The memorandum was signed July 1 on the eve of the CBF General Assembly in Houston, Texas.

“My hope and prayer is that several among our CBF family will sense a calling to ministry in Japan among our Japanese brothers and sisters,” said Rob Nash, the Fellowship’s coordinator of global missions. “This is a significant opportunity to express gifts of teaching and worship leadership in a challenging ministry context.”

In the three-year partnership, the Fellowship and Japan Baptist Convention will coordinate their efforts related to church planting, faith sharing and education ministries.

As part of the partnership, the Fellowship will work with the Convention to facilitate short-term mission engagements for Fellowship Baptists to serve at Convention churches in Japan. The primary ministry of mission personnel will be teaching English in the local churches.

“The Japanese Baptist Convention and CBF view this partnership as a creative and innovative means to share the love of Christ and increase the influence and number of Japanese Baptist churches,” said Harry Rowland, CBF’s director of missional church ministries. “For those willing to minister in a cross cultural environment this partnership provides a wonderful opportunity. The very fact that one speaks English is a missional tool which – with a little training – becomes the entry point for others being introduced to the love of God.”

The Japan Baptist Convention was formed by 12 churches in 1947 and founded on a commitment to church planting and mission work. Today, the Convention consists of more than 270 churches with approximately 34,000 members. The Convention is a financially independent missions sending and equipping organization.
 
To learn about partnership opportunities with the Japan Baptist Convention, contact Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

“This partnership offers the local church a proven model of how to create a congregational mission experience in a local setting,” said Harry Rowland, CBF’s director of missional church ministries. “It is not enough to just believe that every Christian is a missionary. One also has to go on mission. CBF is committed to being a missional journey partner with congregations, and Operation Inasmuch assists local churches in how to use events to strategize long-term. In the partnership, we are helping churches transform their communities by being the presence of Christ.”

In the three-year partnership, the Fellowship and Operation Inasmuch will coordinate their efforts related to congregational engagement in local communities. The organizations will share resources and work together to foster transformational engagement both locally and globally.
 
Operation Inasmuch began in 1995 at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C. Its mission is to “empower congregations worldwide to catalyze community ministry with the Operation Inasmuch model and create a culture of compassion ministry.” The organization facilitates regional and city-wide mission events through the training of local church leaders. The events are designed to provide people of all ages with opportunities to serve in a single day.
 
“We are pleased to enter into a working relationship with CBF to facilitate the mobilization of CBF congregations to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their community,” said David Crocker, executive director of Operation Inasmuch. “We share a common vision of seeing churches return to the biblical mandate to put good deeds with the good news as spelled out by Jesus in Nazareth in Luke 4. God will use this relationship to transform churches and communities.”
 
To learn about partnership opportunities with Operation Inasmuch, contact Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

Mostly Hispanic migrant workers, these caretakers do everything from groom and saddle horses to lift hay bales and clean stalls. It equates to long hours, low pay and a hard life, where they’re often invisible or overlooked – but not to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Diann and Phil Whisnand. 

As racetrack chaplains, the Whisnands are a spiritual presence on the “backside” of the Emerald Downs track, where nearly 800 workers, mostly migrants, will live and work through the end of racing season in October. 

By opening race day in mid-April, the number of racehorses at Emerald Downs grows to more than 1,250 racehorses – many of which earn less racing than what it costs to feed and care for them. With slim profit margins, workers are paid often below minimum wage, making it nearly impossible to afford living anywhere but the backside’s dorm rooms or in a small tack room with saddles, bridles and other equipment.

The backside is like “a small town in the middle of nowhere,” said the Whisnands, natives of Midland, Texas, complete with its own celebrations, defeats, good times and bad. And for all of that, the Whisnands are there, supporting an isolated, mostly male Hispanic population in the northwestern United States.

In the horse racing world, the Whisnands said Hispanics are often hired by horse trainers for their widely-known skill with high-spirited horses. In the off-season, some workers will move with the horses to another farm or training facility, and others might return home to their families in Mexico and Central and South America for a brief visit before returning to the track. 

“For many, it is a life of dangerous work, isolation, loneliness, alcohol, drugs, depression, suicide and even murder,” said Phil, a graduate of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. “We are there to offer them hope.”

Usually wearing a hat or coat with “CHAPLAIN” on it, the Whisnands are easy to notice and often called upon to help. Once, Phil was called to a barn, where a worker had just died of a heart attack. Later he delivered the devastating news to the man’s wife, who asked the Whisnands to conduct the funeral in a racetrack facility.

