Missions Reports

April 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

It’s April and Only one month and a few weeks away from our Missions Symposium on Friday May 14th and the Mid-Year State Associational Meeting on the 15th both at New Testament, Sullivan.

I am looking forward to both, 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. Yes, there are many important things on this earth that require our attention. 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, 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 ESL outreach: these are their names:

Omar, Cecilia, Janet, Maria, Antonio, Xiomara, David, Arturo, Jorge,
Judith, Alma, 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.

Today (4/5 – 5/15) at 12;00 will start another 40 days of prayer for “Men of Peace” discipleship study that starts Sunday (4:11) at 2:00 p.m.

Thank you again,
Harvest is plenteous!
May the Lord richly bless you is my prayer.
Bro. Ben

March 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page from My Heart

Most everything we own will outlive us. The question is: will our influence? I am wearing a dead man’s shoes. I love the shoes, they are comfortable. But remembering the one I got them from is even more comforting. Jim is a good man. The reason I say this is because he is still as alive as Moses or Abraham. Yet, his time here on earth is done, as mine will be soon.
Dear Christian, what are you doing that will last? Will your influence outlast your possessions and your body? How can we make sure that our influence doesn’t fade when our life does? The key is to not make our possessions our focus because they will be somebody else’s soon enough. But to make our influence on our loved ones and those that we are called to love our focus.

Does Matthew 28:18-20 guide your life? Are you living each day, each moment for the Gospel’s sake? Now you and I know that no one makes 100%, but is it our focus? You see, success is not what we are called to, but obedience is. Every time we fail is an opportunity to start again.
Recently, we as a people (Christianity) have been dealt a punch in the gut with the revelations of Ravi Zacharias and his moral failings. Many of us who were blessed, encouraged, and instructed by his teachings have struggled with how to answer people on the fallout. A friend of mine that we sharpen each other through text for the gospel’s sake, asked me what I thought. This is my answer:

I do not believe that man’s flesh negates the Spirit’s instruction. Now, does it make it harder for mortal man to stomach it? Well certainly, but that gets us back to the “he who has no sin cast the first stone” discussion. Am I saying that it’s no big deal? Absolutely not! It’s about the worst-case scenario a Bible teacher could experience, as far as stumbling at the finish line. For those who do not want to believe the difficult truths that the Spirit taught through him, they now have their excuse! And for those of us who want to believe, we have our doubts because of the fragility of someone we thought was the Rock of Gibraltar!

Personally, I believe that everything he taught that is confirmed by the Word is still valid and usable; we just will probably have to leave his name out of it when we quote him, which most likely should be judgment enough. I can only imagine the pain, the grief, shame, doubt, and despair that his wife, children, family, friends, and associates are going through because every one of them knows the validity of the truths that he taught. They know the validity of scripture, and here their crown jewel teacher has marred all of that. Obviously, we can rise above this, but we’re going to have to seek the Spirit’s healing and navigation through this.

So again, dear Saint, I implore you be obedient to the Gospel and the righteousness that the Gospel demands, and one day soon you will hear your Master say, “well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into your rest.” And maybe, just maybe your nephew or niece will gain a possession you once had and remember the influence of a loving uncle or aunt more than the possessions.

Please remember Bro. Juan and his lovely family as they labor for souls. A special thanks to all our churches for your prayers and support of the missions department of Missouri.

Ben Kingston

February 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart….

As you know, we have passed motions in both the Meramec Association and the BMA of MO to support Bro. Juan Fernandez as a North American missionary in the St. Louis region. We are not the lead in this effort, but God has used the fact that we are in a healthy financial situation to get this ministry started. Bro. Juan is excited to get started and so are we!

The Meramec Advisory Committee and Bro. Hoffmann met with Bro. Juan for prayer during his forty days of prayer campaign, Thursday, January 28th. It was a joy to hear what was going on and to pray for him and his family. He has joined Bethany Baptist Church and they have voted to allow him to use their building as home base. The hope is to build small Bible study groups in the area and eventually start holding services in the basement of the church. Bethany has wonderful facilities, and we are so appreciative of them assisting Bro. Juan in this effort. I know they are excited, also.

Bro. Juan received His citizenship last week, and we congratulate Him for that tremendous achievement! He has expressed a desire for anyone in our work that has contact with Hispanics to please get their contact information to him so he can begin building bridges with them for the Gospel’s sake. Currently, Bro. Juan is looking for people to reach in the St. Louis region, but I know He is open to any contacts. You can call or text those to Bro. Juan (618-581-8056) or myself (636-629-2526).

