IMB holds Sending Celebration for 29 missionaries

IMB holds Sending Celebration for 29 missionaries

God is providing unprecedented opportunities to serve Him among the nations, and “with a degree in fibers, fabrics and handcrafted textiles, along with a desire to take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth, the Lord is allowing me to literally and figuratively weave the gospel of Jesus Christ into the hearts of Central Asians,” said Carter Finley, who was sent by her church in North Carolina, during an International Mission Board (IMB) Sending Celebration on March 1.

Twenty-nine Southern Baptists were approved and appointed as missionaries to the nations during IMB’s trustee meeting Feb. 28–March 1 near Richmond, Virginia. The new missionaries celebrated during the service are being sent by churches in 11 state conventions. They’ll take the gospel to peoples in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

Aaron Stormer, who is sent by Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville, Tennessee, to the American peoples, said, “We are going because we know that God’s heart is for all people to know His name.”

God’s heart for the nations

Melissa Stormer said she realized God’s heart for the nations while sharing the gospel in a small mountain village in Haiti. “I felt Jesus whispering, ‘I died for them as well as you,’” she said. Her husband felt God calling him to the missions field while walking stone-lined streets surrounded by blue tiles and the lost people of Porto, Portugal.

Jim and Pam Smith expressed thanks that Southern Baptist churches work together through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to send and support missionaries. Jim Smith said it was as a Royal Ambassador at a church in Virginia that he became aware of God’s heart for the nations. From Panama to China, short-term missions trips were formative in turning his heart toward the nations.

Growing up as a pastor’s kid in Colorado and Virginia, Pam Smith felt God used short-term missions trips from the bush of Kenya to the busy streets of Turkey to awaken her desire to go from short-term to full-time missions. The family is sent to share the gospel in South Asia.

David Platt, IMB president, said, “We are living in a day of wide open doors here and around the world, and it is high time for Southern Baptists not to divide, but to join together — not to be distracted, but to be resolutely focused on the purpose for which we came together in the first place: the spread of the gospel in a world of urgent need.”

Sharing a video story about Abuk, a young refugee from Africa who obediently answered God’s call to return to Africa to make disciples, Platt praised God for a Southern Baptist church in Amarillo, Texas, that reached out to the immigrant family.

“We hear those words [refugee, immigrant] today, and they’re so politically charged and if we’re not careful we can start to picture immigrants as problems to be solved, not people to be loved,” Platt said.

“This is a story of a refugee turned IMB missionary. And that’s possible why? Did you see the news headline in that video? ‘Baptists come together despite barriers.’ Oh may that be the commentary on our cooperation in this day of wide open doors.” (IMB)

EDITOR’S NOTE — Names changed for security reasons.

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