A Page from My Heart
By Ben Kingston, Director - BMA of Missouri Missions
It’s April and we’re only a few weeks away from our Missions Symposium on Friday, May 14 and the Mid-year State Associational Meeting on the May 15, both at New Testament, Sullivan. I am looking forward to these meetings! Please make plans to attend both meetings if possible.
Have you ever heard the phrase “One life to live, soon it will pass, only what’s done for Christ will last?” Well, we as Christians need a steady dose of that eternal reality. Yes, there are many urgent things on this earth that require our attention and effort. But there is only one thing on this earth that is both important and urgent, and that is sharing the gospel of Christ in our sphere of influence and discipling those who come to Christ. This is the transcendent cause to which all of us have been called.
We must discipline ourselves to give our lives for this holy and eternal calling. All other pursuits will not pass the test of eternity when it comes to importance. Our finances will be gone, our possessions gone, many of our relationships will be over and our reputations forgotten. Once all the temporal is washed away with the reality of eternity, we are back to the cliché “One life to live, soon it will pass, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Let’s surrender anew to the Great Commission and support every level of missions in our work — local, state and national.
Please pray for Bro. Juan and His family on the mission field. These are his prayer requests and updates for this month:
• For Hannah’s and new baby’s health
• For new outreach, Sunday 2:00 p.m.
•For salvation for each one of the students attending our English as a Second Language (ESL) outreach — Omar, Cecilia, Janet, Maria, Antonio, Xiomara, David, Arturo, Jorge, Judith, Alma and Dulce.
•For building meaningful relationships for eternity!
•For salvation for each one of the relatives living here in St Louis and extended families south of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.
We started another 40 days of prayer on April 5. We are praying for the “Men of Peace” discipleship study that started April 11.
Thank you again. The harvest is plenteous! May the Lord richly bless you is my prayer.
Mississippi Missions
By Larry Geraldson, Director
“…ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). Last year at this same time, we were facing the unknowns of COVID-19. Churches were unsure of the impact to their finances, and I certainly felt it was not prudent for me to promote our Special Emphasis for State Missions, which runs from April-May. Well, I did not ask, and we didn’t get.
This year, having heard from a number of our pastors that their finances, in some cases, are better than before, I am asking. We need to have a good Special Emphasis this year. In addition to not promoting and receiving a good Special Emphasis offering last year, we were hit with tornadoes and hurricanes that took a toll on our Disaster Relief Fund. For this and other reasons, I am asking you to take up a special offering for your State Missions Special Emphasis.
Our missionaries have done an outstanding job through the pandemic. Three missions are scheduled to organize into New Testament churches this year (see dates below). More of our missionaries have developed a multiple church planting vision, which will result in continued growth.
Two of our missions are currently getting ready to build, while one is just finishing the renovation of their building. This year, we witnessed the mission in the Kiln reach a high attendance of 135, meeting in a storm shelter, and our mission in Meridian establish a core group of 10 families starting in the middle of the pandemic. Faced with challenges, our guys have pressed forward, God has richly blessed, and there is more to come.
Our Special Emphasis is from April to May. We have prepared some promotional videos for our churches to use for promotion, and these videos can be downloaded directly from our website at bmams.org. Just scroll down on the home page and follow the instructions for downloading. If you have any difficulty, please give us a call at (601) 428-8616.
We have at least 35 other locations where we could be planting churches if we had the men and the resources to do so. We have one person who is filling out an application, but we are praying that God will give us additional men to go and plant churches. Please join us in praying about this. We have associate missionaries in training and a coaching team of veteran missionaries that is providing outstanding support as they equip each missionary in the areas of discipleship, church doctrine and church polity. The results have been tremendous.
In addition to our church planting efforts, we have ministry activity in Church Ministries, Disaster Relief, Benevolence and Jail Ministry. Our primary mission is to serve our churches by supporting the missionaries they send out, but we also care for our churches through this myriad of ministries.
We have tried to be good stewards of the money you send us — 100% of every dollar we receive from you for missions goes out the door to our missionaries. We use none of it for overhead, upkeep, maintenance or even my salary. We have operated in the black for nine years straight and are on track to do the same this year.
You can find out more information about our missionaries, our ministries and resources that are available to your church by visiting our website at bmams.org. There is so much more I could say and will say at upcoming associational meetings. For now, would you please allow me to encourage you to pray for us and seriously consider promoting our Special Emphasis?
Organizations & Ordination
• April 24, Redemption Baptist Mission of Diamondhead will be organizing as a New Testament Church. The service will begin at 2 p.m. Campground Baptist Church is the mother church and Wesley Martin is the missionary pastor.
• May 1, Leo Adan, missionary at El Camino in Hattiesburg, will be ordained into the gospel ministry at Westover Baptist Church in Hattiesburg. The service will begin at 2 p.m.