Please pray for Juan and his family as they dive into this wonderful ministry.

P.S. The following is from Bro Juan himself:
Hi! I’d like to add two items: By God’s grace this 2/8/21 my wife and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary and this new stage of 40 days of prayer and evangelism prayers will be for protection and guidance as we will be knocking on doors in the neighborhood around to share the gospel from 2/1 to 3/12 This stage starts today. Also, we have a page in Facebook to connect with our Hispanic friends: Ministerio para familias hispanas en Missouri.
Thank you, brother!!
Juan
Amen, Bro Juan!

So, if you will, dear reader, read this next part as a prayer:
Dear Father, you know and see the requests that are listed here from Brother Juan. We’re praying first of all, that you would continue to bless the marriage and this family as they join hands and arms together in this ministry to reach the Hispanic community, and anyone that You bring them to, for Your glorious gospel. We pray for protection as they knock on doors and as they share your gospel in these next 40 days and beyond. We pray that you will give them souls for their labors and give them additional laborers to help in this effort. We ask all these things in your Son’s holy and precious name, Amen.

Bro. Ben, BMA of MO Missions Director

News from Todd & Tina Cox BMAA Missionaries at StonePoint Church North GA

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2020…what can I say? It is been a crazy year to say the least. We have all used and overused some words this year such as: Unprecedented, Pandemic, COVID-19, Coronavirus, and more! I know you all experienced many things as a family and at your local churches.

First and foremost, we know that God is still on His throne and in control! Praise the Lord!! We also are very thankful for you, our prayer and financial partners. Without your prayers and gifts and the Lord’s multiplication math, we couldn’t do what He has called us to do. Thank you again!!

As the year kicked off and as we headed into March, we were trending towards excellent growth headed towards year 4 as a church. Based on our attendance numbers, we were all set to launch to two services towards the end of March. And then…the pandemic hit us all! We had to close our doors to the public just as many other churches did. This obviously put a halt on two services. Thankfully, we had already been streaming our services live to Facebook for a couple of years so we were ahead of the curve and were able to help many churches get going as they started online streaming.

After being closed to the public for almost 3 months, we were able to open back up for in-person services in June on Father’s Day. We went ahead and launched 2 services when we reopened to allow for social distancing and growth. We were thankful to be able to meet back in person but the pandemic and closure certainly hurt our growth.

In September, after much prayer, we decided to go from two services back to one service due to the lower numbers returning in person and the taxing on our worship team and volunteers. Within a month we began growing again and things were looking promising. Unfortunately, around Thanksgiving, many in our church, including all of our staff, came down with COVID-19. We closed the doors again to in-person services for 3 weeks and I preached online only. We are all better now and were able to reopen for in-person services again December 20th.

We also lost two special women in our church this year. In March we lost Nan Brown to her battle with cancer. Nan started coming to our church about 6 months after our launch and came to help her aunt find a church. She ended up falling in love with us and us with her. We were able to hold her funeral at StonePoint a week before the shutdown.

In November, we lost the wife of our former worship leader to cancer as well. Rebecca Rothenberger was a sweet young lady and mother of 2 boys. She gave her life to the Lord while at StonePoint and was baptized on our 1 year anniversary. She battled lung cancer a year and was in remission when the cancer came back very aggressively. Our church continues to minister to the Rothenberger family and has help set up a college fund for the boys.

Praises from 2020 – StonePoint is still reaching people, preaching the Word, discipling others, baptizing believers, helping in our local community, nationally and internationally!! We know God is still in control and He is still faithful so we must continue to be faithful to what He has called us to do and we know He will provide as we continue to step forward in faith! This year, we have helped more people and more ministries than ever before.

Locally, we have helped families affected by the pandemic through sickness or job loss/reductions. We still partner with The Place which provides food, clothing, job assistance, and financial assistance to those in need. We partner with Family Promise which helps local families that have found themselves homeless. We continue to provide backpacks for students in need as well as providing presents for children in need during Christmas. This year, we provided 40 electronic Bible Sticks to military personnel that didn’t have a Bible.

StonePoint is also partnering with the Risner Family in Romania, as well as sponsoring children in need in Indonesia and other areas. We are a Mission Church living out the Mission and supporting other Missions!!

God has worked mightily in the lives of many people since we moved to Georgia and starting meeting people and holding Vision Casting meetings in our house. What started from our family is now over 40 families representing over 100 people that call StonePoint home in 4 years is amazing!!

