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October 2012 – Mission Director’s Report

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This past month I was involved in a 3-day long assessment of 8 church planting candidates and their wives for the BMA of America. During the assessment weekend, the candidates are asked to share their vision, their plan for reaching the community, demonstrate an ability to teach God’s word, demonstrate evangelistic skills, and also speak to a counselor about the state of their marriage. The assessment team is made up of 8 or more individuals and the purpose of the assessment is to help each candidate to fulfill God’s calling in their lives. Recommendations always include further training and an assignment of a coach to help them to move forward. It has been shown that when a missionary candidate receives assessment, training, and assigned a coach, his success rate will increase from around 25% and up to 80%. As someone who has been involved in 5 different church plants, I can say it is a brighter day within the BMAA for those who want to plant a new church and desire help in doing so.

One of the candidates in the assessment weekend was John and Alisha Herring. Bro. John and Alisha have been on the pastoral staff for
10 years with the Oasis Church in Maumelle, AR. If the Lord wills, they have a desire to move to Missouri to plant a church near the Springfield area. God has blessed their prayers and already two families from Oasis Church are making plans to relocate with them to begin this new work. In the next few months the Herrings will be on deputation seeking financial support from churches and individuals. If your church has a desire to become personally involved in church planting and working with a great family, please consider helping the Herrings with your support.

by Bro. Danny Kirk

September 2012 – Mission Directors Report

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From Our Director…Bro. Danny Kirk:
The Special Missions Committee met with church planting candidates, John and Alisha Herring at Bethel Baptist Church in Sikeston, MO. The committee was impressed with the Herring’s vision for Nixa, MO and their prospectus outlining their plan on how they will plant a church. A final recommendation concerning this couple will come before the BMA of Missouri after they have completed assessment. John and Alisha will be a part of the BMA of America’s church planting assessment weekend in September and afterwards continue to raise partnership support.

I attended the annual meeting of the BMA of South Western Missouri along with John Herring and Jamie Smith. It was a delight to meet with these churches and pastors. They voted during their association meeting to continue their mission support of Jamie Jones and to begin support of the Herrings in Nixa, MO. I praise the Lord for their support of the Lord’s work!

I recently hosted a 3 day retreat for all the North American church planters at the Meramec Retreat Center in Richwoods, MO. Eighteen men from across the nation came together for a relaxing time of skeet shooting, golfing, team building exercises, and great food. A big “Thank You” goes to Pastors Ben Kingston, Brad Banderman, Johnny Dover, and Jamie Haguewood for serving and loving on these men who are serving on the front lines of building God’s Kingdom. These men went back home refreshed and ready to charge ahead for the sake of souls! Pray for all of our church planters!

Some of those who attended the Church Planter’s Retreat at the retreat center in Richwoods, MO.

Wow, What a Place!

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Forty years ago my wife and I took our young family to a famous vacation spot. We could not afford the trip, but we went anyway. Wow! What a place! It had everything imaginable for us to vacation with our family. This past week my wife and I returned to the famous resort. Forty years of work had transformed it beyond “wow,” and it was now more than wow. The only reason we checked out of our room was because a man with a pistol came to our room, forced us to leave for other guests had reservations in this same room. I left reluctantly. Forty years of human imagination, planning, execution, vision, and lots of money had made this place even more a superlative vacation spot.

Jesus told us He was going to prepare a place for His kind of people. He told us he was coming again to take us there. It is a place in His Father’s community. It is a more than a “Wow!” kind of place. It is a place beyond human planning, vision, and yes, ability to construct. It is a place of perfect residence for those who love Him and look for His appearance. It is a place unequaled in human thought-“more than we could think.”

If very bright humans can build and continue to improve a famous vacation spot over forty years, imagine what the Son of God- the Creative Element of the universe, the Force that holds creation together- can do in His preparing a place for those who are His followers. He has been working on it more than forty years!

I do want to return to the famous vacation spot I left last week. I will have to reduce some credit card debt before I do. The “Wow!” place Jesus has for us is free. He asks me to put my life into His care, believe Him, trust Him, repent of my sins, and turn to Him for life—that is life of the same quality God Himself has. He wants to share the “Wow!” place with you and me. “Come with me to my Father’s house where there is joy, joy, joy.”

by Tony M. Cleaver

Paul Harvey’s America

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by Dr. John M. Adams • Executive Director – Moral Action

Paul Harvey (1918-2009) transformed radio by inspiring a nation to listen to common sense. This man was unique not only in radio voice but in timely sayings.