“It was an opportunity to speak to the whole backside about life after death,” said Diann, a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.

The Whisnands offer chapel services and Bible studies in English and Spanish. Diann leads Spanish and English songs, and sometimes a worker brings an instrument and plays.  Phil preaches, and during one sermon about forgiveness, a man interrupted and asked why he should forgive people in that room who were mean to him. Phil encouraged him to do as Jesus said, looking at his own heart before blaming others.

“The man agreed and said he’d give it a try,” Phil said.

By the end of racing season, trust is built and some workers will linger after chapel or dinner to meet with the Whisnands about personal struggles or for spiritual counseling. Diann also looks for ways to specifically minister to the few women working at the track.

In a given week, the Whisnands’ ministry might include providing food, clothes, medicine and transportation to the doctor. Sometimes they visit the hospital when a worker has been injured. And most recently they have started a program to help connect addiction counselors to the many workers who fight loneliness and isolation through alcohol and drug use. “Without affordable or free intervention, it can easily spiral out of control,” Diann said. 

More and more the Whisnands are expanding the ministry to involve churches and Christians, who by helping with the ministry can minister in an international setting without leaving the United States. Already some churches gather clothes and blankets to donate or provide an occasional hot meal for workers, who may be “down to their last dollar” and worried about when their next meal will be.

One 75-year-old woman sponsored a migrant family for a Christmas outreach project.  Though she was nervous about interacting with people of another culture and language, she found purpose in the experience and wants to help again.

“Helping people discover and fulfill their God-given mission, even if they are 75 years old, is very worthwhile,” Diann said.

The Whisnands know a little something about joining God on mission. In 2005, after years of involvement in short-term missions in Mexico and Peru, Phil, a veterinarian, and Diann, an educator, left their jobs to be commissioned as CBF field personnel. As certified chaplains with Racetrack Chaplaincy of America, they began their work at Hollywood Park racetrack in Los Angeles and moved to Emerald Downs in 2008.

“I really feel at home when I am walking on the backstretch and talking with the workers, sharing God’s love,” Phil said.

“Christ was born in a manger, and that’s exactly the lowly place in which our ministry takes place. We walk with these ‘manger dwellers,’ talk with them, eat with them, and pray with them. We are their trusted friend. They can depend upon us for help,” Diann said.

As with many CBF field personnel, the Whisnands are financially supported through CBF’s Offering for Global Missions, which provides for operating expenses, salaries and life-changing ministries.

“The Offering allows us to live and work in the Seattle area. It provides a way for us to live out being the presence of Christ everyday,” Diann said.

To support the Whisnands and other CBF field personnel, please give the CBF Offering. Online contributions can be made at www.thefellowship.info/give.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

This is a woman who had by chance heard a message of hope through Jesus and decided to become a Christian. She is an indigenous church planter who now shares the same message she heard where she lives, a predominately Muslim country in the Middle East. She has no assurance when she begins her day that she will not be killed by the end of it for the work she is doing. For her, the risk she takes is worth letting others know about the hope in Jesus that she has found.

This year, a portion of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights will support this woman and dozens more who work through an international organization that trains new believers to build house churches.

“We are so excited [that this project] is included in the Carter Offering,” said Lita Sample, one of CBF’s field personnel. Sample and her husband, Rick, are based in Fremont, Calif., where they work with internationals in the Bay Area and partner with various groups to support work in the Middle East.

“There is no religious liberty outside of Islam in this country,” Sample said. “However, people are hungry for Christ and so very open to the gospel. But the laws and the punishments for converting are getting more strict.”

Currently 135 women have been formally trained as church planters. The Carter Offering will provide financial support for some of these women. A salary of $400 a month would provide for one woman’s basic needs and would be just above the poverty level.

“These women need support so they can continue to do what they do,” Sample said. “It is a great need for a great work. What we do here in the U.S. with prayer and financial support helps indigenous women to share the gospel – we share in reaching this part of the world.”

Each qualifying recipient of the funds has already planted at least three churches and is actively leading them, as well as actively witnessing and tithing. Each woman also has demonstrated that her priority is to do the work of her ministry; has completed foundational classes in Christianity, baptism and kingdom living; and has completed three basic leadership classes. The church planters are all associated with a particular international organization to which they are accountable through monthly reports and supervision.

Many Muslims find their way to these churches through indigenous language Christian broadcasts, but more and more also come through word of mouth as believers increase and share Christ throughout the Middle East.

