By Danny Paul, Pastor • Grace, Russellville
The 2025 missions fair at Grace Baptist Church in Russellville was a big success! We planned and prayed for months for this special time to highlight missions by hearing about missions, praying for mission work around the world and supporting missions financially through a special offering. Our theme for the night was “One Mission, Many Nations,” inspired by the Apostle John’s vision described in Rev. 7:9 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (ESV).
The first part of our missions fair was a gathering in our sanctuary to hear from missions leaders. We were blessed to hear Angela Rice share about short-term and Volunteer Student Missions. Then we heard from Tony Crocker, who is the BMA Global Coordinator for Africa. We had Alicia Jackson, who serves with Evangelistic International Ministries (EIM), share about opportunities to serve through Vacation Bible Schools and Shepherd Bag distribution. Finally, we heard from Dr. John David Smith, who shared an update about BMA Global Missions.
The next portion of our night was in our Family Life Center. We had displays set up with information about our missionaries serving around the world. The displays had information about the countries our missionaries are serving in and about the work they are doing. These displays provided an opportunity to pray specifically for our missionaries. To help make the prayer requests from our missionaries memorable, we ordered some prayer passports that we handed out. As each person walked around to the various displays, we “stamped” their prayer passports with a label that had each missionary’s prayer requests printed on it.
The final part of our night featured culinary dishes from around the world. We were able to give a little taste of some favorite foods from various parts of the world. We had tacos to represent Mexico, goulash from Hungary and Romania, croissants from France, nshima (corn porridge) from Zambia, sweet potato and pineapple kebabs from Papua New Guinea, and semolina cake from Jordan and Lebanon. This time of fellowship allowed us to talk with our guest speakers and ask questions about their areas.
When our team began praying and planning this event, we had several hopes and expectations. First, we wanted to involve the entire church in the event. We assigned each Sunday School class a missionary and asked them to prepare a display about the country and needs for each area. Even our children’s classes participated in this! The second hope we had was that we would increase our church’s connection with missionaries. We asked the classes to contact their missionary to ask them about specific prayer requests. Some classes are continuing to connect with our missionaries through email and video calls. One last hope for the night was that each person would realize the mission is not just the work of missionaries around the world, but of every Christian. Participation in the mission can range from prayer and financial support to taking a short-term trip, to even selling your house and going full-time to spread the gospel to people and places that have not yet heard. We hope that all who participated in our missions fair are prayerfully considering their role in supporting our BMA missionaries.