The brutal murder of his father shaped Paul Harvey’s life and career, howbeit, through many tears. He had a wonderful high school teacher who helped launch his career into radio. He became a champion for God, His church, those serving in uniform, and our American nation.

Paul Harvey wrote and quoted a prayer that he wrote in 1952. It was a plea for God to raise up a certain type of President for our country. The following is that excerpt:

“Almighty God, send us a leader.
A man with his feet planted firmly in American tradition.
A tall man…with his head above the fog of selfish interests.
Not a common man.
This time, God, send us an“Uncommon man”…a statesman.
We don’t deserve him, but send him anyway.
And hurry, please. The hour is late.
The candle of freedom burns low.”

In the foreword of the book by Stephen Mansfield and David Holland, Paul Harvey’s America, is presented the fact that Paul Harvey understood that America is unique in human history, a nation founded in a vision of freedom that was new in the world at that time.

Harvey wanted Americans to never forget the price our forefathers had to pay for freedom. He would give us the “Rest of the Story” series to teach us what little we knew of our Founding Fathers and Mothers. They were stalwart souls who paved a great path for each of us.

So, that is the reason that at the peak of his radio talk it was estimated that 24,000,000 people a week listened to his inspirational presentations of hope and love.

One of his greatest speeches was given on April 3, 1965. It is as follows:

“If I were the Devil…I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve; ‘do as you please.’ ‘Do as you please.’ To the young, I would whisper, ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is ‘square.’ In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’

“If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions…let those run wild. I would designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say ‘she’s right.’ With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

“If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my policestate would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.”

Paul Harvey, Good Day.

I recommend for enjoyable reading the patriotic common sense book, Paul Harvey’s America, written by Stephen Mansfield and David Holland, Tyndale House, $19.99.

What’s Up With The Walk for the World This Year?

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• Lifeword has partnered with the technology company, FirstGiving, to make individual, online registrations and donations possible on our safe and secure website at www.firstgiving.com/lifeword. Churches do not have to register with Lifeword now since individual registrations are possible. Individual registrations will automatically link you and your online donations to your church when you select your church on the registration page. If your church (team) is not listed, please give us a call at 1.800.543.1090, and we will add it to the website.
• If the technology option does not appeal to you please continue to raise money the way you always have in the past.
• By registering online and setting up your personal Walk page you have the opportunity to invite all of your social media contacts to make a donation to the Walk, and raise more money than you ever thought possible. All donors will automatically receive a tax receipt from FirstGiving for their records.
• Two churches have the opportunity to win Youth Room Makeovers. We hope this will be an added incentive for youth to register online and raise money. The makeover will be a great outreach tool for youth by giving them a nice place to invite friends and classmates to, and to get them involved in their church youth group program.
• All Walk details and materials are available for download at the above website address; however, if you would like to request colored posters or the Walk video on DVD, please give us a call or e-mail Diane Ward diane@lifeword.com.
• T-shirts are in house and ready to be shipped. The shirts are $12 again. The incremental shipping cost chart is listed on our website. You may order shirts online or by calling Lifeword at the number above.
• Our goal is $450,000! Won’t you help us raise money, which will allow us to reach out to more people around the world such as our African listener below who sent in this excerpt?

Muftao

•“Muftao” is my name. I have followed your program for some time now and today I want to confess that I have been in church for a very long years and I have not call Christ into my life. This program have brought me to my knees and has made me to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal saviour and friend. I would have died and go to Hell but I am free. I have come to know the truth. Thank you preacher, God bless you.”

by Diane Ward • National “Walk” Coordinator

August 2012 – Mission Directors Report

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Pastor Jamie Jones once again entered into the baptismal waters at Smithville Lake with 10 people in tow. That’s right…Ten more people were saved and baptized at North Lake Church. It is exciting to hear what God is doing with the Jones family in Smithville, MO. Please pray as they continue to raise-up new leaders and start new life groups in the homes of their people.