We have had nearly 60 Baptisms and many of those have been entire families! We’ve seen over 20 professions of faith, and countless lives have been changed! Marriages being healed, and families being restored through accepting and giving forgiveness. People have been released from the bondage of sin and the shame of their past. We have also seen the miracle of God’s healing touch as several people have been completely healed of many things!! Praise God and help us celebrate Life Change for Christ!! We Are Thankful for YOU!! Because of your faithfulness, StonePoint has been able to reach out to many people in North Georgia. Your investments have also helped us invest into the lives of hundreds of different people that have come through our doors. Lives have been transformed by the power of Jesus. People have been Saved, Baptized, Rededicated their lives, Addictions have been broken, Marriages have been healed and restored, families have gotten control of their finances, people have asked for and given forgiveness and shown grace. All this has happened through the combined efforts of everyone’s prayers and financial support and willingness to get involved and make a difference. Thank you for making a difference!!

January 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page from my heart…

Dear churches of the state of Missouri,

Three months in and I am extremely excited about what God is doing!

Because of the deadline for material for the paper, we do not yet know the outcome of the Missionary committee vote, at the time I am writing this article, but I do very much hope, pray, and expect support to be approved of Bro. Juan Fernandez. The local Meramec Association has already begun support.

Bro. Juan hopefully will be planting a Spanish-speaking church under the auspices of Bethany Baptist Church. Bro. Juan and his wife joined Bethany a couple of weeks ago and the church has already voted to allow them to use the facilities and be the mother church of the church plant. We are excited about the possibilities and probabilities of that.

I ask you to pray for Bro. Juan. It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to say that we have a missionary working in the state of Missouri with both the state and a local association supporting.

This is similar to the church plant in Nixa, in that the national work was the impetus used to get it started, so please pray for both of these churches. It’s’s my understanding that the church in Nixa is now full support so we praise God for that! Now this mission is getting started, so please, please, please pray for them.

I am hoping to be in touch soon with those who have reached out to me to come and present the mission work of Missouri.

I have two churches already that have requested a visit. It is my intention to take up to one Sunday evening per month to go to other churches. I am also open to getting several churches in an area to meet together for a Saturday night meeting to lessen the need to miss a Sunday from Bethel’s pulpit. Let me know if you would be interested in setting up such a meeting.

I served on the national missionary committee during Bro. Grady Higgs’ term as Director, and I saw him turn around a program through prayer. Now, I don’t believe that this department needs turning around as much as we need men and fields to go to and those challenges will be met through prayer. Will you join me in daily seeking the throne for men and fields and finances to reach these goals for the Glory of the Lord?

PS:
We had a wonderful meeting last evening (Tuesday, January 5th) on the conference call. I am so appreciative to Bro. Claude Evans and all the churches’ missionary committeemen that participated. We had a unanimous positive vote as we voted to support Bro. Juan Fernandez as our missionary from the standpoint of we are going to support him to the tune of $28,000 a year from the state association. The Meramec local Association will also contribute support as both associations work in cooperation with the BMA of America. Please pray for Bro Juan and His family as He seeks “men of peace” and their families to build the kingdom work in reaching Hispanics in the St. Louis region.

Ben Kingston, BMA of MO Missions Director

December 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

Ben KingstonDear churches,
Most people know what someone means when they refer to a person as having a ‘Type A’ personality: self-driven, goal-oriented, strong leader, etc. While I would never refer to myself this way, I have heard a ton of people try to push me into this mold. So, let me say quickly that I see myself more as a person who wants to affect change and accomplish goals for the Lord’s kingdom. If that makes me an A-type personality, so be it! But, all this has been said to make a funny about the fact that my first two months as your director has been anything but earth-shaking and motivational!

We had an amazing start to it with a wonderful meeting with Juan Fernandez and both missions committees from the Missouri State and the Meramec associations. More to be said on this soon. Please pray for Juan and our Association as we prepare this project to present to the churches.
Then, November 9th I was quarantined until December 1st! The quarantine started with taking care of Dawn and Molly, and then Tony. As of this writing, God has spared me from contracting the virus, for which we are very thankful, since I am diabetic. Dawn, Molly, and Tony all had mild cases, for which we are also very grateful.

Thank you to all who prayed for me and my family. Bethel has been amazing in their support of their pastor during this time.

And lastly, you may have heard that my father-in-law Ken Burnett passed away November 22nd, so you can see it’s been a difficult month. As of this writing, we do not have his arrangements settled yet.

