of encouragement) as they are having to find new ways to do ministry during these challenging times.

Join us on Friday, April 17^th, during the evening session of the Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union Annual Meeting & Celebration at Richmond First Baptist Church, and meet our new 2020 Kentucky missionaries.  Eight men and women have sensed God’s call to serve in ministries across our state and will be commissioned during a very inspirational service on that evening.

These new missionaries are:

• Mollie Bentley, Director of the Rockhouse Baptist Church Mission Center in Hyden.
• Sheila Hourigan, Executive Director of House of Hope Pregnancy & Family Resource Center in Springfield.
• Christian & Katie McKenzie, Directors of Hillcrest Baptist Camp in Cave-in-Rock, IL.
• Joyce Morris, Missions & Ministry Associate at God’s Appalachian Partnership in McDowell.
• Tanya Parker, Missions & Ministry Associate at God’s Appalachian Partnership in McDowell.
• Norma Rush, serving with House of Blessings in Monticello.
• Brenda Sparks, serving with Cedaridge Ministries in Williamsburg.

Prior to the commissioning these missionaries will spend the day in orientation where they will learn about the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Program, Eliza Broadus State Missions and will be given many resources that will be beneficial to them as they serve.  The time of networking with each other will also be most valuable. 

You can partner with these and/or one of our current 107 Kentucky Mission Service Corps missionaries by:

• Praying for them on their birthdays using the interSEED prayer calendar (www.kybaptist.org/intrseed).
• Adopting a Kentucky missionary through our Adopt-a-Missionary program (www.kybaptist.org/adoptmissionary).
• Assisting in their ministries through a short-term mission project or partnership.

For more information please contact the KBC Missions Mobilization office at [email protected]. 

We hope to see you at Richmond First Baptist Church on April 17^th.  Go to www.kywmu.org and register at “All In – Pursuing God’s Mission Together.”  

While the days may be uncertain for us, they are not uncertain for God.  In fact, as the Psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1).  Because God is our very present help in trouble, “we will not fear, though the earth should change” (Ps 46:2), or even if a virus sweeps across the globe with jet-like speed.  As always, but particularly these days, believers are called to demonstrate that their trust is in an all-wise, all-good, all-sovereign God.  Whether the earth changes or the unexpectant engulfs us, God is with us as the Psalmist promises. 

We can trust God with our very lives even when all around us is apparent chaos.  The Psalmist tells us that even if the waters roar and foam and if the mountains quake, God is with us (Ps 46:3).  As the hymn writers so eloquently remind us, “when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay (On Christ the Solid Rock).”   

Hudson Taylor knew of God’s great presence with us in times of trouble.  Taylor, a British missionary to China in the late 1800s, served there for 51 years.  He is the founder of the China Inland Mission.  As a young twenty-one-year-old, he first went to China with the desire to reach the nation with the gospel.  When others were saying it can’t be done, Hudson said it can and will be done by God’s grace.

After spending years there he realized that he needed to recruit others to join him on this task of the evangelization of China.  He went back to his homeland of England in order to find more laborers.  While there he became troubled knowing that the dangers in China were many.  He had almost concluded to not recruit help for fear of sending missionaries to China who might be killed.  However, the Lord pressed upon his heart that it is better to go to China and die as a Christian than for millions of Chinese to die without hearing of Christ.

So, Hudson recruited several to join him in China. Years later when he was older and feebler, he traveled back to England and received word of his greatest fear—many missionaries were being killed for the gospel.  His only option was to trust his life and theirs in the hands of God.  He concluded that whether as a young twenty-one-year-old just heading out to China or a seventy-year-old nearing the end of his life, it is possible to trust God too little, but never possible to trust Him too much (Danny Akin, 10 Who Changed the World).

God is more than enough in your time of trouble.  Indeed, He is a very present help in your trouble.  You can trust Him too little, but you can never trust him too much.  In these uncertain days, let’s trust in our certain God and make sure that we point people to the only secure hope in times of hopelessness—Jesus.   

