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a page from my heart

June 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

What an amazing May it has been for the Kingston family and the State Association!

The Kingston’s saw their youngest graduate High School and leave for an 11 week camp for the summer. We saw our oldest son be ordained to the ministry and then Dawn and I spent the last week on vacation because our February trip was upended due to my having covid! We ended our trip by swinging through Little Rock, AR to visit my 80 + year old mother! So to say it has been a busy month would be an understatement but it was a good month!

Bethel is firing up for VBS this week which Iam sure many of you are doing at your respective churches.

On a Director of Missions note, my cup is full from the Missions Symposium and the State Meeting that we had on May 14th and 15th at New Testament Baptist in Sullivan.

Special thanks to New Testament and Bro. Josh Wright and His family for the amazing way they carried out the host duties! The facilities were top notch and the food was excellent as well along with the tremendous hospitality. Their goal was to bless the association and I would say, “Goal Accomplished!

I was excited about the reception of the “bmamo benchmark assessment” that was presented and we had at least five churches mention that they would like to be pilot churches. The Hope and goal is to have all of our bmamo churches involved with the benchmark assessment.

If you as the pastor want more information or were not able to be with us and you would like to discuss this with me please contact me at your convenience.

I will be with Bro. Terry Sharpe soon and at Stoney point on July 14th. If you are close to these churches please try to attend so you can hear more about this exciting effort to raise the bar of missions awareness in our work. The date is not set with Bro. Sharpe yet, but I will get word to those churches in his area when it is.

Or if you would like to schedule a Wednesday evening with the missions director through the summer there are a few dates left.

On a closing note, please pray for Bro. Juan and the missions effort in which he and his family is involved. They saw a precious soul come to the Lord this week. So proud of them and the work the Lord is doing through them.
Also please pray for protection for our camps this summer and everything that involves. From protection from thieves, to protection of our campers, to the salvation of many souls.

May the Lord bless you is my prayer:
Ben Kingston,
Director of Missions
BMA of Missouri
636-629-2978 Work
636-629-2526 Cell

May 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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Dear churches of the Baptist Missionary Association of Missouri:

I pray this article finds you enjoying the fellowship of our Lord. This will be shorter than normal because the lion’s share of what I would put in this article will be discussed in detail on May 14 at our Missions symposium at New Testament in Sullivan, MO.

I’ve had a burden for some time now of raising the awareness of our national, state and local missions efforts in our local churches and have a ‘benchmark assessment’ to unveil at the symposium that I believe, accompanied with a missions pamphlet, will help our churches achieve this needed step of being aware of what we are doing in the area of missions and what we still need to do.

What I will be asking at the meeting is for pilot churches to try this emphasis by taking the benchmark assessment twice a year and employing the pamphlet to increase the score on the assessment the next time it is given. I was pleasantly surprised at the response from Bethel when we rolled out the assessment and I am excited about the prospects of increasing awareness in our churches and ultimately increasing our missions effort within our work.

Personally, I have a low tolerance of someone “beating up” on the Lord’s Church so please be assured that is not the intention. This is an effort to accurately assess where we are and make improvements as needed.
This Association and our individual churches are very faithful to financially support our local, national, and global missions efforts and this missions director is so thankful. However, it is time we look at the other areas we can support and make improvements where necessary.

May the Lord bless you is my prayer,
Ben Kingston

Remember our Missionary:
Please continue to lift up Bro. Juan Fernandez’s family and ministry. Please read his article and support where you can.

On a local Association note:
Meramec churches, if you have not received an email with info for this year’s Jesus Camp please contact me at 636-629-2526. It is time to start promoting state camp and Jesus camp!

Note to All Pastors:
Please set aside March 25-26, 2022 for our next Renewal Retreat where Dr. Hooks will discuss his new book, “The Core Principle.” This book is an excellent candidate for a Bible study or Sunday school format.

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

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

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