A word of honor and memorial: Suffice it to say, Ken is easily in the top three of the most influential men in my life. He had reached 90 years of age, and his death date was also his 68th wedding anniversary. He married Joan Hoff 68 years ago and it was clearly his best decision. God then blessed him with Debbie, Diane, Denise, and Dawn, who are definitely his greatest accomplishments. He loved, supported, and mentored His sons-in-law: Jerry Grodie (whom he is reunited with in heaven, and who was a faithful husband, father, and worker in Ken’s heating and plumbing business), Gavin Hooks (who has followed Ken’s footsteps as a faithful and successful husband, father, and business owner), and myself.

Ken was most proud of his daughters and their accomplishments. He was a faithful child of God, church member, deacon, treasurer, business owner, school board president, St. Clair citizen, and that’s just to name a few of his accomplishments. He was also very involved on all three levels of the BMA.
So, to come full circle, I am still studying our missions program and trying to prayerfully shape my approach on how to design, teach, and grow the missions effort in the BMAMO. Please pray with me in this effort.

Please Note:
Stacie sent out an e-mail to all our pastors, clerks, and/or missionary committeemen last week to ascertain the viability of holding a Missionary committee meeting via a conference call in December. So far, I have gotten all positive feedback but if you are the missionary committeeman of the church you attend and didn’t get this e-mail, please contact us and get us your information so you can be part of this conference call.

We will discuss the meeting that was held with Bro. Juan and the motions that the special missions committee made regarding our support of him as a missionary in the St. Louis region. (I was asked by Bro. Claude Evans, our missionary committee chairman, to set up the conference call, and then he will conduct the meeting when it is arranged.

Here are the best ways to communicate with me:
My Cell • (636) 629-2526
My E-mail • Bethelbaptistchurch@live.com
Bethel Church Office • (636) 629-2978

May the Lord bless you and His churches,
Bro. Ben

November 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

Dear Sister Churches:

I hope things are going well for you in this Thanksgiving and Christmas season! Believe it or not, we are in this time of year as well as deer season, but that’s a whole different topic!

I am thrilled to be your newly-elected state Missions Director. We had a tremendous meeting with Brother Juan Fernandez last month. There will be much more information coming about this potential effort when it is available. Please be praying for this opportunity and for the state and local association involvement.

This first month is basically getting acclimated to the needs and expectations of this office. We set up a bank account this week and would remind you to update the address to send your Missions offerings:

BMA of MO Missions
c/o 1220 Park Drive
St. Clair, MO 63077

If I, as the Missions Director, can help you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me by calling: (636) 629-2526
or writing to:

BMA Missions Director
569 Bethel Church Rd.
Lonedell MO 63060

In the months to follow, I will be using this article to flesh out the dream and desire of carrying out missions through our state association churches. I would beg you to pray for me to be led and guided by the Holy Spirit as to how He wants this department to work, and specifically for our churches that we would carry out mission on a local, state, national, and global level.

I am praying for our Pastors and Churches to have a clear understanding of what that should look like. May the Lord richly bless you this month as you strive to carry out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ben Kingston

Latest News from the Philippines

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by Missionaries Stan & Donna Scroggins

While things seem to be opening up, we are still not able to return. We pray our visa type will be next on the list.

It has now been three months since our first departure back to the Philippines was canceled. Donna and I are doing our best to stay in contact with all our ministry partners in the Philippines and teaching “on-line” classes each week. We will keep everyone updated as to our status. As soon as the door opens to return we are “out of here!” We are receiving encouraging “notions” that doors will open soon for our return. Pray with us that it will not be too long.

We received word from the Bible College of the need to help with providing food for students during the weekends. Due to the lock-down students are not able to go to their respective weekend work locations and are quarantined on the campus. Thank you, Northview Baptist Church and Pastor Mike Cantrell for helping us with funds to purchase food to feed our students over the weekends.

The Ati People

The Ati people are an indigenous group of tribal people living in the mountains of our island Negros Occidental. These are groups of indigenous tribes isolated in the mountains and islands throughout the country. These people predate modern “Polynesians” Filipinos and genetically are related to Australian Aborigines. The Philippine government protects the culture of these tribal people by restricting outside contact with them. Access is by invitation only. About two years ago Donna was invited to do ministry with the tribe and we began a work with them. The BMA of America Missions department supports a Filipino missionary who works directly with the tribe. We now have a church in their village and our first Ati student, Roter Enario, at the Bible College. During the lock-down, and because of their extreme isolation, word was sent out of starvation and famine conditions in the tribe affecting some 40 families. Thank you to Pastor Eric Goble and Brister Baptist Church, Pastor Randy Murphy and First Baptist Church and Pastor Dan Wisely and Kewanee Baptist Church who have helped us get food to the tribe.