• July 10, El Camino Baptist Mission of Hattiesburg, meeting at the Westover Baptist Church, will organize as a New Testament Church. El Camino Baptist Church in Laurel is the mother church. The service will begin at 2 p.m.
Our Empathizing High Priest
By Corbey Jones, Assistant Editor
Webster defines sympathy as “an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other.” Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present — also, the capacity for this.” Consequently, almost anyone has the capacity to sympathize with the suffering of their fellow man, except those whose conscience has been seared over, but it requires the same or similar past experience to empathize with a person.
The writer of Hebrews says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). Jesus doesn’t just sympathize with your pain, He is able to empathize with you, whatever you are going through, because He has faced it Himself. What’s truly amazing is that He can suffer with you and celebrate with another of His children, a thousand miles away, at the same time. We sometimes can’t suffer or celebrate without it turning into sin and rebellion, but for Him, it never does.
Mother’s Day this year will mark 40 years in the ministry for me. I pastored 12 years before I was truly able to empathize with those who lost close family members. I officiated multiple funerals during that time and each time it broke my heart to see people that I loved and cared about suffer the loss of a close loved one. Yet it wasn’t until 1993, when my grandmother died, that I could really feel and understand what it was to lose someone who was that close to my heart.
Since then, I have lost my dad in 2000, my mom’s parents in 2004, my father-in-law in 2016 and the hardest of all, my son, Andrew on Jan. 1 of this year. Cindy and I know so many of you have been praying for us and our family, and we thank you and ask that you don’t stop. Until 1993, I could only feel sympathy for those families, but now I truly join them in their pain.
It makes me think of Jesus in John 11. He was walking with Mary, Martha and the Bethany townsfolk, who loved Lazarus to the grave. He saw their tears, heard their cries and deeply felt their grief. Jesus wept, not for Lazarus whom the Scripture says He loved, but for his sisters and friends because He empathized with them. He knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, showing the glory of the Son of God. He shed tears because their broken hearts broke His heart, but He rejoiced with them at their loved one’s resurrection.
I am learning something more and more every day — my savior understands my grief and feels it even more strongly than I do. He knows what it was to lose an earthly family member (Joseph and John the Baptist), but He feels deeply our pain as He does our joy. Our high priest can empathize with all who are His children. This encourages us to seek every avenue to turn to God in times of grief and joy.
President’s Perspective
By Dr. Scott Carson, President • Southeastern Baptist College
While I was serving in the U.S. Army, Linda and I were blessed to have been assigned to Europe twice. Our first overseas tour was for three years in Germany during the Cold War while we were facing off the Communists who were threatening to invade Western Europe. It was during this time that the Berlin Wall was removed, the Soviet Union collapsed and freedom was restored to many Eastern European countries.
The second time we were assigned to Europe, the Lord blessed us with an opportunity to live in four different locations over a period of eight years — twice in Germany, with assignments to Italy and Belgium. After a while, we became very comfortable living in these foreign nations.
Believe it or not, it was actually quite difficult to break away from my work as a chaplain in order to visit the many fascinating European sites. I often said that we would have toured more, except that work kept getting in the way!
Europe has a wonderfully developed train system. One can travel conveniently by train to almost any location, even to smaller towns and villages. Between the larger cities they have bullet trains that can travel over 100 miles per hour. During our time
There, we were able to travel on these rapid forms of transportation with ease and comfort instead of the alternative of fighting heavy automobile traffic. Trips that might otherwise have taken eight hours by driving, were only a couple of hours via bullet train!
Here at SBC, we often feel like we are on a bullet train in reference to the school calendar. The other day, a staff member mentioned that graduation is in a couple of months. I said it was more like a couple of days! They agreed that time flies here because of all the projects and work we do. We cannot afford to waste time by waiting to plan for a big event because, before we know it, we are already too late for efficient and well thought through planning.
The Army used the six-week rule for locking in their calendars and an event had to be on the calendar no less than six weeks out from its execution. We are also trying follow this rule, though COVID 19, and sometimes the weather, often interfere, especially with our sports programs.
Our Next Big Event
The National Day of Prayer Breakfast is on May 6 at 7:30 a.m. Our guest speaker is Leander Bridges, alumnus and pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church in Ellisville, Miss. Our own Lighthouse Café will cater the breakfast, and this event is free because of the gracious gift provided by Bethlehem Baptist Church of Laurel. Come join us as we pray for our communities and America at this special nationwide annual event!
Also, soon to be announced is the date and time of the 2021 graduation exercise.
Thank you again for your continuing support. SBC is on the fast track and it’s getting faster! Pray for us as we hurry to keep up with the Lord and His ever-expanding plans for your college.
Spring Chapel
For this Spring Semester chapel program, I set a message theme for all our visiting guest speakers — the theme is “A Christian World View.” It is found in the first line of the Southeastern Baptist College mission statement which reads, “Our
mission as a biblical higher education provider is to glorify God by providing quality post-secondary education from a biblical worldview in a Christian atmosphere.”