This month our Special Missions committee will meet with John Herring and discuss the possibilities of partnering with him to start a new work in Nixa, Missouri. I have visited this community and the potential is great for planting a new church. Pray that we have wisdom and clear direction as we seek God’s will in this manner.
Danny Kirk

The Lord Sought For A Man

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by Claude Evans, Stony Point Baptist Church
The nation of Israel wanted a king. They grew tired of the theocracy in which the Lord God of Abraham ruled over them. So God gave them a king, Saul the son of Kish.

What a figure Saul must have cast as he stood head and neck taller than anyone else in Israel. Surely such a man would make a fine king for God’s nation Israel.

Two years into his reign, I Sam. 13: 1, Saul takes it upon himself to offer a burnt offering instead of waiting for Samuel. Because of this Saul was rejected by the Lord. I Sam. 13: 14,

“But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after His own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over His people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”

Of course, we know that the “man after His own heart,” is David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Let’s look at the man that the Lord sought.

It is none other than David the youngest son of Jesse, a young shepherd boy. In the field while watching the sheep, a bear took a lamb. Imagine the fear in David’s heart. But he went after the bear, delivered the lamb, and slew the bear. Faith in God had given him the victory.

Later a lion came and took a lamb. David, armed with a faith that was proven, went after the lion, delivered the lamb, and slew the lion.

It is no wonder, to this writer, that David faced Goliath the giant with faith and confidence in what God was about to do. I Sam. 17: 37, David said,

“The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hands of this Philistine.”

God sought for a man of faith. A man that would glorify God in the victories he experienced. David was a man that was not afraid to spend time alone with God. David relied on the Lord as he kept the sheep, as he fought on the battlefield, and as he ruled as king over God’s people.

Will God find a man today? A man that loves his wife as Christ loved the Church. A man that will be a faithful father to his children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. A man that will lead his family in service to the Lord. A man that will faithfully worship and serve the Lord in a local church. God is seeking men today.
In Ezekiel 22: 30 God sought for a man and found none.

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”

As God seeks thru our land and country for men today, will you be the kind of man God is looking for? Oh, that God would raise up an army of men who would stand tall on their knees and intercede for our nation, for our churches, and for revival.

Will you answer His call or must He continue to seek for another?

National GMA Camp

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By Amanda Hall • National GMA Corresponding Secretary
The National Girls Missionary Auxiliary (GMA) held their annual retreat June 12-15 at Daniel Springs Baptist Encampment in Gary, TX. This year’s theme was BRB (Be Right Back) from Rev. 22:12. The theme song was “Glorious Day” by Casting Crowns.

There were 325 girls in attendance from 5 different states and over 40 different churches! The GMAs were blessed to see 7 girls accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The girls raised over $14,000 for the national project — 50% Daniel Springs, 45% Joplin Tornado Relief and 5% General Fund.

Tuesday night after everyone arrived, we had a wonderful message preached by our camp pastor, Donny Parrish. Wednesday, the Queens enjoyed a fabulous Queens’ Day at Iglesia Bautista in Carthage. They had pedicures, a crazy photo booth and some great food. The Queens also learned about modesty and “What Not To Wear.” Thank you to Carol Taylor, Queens’ Day Coordinator, for putting this together.

Back at camp, the girls from Maiden to the Princess step had forward step classes. They also made salvation bracelets and assembled Shepherd’s Bags for Evangelistic International Ministries (EIM). Wednesday night was Queens Coronation by Mrs. Teel Witt. The theme was “LOL: Live Out Loud” from James 1:19-27.

Thursday was a fun filled day of “Minute To Win It,” GMAs Got Talent, swimming and much more! The day concluded with the Miss and Jr. Miss presentation by Jayna Williams and Beth Caldwell. The theme was TBC (To Be Continued) from I Peter 2:1-2. The program thoughts were given by Charlotte Johnson and the results were: Alternate Jr. Miss GMA Kailee Martin of Mississippi, Jr. Miss GMA Megan Gunnels of Arkansas, Alternate Miss GMA Olivia Fairley of Mississippi and Miss GMA Katy Hicks of Arkansas.