Let me introduce to you our newest hero.

Pastor John Rey Vallejera, (Pastor JoJo), is a graduate of our Bible College. He is also our BMAA Filipino missionary serving as church planter in Hong Kong. Recent unrest in Hong Kong forced him and his family to return to the Philippines. Because of the lock-down in the Philippines Pastor JoJo has not been able to return to Hong Kong. With that being said his delay has allowed him to serve as a conduit to distribute food to the Bible College students and to the Ati Tribe in the mountains of the Philippines. Also, Pastor JoJo has been able to get a travel pass which allows him to freely travel across quarantine lines. Thank you, Pastor JoJo, for your love of your people and for working to help us get food to them.

October 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

This will be the new article tag from me from this point forward while I am your missions director.

Saturday October 10th at Zion Baptist Church in St. Louis at our annual Baptist Missionary annual meeting of the State Association the churches approved the recommendations of the Special Missions Committee to hire me as their Missions Director. And believe it or not, the vote passed.

I have had a burden for this ministry since hearing that Bro. Hoffmann was going to resign.

I Do not, in any level, feel qualified but I do feel called and yes, I am depending on the age old cliché that God qualifies the called!

I have a burden for our missions effort throughout the state and have a tremendous desire to see our churches once again answer the call to plant churches.

We have set aside the next three months for training and will be getting to you the address for where to send your missions offerings. (It is on Page 1 of this issue.) But my first challenge is for each church to make a special effort to lift up the Director and Direction of Departments of our state work, and to specifically ask God to direct us to who our first mother church and church planter will be.

Our nation could be forever changed by a church planting revival and we could be one of God’s tools to accomplish this.

May the Lord richly bless and direct us in this effort.
Bro. Ben…

From Our Former Missions Director…

I hope you are as excited as I am as you read the above note from Bro. Ben! I look forward to seeing what God will do as we refocus on His commission for us in the world today. God has been working even though we have had some discouraging things happen during this year, and I want to emphasize the blessing that the Special Missions Committee has been to me even though we could not meet and get “our plans” put into action at the time and in the manner we wanted. God has been using this group of men to encourage me as we sought God’s will in our recommendations not only in this past year but the entire time I have served as Missions Director. Thank you brethren for your patience, love, devotion and dedication as we have served together. Bro James Hoffman

August 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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This week I have been contacted by representatives of two of our churches who wanted to get some advice or help in the dispersion of funds and/or items from their churches who have reached the point of closing their doors.

Needless to say, this is not the kind of news we want to hear, but it is becoming a reality too often. Neither of these decisions are the result of anything that has happened in the last few months of upheaval in our country, but are the result of separate circumstances in each church and have been made after much prayer and soul-searching.

I commend those in charge of both these churches for wanting to make sure their assets and property are used in a way to help other churches or various ministries of our associated work and that is why they have made contact for assistance or guidance in these matters.

In the last year I have had conversations with several local churches who are showing concern over decreasing attendance and lack of growth due to various reasons including, a lack of pastors who are available, decreasing funds coupled with increasing costs, decreased interest or enthusiasm in church growth, or just overall weariness in working as God leads.

I realize there are Biblical remedies for all of our problems and we should never want to give up doing what we can to keep our doors open.

But there are also times when God is no longer working through certain congregations and He is ready for those involved to seek His guidance and do whatever will help all involved. Sometimes we reach the point when we must move on and get refocused and refreshed spiritually, just like we need refreshed physically, morally, and intellectually.

When we see our fellow Christians making some decisions that we are not pleased with we need to be careful to not criticize them, but show love and give encouragement to them as they seek God’s will. Even if our friends in Christ are getting on the wrong track, we need to follow Paul’s advice to the Galatian Christians in Galatians 6:1. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Never condone any wrong but encourage what is right.

I’m not condemning those churches who feel they must close, but I am encouraging us to prayerfully help one another to do what God knows is best and to encourage those who have to make some very difficult decisions at various times in their ministry.

We know not what we might face in the days ahead, but we know God knows all things and He will guide us to do what is best as we seek His leadership.

Let’s pray for one another as we follow God!

by James Hoffman