The Lord led me to set this theme after observing a growing anti-biblical movement that has been developing throughout the western world over several decades. The movement has gained great strength in recent years in our beloved homeland of the United States. I have concluded that all things biblical are under direct satanic attack and these attacks are now in full public view and even being perpetrated by many of America’s media companies.
The Bible and Christians, who believe in the God inspired and inerrant Scriptures, are being portrayed as backward, ignorant and bigoted people. Sins that are clearly defined by God Himself are being redefined as “normal” behavior, and anyone who says otherwise is labeled bigoted. This is an insidious world view that is outside of God’s perfect design for the human race and is based upon the teachings of Darwin wherein society’s opinion is the highest moral foundation that supersedes even the Word of God. Believers can refer to it as the “Darwinian World View” or
the “Secular World View.”
Topics I have assigned to guest speakers include: Jesus is the One and Only Lord, The Holy and Inspired Word of God, God’s Truth is not Relative but Eternal, Racism: There is Only One Race, the Human Race Created by God, Only 2 Genders Created by God, The Sin of All Forms of Fornication, Cursing and the Christian, Honesty and Integrity, Evolution and the Darwinian World View, The Importance of Church Attendance, The Sanctity of Human Life and the Sin of Abortion and The Christian Work Ethic.
As we moved through the semester, I wondered how these messages would impact our student body. Although each student must write their personal testimony and secure statements from their pastor and other spiritual leaders before attending SBC, it has become clear that most of our incoming students lack the very basics of Bible knowledge but are thoroughly indoctrinated by the Darwinian World View. I know these chapel topics must have sparked intense discussions among our students after each chapel program.
Every semester, we are required to distribute a questionnaire that asks students to comment and evaluate each class they participated in. Chapel is one of the classes evaluated as attendance, so it is required. Here are some sample student comments regarding chapel for this semester:
• “I look forward to the chapel services each week and learning more about a biblical world view on certain topics of today.”
• “I loved seeing the different aspects of speakers in chapel. I like that we can talk about things that aren’t easy to talk about. Chapel is a good fellowship of young believers.”
• “The speakers at chapel this semester were phenomenal.”
As the staff and I reviewed these comments, we were elated that the Lord is using us to have an eternal impact upon our students!
We are all so blessed with having this ministry here at SBC. What a tremendous privilege it is for the Lord to bring into our college family young people with whom we can share the eternal truth of God’s Word and help them grow in their knowledge and walk with the Lord.
Please continue to pray for the faculty, staff and students of SBC. We are in need of an immediate housing solution before next semester. We have more students wanting to be part of our school than we have housing. We are actively looking for homes we can purchase or rent near the college to put students in until we can build a new dorm, which will have to be in the next couple of years. It’s a good problem, but it’s still a problem! We know God has the solution. Might He be moving you to help us?
Camp Garwood News
By Chris Polk, Camp Director
Greetings from Camp Garwood! On April 9-10, we held our Spring Retreat. It had been so long since we had an organized event at camp, and we enjoyed seeing everyone.
Our next event is the Men’s retreat scheduled for April 30-May 1. Whether your church has an organized brotherhood or not, we encourage your men to attend. We always have a great time of fellowship, great food and this year we are planning a corn hole competition.
Beyond these retreats, we move our focus to getting the campgrounds ready for summer camp. We have asked groups to adopt various buildings and projects to help get everything cleaned up and ready. Many buildings have been adopted but there are a few still available. Please contact me at (573) 945-2213 if your group would like to help.
We are planning an official work weekend for June 26. Get your group ready and come work on your project! We’ll provide a meal Friday night and breakfast and lunch on Saturday. If this date doesn’t work for you, get with me because we are at camp most weekends from now until Sept. I will not be at camp May 8, 15, 22 or June 19. Beyond that, we should be there.
A couple weeks ago, we had a Trail Life campout at camp. We set up tents above Lanny’s Logyard and built a fire ring in front of the two benches on the hill. It worked out to be a very nice place to camp. The moon was bright
enough you could navigate very easily without a flashlight. As we lay in our tents (hammock) that night there were woodpeckers, owls, coyotes, dogs and one demented rooster that woke everyone up at 3 a.m. This was not our first time camping there, but it was a good reminder of all the things in God’s creation that we don’t often hear. It’s good to get outside beyond the sound restrictions of walls, tvs, phones, etc. and just enjoy the “quiet.” God is good and His creation, even in the basic setting of Garwood, is still amazing.
Back in my Boy Scout days, we had a solitude retreat. Each camper went out by themselves in the woods with two matches a raw egg and a canteen of water. We spent 24 hours with no human contact and no electronic devices. It was a weekend I’ll never forget. Partly because I cut my finger that night and still have a scar, but mostly because I was completely alone with God. We need time alone with God — no background noise, no tv, no ear buds nothing — just God time. Can I encourage you today to get alone with God? Let the world pass by for just a few minutes.
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psa. 46:10 ESV).