Friday morning was the installation of 2012-13 officers by National WMA President Carolyn Colvert. Mrs. Colvert challenged everyone to pray for these officers this coming year: President Addie Bender of Arkansas, First Vice President Emily Luck of Arkansas, Second Vice President Katy Hicks of Arkansas, Recording Secretary Makaye Key of Texas, Corresponding Secretary Amanda Hall of Arkansas, Pianist Kaylen Fagala of Arkansas, Song Leader Olivia Fairley of Mississippi and Historian Hayley Maynard of Texas.

Newly-elected Second Vice President Katy Hicks announced the National GMA camp theme for next year — “We Are The Light Of The World” from Matthew 5:14-16. First Vice President Emily Luck announced the goals for next year’s GMA camp — 400 people in attendance and $ 25,000 for the project (90% Laura Kanaykina, Ukraine and 10% General fund.) The tentative dates for next year’s GMA camp are June 18-21.
For more information on the GMA program, GMA camp or how you can be a part of this organization, go to www.nationalgmaofbmaa.net or contact Corresponding Secretary Amanda Hall at Worthyisthelamb4.11@gmail.com or National WMA Director of Youth Auxiliaries Robin Clark at robinclark@windstream.net.

Missouri Ladies: Release the Lies, Retain the Promises

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Make plans to join us September 28-29 at the Drury Inn and Suites at Arnold to hear more.

The sessions Sis. Jaclyn Rowe will present will center around the life of Hezekiah.

What lies do we let creep in and cause us to question God’s deep love for us and His promises toward us? Based on the account found in Isaiah 36, Jaclyn brings women face to face with the lies that have been holding them back in their service and relationship to the King. Jaclyn brings the story full circle and encourages women to let go and press on by offering a fresh look at the amazing promises found in God’s word.

You REALLY don’t want to miss out on this! Register now and book your room. We hope to see you there.

Prisoners Bible Crusade

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Paul Lee, Director
As of May 31st the following reports show the the records for this year:
2,242 English Bibles; 140 Spanish Bibles; Bibles total,2,382; 0 New Testaments; All Study Books 500; 320 Study helps, total for all Bibles and material to date in 2012 is 3,202. These were sent into 19 prisons.

Chaplains report 131 people saved (20,420 since 1/1/2000). 2 new Chaplains requesting Bibles for the 1st time in 2012. PBC’s Evangelistic Team has conducted 10 Worship services in prisons in 2012. (Since 1973, 210,633 Bibles; 58,099 New Testaments; Total Bibles and material: 622,801.)

I have traveled 6,724 miles. I have personally seen 5 confession of Faith in Jesus Christ in 2012 (347 since 1/12000), and 7 Re dedications; visited 5 churches, 16 association meetings and 50 prison visits, taught 42 Bible study classes, taught 1 volunteer worker’s class, preached 10 sermons in prisons and sent a total of 55 CD/DVD sermons into prisons.

The new jail in Hancock County, Mississippi in now open and we put the very first Bibles and study books into the jail. Also, I am now serving as a Volunteer Chaplain there one day a week. When Worship Services start there we plan to take our evangelistic team in for services.

Once again our thanks for your prayerful support of this Bible Ministry!! Isaiah 55:11 inside prisons!

Letters:

From a Missouri Pastor: Hello Bro. Lee: We met at the national meeting in Jackson, MS. I also do jail and prison minis¬try. I go to three county jails and to the Southeast Correctional Facility at Charleston, MO. You gave me a case of Bibles at the meeting and I really appreciate them and the opportunity to get the Word of God to those who are in lock up. If you could please send more Bibles, it would be greatly appreciated. J.A.

From an Inmate in Florida
Dear Sirs, My name is C.B. I am a inmate at Wakulla Correctional Institute in FL. I came upon your booklet, “Starting My Life with Christ” and “How to deal with sin in daily Life” here at the prison. I am writing to you in hopes that you offer a Bible study course. If so, I’d like to sign up for it. I thank you for your time and caring; May you be blessed.

A note from Brother Paul:
We do not offer Bible study courses. When we receive a letter from Inmates for Bible study courses we direct them to other prisons ministries that do give them. I have a list of 7 ministries that will give Bible study courses to prisoners.

pbc8paul@datasync.com
Phone 601-798-1341