“There are those that come to know Christ through this ministry,” she said. “When they come to know Christ, a local believer disciples and encourages them. After a time, they are introduced to a local church, or if there is none, a new church is planted.”

The Carter Offering will be collected during this year’s General Assembly in Houston, Texas, July 2-3. To learn more or contribute, go to www.thefellowship.info/carteroffering.
 
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

• In the Gaza Strip evangelical believers are under pressure from both Muslims and the Israeli military.
• West Bank Christians struggle with Muslims there to gain government recognition for their buildings and programs. They also are prevented from visiting other nearby believers because of the dividing wall which separates Bethlehem from the rest of the West Bank.
• Belarus has enacted very severe laws against religious gatherings in homes and authorities have made church planting almost impossible because of a church needing a large number of members to be registered – nearly impossible for a church-start.
• Serbia has also adopted religion laws favoring only large traditional faith communities and excluding Baptists and other smaller faith communities.
• Turkmenistan has closed all places of worship other than traditional Muslim or Russian Orthodox traditions. 

The local private high school, Briarfield Academy, is on one side of the community and the public high school, Lake Providence Senior High School, is on the other. And as locals tell it, they don’t get together much. 

That’s what made this football clinic, held in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana’s spring meeting, all the more significant. Though there are no CBF partnering congregations in Lake Providence or East Carroll Parish, the Fellowship has had a presence in the area for several years. Together for Hope, the Fellowship’s national rural poverty initiative, ministers in 20 of the poorest areas in the United States, and East Carroll Parish is one.

Together for Hope uses an assets-based approach to community ministry, building off what a community does well, existing resources and dreams for the future.  Ministries like the football clinic, which drew approximately 50 teenagers, help unite the community in order to build relationships and learn from one another, with the ultimate goal of working together to improve the community and reduce poverty.

“The camp was a good example of tapping people’s interests, skills and abilities,” said Jeremy Lewis, the Fellowship’s program manager for Together for Hope. “It’s welcoming to the community and lays a foundation for future relationships.”

The camp was led by Fitz Hill, president of Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Ark., and a former football coach at the University of Arkansas and San Jose State University. After the clinic, the local football teams ate and worshipped together at a community rally, where Hill spoke about courage, comfort zones, getting to know neighbors and strength that comes through unity. 

At the end of Hill’s address, CBF of Louisiana announced that it would fund a scholarship to send a Lake Providence student to Arkansas Baptist College, with which CBF of Arkansas has a ministry partnership. A committee made up of local community members will soon be formed to select what Reid Doster, CBF of Louisiana’s coordinator, hopes will be the first of many students to receive a scholarship to the college.

In addition to the football clinic and community rally, CBF of Louisiana hosted a variety of community activities including a carnival, cookout, painting a mural and more.

“Through this [weekend] event I felt we extended some bridges of understanding. We’re not trying to present ourselves as people with all the answers. We’re just doing our part along with a lot of other people,” said Doster. “Every time we go to Lake Providence we deepen trust and strengthen friendships.”

More ministry events are planned later this summer. Approximately 200 teenagers will serve in the parish through a “Mission Serve” project July 12-18. At the end of the summer, CBF of Louisiana will host its annual back-to-school event, which provides backpacks and school supplies to school-aged children in East Carroll and nearby Tensas Parish.

For more information on Together for Hope, visit www.thefellowship.info/togetherforhope.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

Gulf Coast began in October 2007 in Santa Fe, Texas located outside of Houston. It is one of numerous churches that cater to the western, outdoor horse lover. Participants worship in jeans and boots and listen to country-western music during the services.

“Our entire church culture is designed to be seeker sensitive,” said pastor Rocky Louthan. “We preach the gospel in everything we do. We spend our time together looking into God’s word and applying it to our lives. At Cowboy Church, we are not about theology, but we are about living out our faith and giving people hope.”

During the outreach events, such as those designed to teach rodeo skills, Louthan shares the gospel, prays with participants and offers information about Gulf Coast Cowboy Church.

“I have baptized four of my ropers who now come to church regularly,” Louthan said, “all as a result of a weekly team roping practice and devotionals.”

At a county fair event on Galveston Island, Louthan and other members of the church led 20 people to make a public profession of faith, including a horse whisperer from Louisiana.

Louthan had been a youth minister and held other staff positions in traditional churches for 17 years when he began to feel a call to be a senior pastor.

“I looked at options and decided planting a church is what I would do,” he said. “I got connected to the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches, and that’s how Gulf Coast Cowboy Church was born.”

The jump from traditional church to a cowboy church was not difficult for Louthan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from Sam Houston State University and grew up on a farm with animals.