We’re all familiar with churches that minister to the hungry by providing a bag of groceries, hot meal or sack lunch.  Some churches provide financial assistance to individuals and families needing help with their rent or utilities.  Others provide clothing, household items, job training, pregnancy resources or shelter to those in need.  Each of these acts of mercy are good and the church should be involved in many different forms of ministry to those in need. 

Scriptures instruct us to care for those who are orphaned, widowed, naked, homeless, hungry and imprisoned (James 1:27, Matt 25).  But what does that look like and should the church just give without any expectation of the recipient?  Some people deserve mercy because they are working and show gratefulness for what they receive from the church.  But do the wicked and ungrateful deserve mercy as well?  The answer is yes … initially. 

We can only understand our responsibility to others by looking at the grace and mercy God shows to us.  His mercy is unconditional and He loved us while we were still in our sin (Romans 3:9-18).  God’s mercy comes to us without any conditions, but it demands a response from us.  God loves us so much that He can’t leave us in the same condition He finds us.  We must actively pursue Christlikeness through prayer, worship, Bible study and service to others. Otherwise, our condition will not change. 

In this same way, we should show mercy to those in need just as Christ did to us.  The church shouldn’t judge those needing mercy as underserving, even if they are in this condition because of their own sin.   We should give a witness to the free grace and mercy of God.  But mercy doesn’t stop there.  It isn’t only about meeting a felt need or stopping the current suffering.  Our goal in showing mercy is to see those we help come to know Jesus as their Lord.  Total restoration and self-sufficiency of the person in need requires active pursuit and cooperation on their part.  So, while we show mercy and offer help to all regardless of their condition, we won’t be satisfied to only band aid the situation.   Eventually, mercy will demand change of the individual or we’re not really showing the love of Christ.  We offer mercy so that people will grow in Christ, not so that they will continue to rebel against Him. 

So, if your church has a mercy ministry of some kind, how effective is it in total restoration of the individual in need?  Is it intentional and gospel-centered?  Mercy ministries must do more than just meet a felt need.  They must lead to total restoration of the individual in need.   Perhaps your church is considering starting a mercy ministry in order to engage the lost.  Whether you’re starting a new ministry or refining an existing one, the Missions Mobilization Team is ready to assist you.  Contact our office for help with your mercy ministry.   

In 2001 Lester & Bessie McPeek from Jenkins, KY began “God’s Love from a Diaper Bag,” a ministry to young mothers struggling to provide diapers for their babies.  Now, nineteen years later, this ministry is still going strong and has grown beyond anything they could have thought or imagined. 

Along with diapers, this ministry provides now baby clothes, baby food, wipes, car seats and pretty much anything a parent might need for their baby.  They host baby showers for expectant mothers and teach lessons on how to care for the babies.  They partner with local health departments, hospitals, sheriff departments and even jails, to minister to families.

Early in their ministry Mrs. Bessie began to address the “Shaken Baby Syndrome” issue, using eggs and baby food jars to demonstrate.  She would put an egg in each of three baby food jars.  The white of the egg represented the membrane, the yoke represented the brain and the baby food jar the skull.  As she shook the first jar the yoke of the egg would separate into the membrane.  The egg in the second jar, when shaken a little harder, would separate a little more.  The egg in the third jar, when shaken violently, would look like scrambled eggs.  This allowed the parents to actually “see” the seriousness of shaking their babies.

Now, with the addition of two fairly new members to the “God’s Love from a Diaper Bag” team, Mrs. Bessie can demonstrate this problem even more realistically.  Miss Helen Arabella Grace, a “Shaken Baby” doll, is the size and weight of an actual baby, but with a clear head that allows the parents to look inside the brain.  When the doll is shaken, the head lights up in the part of the brain that is affected, allowing the parents see what happens when they shake their baby.  She shares with them how, when they get to the point of frustration, to deal with it in other, non-violent, ways even to the point of calling someone to help when they got to that point.  One lady with three young children said to her, “but Mrs. Bessie, I don’t have anyone to call” to which Mrs. Bessie replied, “then call me.” 

