Global Missions Day is less than a month away. I was just thinking about the wonderful missionaries God has placed in the BMA of America. I have been blessed to become acquainted with many of them over the past seven decades. The Lord gave me a heart for missionaries and the ministry of missions when I was a teenager in Ashdown.
The First Missionary I Remember
Gerald Price was one of our early missionaries in South America. As all missionaries must do, he was visiting churches while on furlough. He came to Central Baptist Church in my hometown. Before he left, he had made a great impact on me. Gerald was a pilot, and he had flown his plane to Ashdown. Before he departed, he asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Of course, my wide-eyed response was a yes. That was my first experience of flying. The one thing I vividly remember was that this pilot, with many hours at the yoke, prayed before we took off. He prayed! That had an impact on me!
My First Missions Symposium
I was a student at Central Baptist College in 1964. It was in September of that year I surrendered to the ministry. My pastor, Paul Bearfield, had a heart for missions and urged me to meet him and his wife, Johnie, in Little Rock for the Missions Symposium at Temple Baptist Church. That was in November. I attended and was enamored by the flags from the various countries where we had missionaries, displayed throughout the sanctuary. That was a lot of flags. The setting made an impact on me!
But that evening, Paul asked if I would join them at the Alamo Plaza Motel, not far from Temple. I accepted. The suite that I was invited into was filled with people… missionaries from so many places. It was there that Paul introduced me to Taiwan missionary Dale Thornton and his wife, Barbara. Barbara and Johnie Bearfield were sisters. Also among that group was another missionary, Jack Bateman, also ministering in Taiwan. Now, here is what impacted me in that get-together of missionaries. They had a prayer meeting! They prayed for each other’s mission work. Because of that first symposium, I was hooked on missions. I still am today.
Missionaries in the Churches
Later, as a pastor, I learned firsthand the importance of praying for missionaries as I invited them to visit the churches I pastored. I have only pastored five churches during my almost 62 years of ministry. But in every one of them, I knew that my flocks needed to meet the missionaries they read about in The Gleaner, the missions magazine of the BMAA.
Those visits were always special to the churches. Usually, we would have a church-wide fellowship after the services. It was during those times that the church members began to get better acquainted with the people they read about. And of course, there was an impact. No exceptions — every missionary who ever visited a church I pastored made a request: “We certainly need your financial support, but one thing everyone of you can do is give us your prayer support!”
Visiting the Mission Fields
In 1980, as pastor of Central Baptist Church in Prescott, my desire to be a helper for our missionaries became a reality. I, along with 21 other men, went to Santos, Mexico, to assist Dr. John Ladd in building a medical clinic. That was the first of 47 visits I made to Central American countries. What did I learn from those visits? Just this, our missionaries deserve our support. They need financial support. But they truly desire prayer support. Please, give your Prayer Share!