One night at 8:00 the lady called.  The children were crying, there was no milk or diapers, the boyfriend had been put in jail due to drugs and the lady was so distraught.  Mrs. Bessie went to the house, took milk and diapers, rocked the children, put them to bed and just sat with the lady until she calmed down.  The love of Jesus demonstrated. 

The other new “member” is Miss Patti, a “Drug” doll, representing a baby that is addicted to drugs.  The doll’s face grimaces as if in pain, her hands and feet are clutched, and her stomach is sunken in.  The doll tremors like she is going into DTs and she cries constantly.  This doll helps the families to see how using drugs will affect their babies.    

These two dolls are great tools is teaching families to care for their children, which is so important, but the McPeeks do not stop there.  Mrs. Bessie shares that “the plan of salvation is given to every person who attend any of our mission events or that we deal with on a daily basis.”  Over the past four years they have witnessed 81 persons praying to receive Christ as a result of their ministry and/or personal witnessing. 

Please pray for the McPeeks as they minister in their hometown of Jenkins and surrounding areas.  Pray for the babies and families they serve.  Pray for mission teams to work alongside them and pray for many more to come to Christ as a result of this ministry.

Contact the KBC Missions Mobilization office ([email protected]) to learn of ways to serve with this ministry.

The Great Commission was not given to a denomination or mission agency.  It was given to the local church.  Thus, churches send their own missionaries (Acts 13).  I am not saying that denominations and mission agencies have no role to play in the Great Commission. They play a vital role if our understanding is that of partnering for greater gospel impact.  After all, as Southern Baptists, we believe we can do more together.  Therefore, we champion cooperative missions. 

So, while we work with sending agencies such as the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB), our churches send missionaries in partnership with these organizations.  If churches are the senders, what exactly are we sending missionaries to do?  In recent years the IMB has helped us better crystallize the task of the missionary.

Many needs often compete for our attention when it comes to missions.  IMB mobilizer D. Ray Davis recognizes, “Let’s be honest, there are a lot of overwhelming needs around the world, and it’s easy to allow needs to dictate and define the work we do” (“Churches: Essential Partners in the Missionary Task”).  

To keep us focused on our God-given responsibility to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20), six components detail the missionary task. Whether through the missionary on the field or the partnering church, the mission should focus along these lines (Davis, “Churches”).  So, if you are the missionary on the field or the church partnering with the missionary, the mission is the same.  These six components of the missionary task include: entry, evangelism, discipleship, church formation, leadership development, and exit. I want to look at the first component in this blog.

1. Entry:  Finding and engaging a particular people group is the first component.  In short, as the IMB has described it, entry involves finding them, getting to them, and developing an ability to communicate with them. 

First, finding them involves researching the people group in order to learn culture, levels of evangelization among them, whether any translation of the Bible exists, and if other Great Commission Christians are present.

Second, getting to them requires exploring the political, economic, and religious environment.  Further, exploring access options is critical as most places with unreached people are unreached because they are hard to get to.  Most hard to reach places are hard to reach because missionaries are not welcome.  Thus, missionaries must acquire the necessary skills and resources to enter among a people group. 

Third, developing an ability to communicate with them involves skills that no doubt requires language and cultural learning.   Most hard to reach places will mean missionaries must learn another language besides English!

Churches can play a vital role in the entry level.  They assist by praying that missionaries gain legitimate ways to enter.  Churches can also be a means of providing legitimacy for the missionary’s presence among that people group.  To that aim, churches may partner in this phase through specific mercy needs or platforms, such as businesses or services provided.  

In order to reach the unreached, missionaries are sent by churches to enter among peoples and places that are unreached. Being intentional about entry and partnering carefully together, we can ensure that the gospel not only enters among the unreached but that it remains there.