Louthan and his wife, Amy, a librarian, helped solidify their thinking on how to start a cowboy church at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s New Church Start Boot Camp two years ago.

“The boot camp helped prepare us by exposing us to lots of information,” Louthan said. “We sorted through what we learned to pull out things that would help our unique situation.”

The Fellowship sent the Louthans to the boot camp and paid for their demographic study. Probably the best gift the Fellowship has given them was a $4,000 check at the church’s one-year anniversary, Louthan said. That check was presented on the Sunday before Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area, a day that saw 165 people in worship. The hurricane sent church members scrambling just to make ends meet and attendance dwindled.

“There were a couple of months when people’s lives were just in a mess and the crowds at church were sparse,” he said. “We are just now getting back to a routine. Had we not that $4,000 gift from CBF, I don’t know if we would have survived.”

In addition to the assistance from CBF, Gulf Coast Cowboy Church also got start-up help from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston and more recently from First Baptist Church, Houston; Highlands Baptist Church, LaMarque, Texas; South Main Baptist Church, Pasadena, Texas; and Williams Trace Baptist Church, Houston.

Since its founding, Louthan estimates he has baptized about one-third of the 120 people who have made a public profession of faith at outreach events.

“Since we do a lot of things outside the church, people that we talk to and lead to Christ may plug into a different church,” he said. “But that’s okay. Our goal is to share the gospel, not to bring more members into our church.”

Gulf Coast is a partner with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF of Texas, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

For more information on CBF new church starts, contact David King at dking@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

Under the theme “Embrace the World: Welcome to your Neighborhood,” the Assembly will explore a familiar concept while in the nation’s fourth-largest city.

“The idea of neighbor is very relevant to the mission of the Church, and Houston is a great laboratory in which to learn,” said Daniel Vestal, CBF’s executive coordinator. “Houston is in many ways a microcosm of our country – diverse, synergistic, multi-cultural, complex and dynamic.”

To be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Hilton of the Americas Hotel, the Assembly begins with auxiliary events on Wednesday, July 1. At the annual Leadership Institute that afternoon featured speaker Al Winseman, Gallup’s global practice leader for faith communities, will focus on his book “Growing an Engaged Church: How to Stop ‘Doing Church’ and Being the Church Again.” 

On Wednesday evening six people will be appointed for mission service in the United States and around the world at the annual CBF Global Missions field personnel commissioning service. The service, set for 7:30 p.m. at nearby South Main Baptist Church, will also feature the inaugural commissioning of a CBF ministry network. Made up of three churches and current CBF field personnel Bill and Michelle Cayard, the Sichuan China Ministry Network represents an important step in the Fellowship's growing emphasis on local church-based missions.
 
"Local churches are at the heart of the global missions enterprise," said CBF global missions coordinator Rob Nash. "When we commission this network and others in the future, we are affirming these congregations and others as they engage in their God-given mission in the world."

Throughout the week of the Assembly, Fellowship Baptists will engage in service projects with local agencies such as SEARCH Homeless Services, Star of Hope homeless mission and Volunteer Houston. College students, who have their own event called “The Houston Sessions,” will travel to Galveston to explore the impacts of poverty and Hurricane Ike on community members.

The Assembly officially begins Thursday, July 2, with auxiliary events hosted by many of the Fellowship’s partner organizations, an evening concert with Dove Award-winning singer and songwriter Kyle Matthews, and approximately 50 practical ministry workshops. Topics include human rights, religious liberty, global mission opportunities, 400 years of Baptist history and becoming a missional church.

During worship and business sessions, the Assembly will hear from young Baptist ministers, as well as from Vestal and current CBF moderator Jack Glasgow, who is pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, N.C. 

On Friday, July 3, the Assembly will vote on the Fellowship’s nominating committee report, which includes Christy McMillin-Goodwin, associate minister at Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, S.C., for the position of national CBF moderator-elect. Joanne Carr, a member of First Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., is being nominated to fill the position of recorder for a second year.

Hal Bass, a professor at Ouchaita Baptist University in Arkansas and the Fellowship’s current moderator-elect, was affirmed by the Assembly last year and will become moderator at the conclusion of the Houston event.

This year’s assembly incorporates new ministry directions adopted following the Fellowship’s year-long strategic reprioritization process that concluded at last year’s Assembly. Those three new priorities are honoring race, gender and generation; interacting with the world community; and missional engagement.

“Worship and programming will reflect a commitment to these strategic priorities. We will hear God’s Word from one another in languages, mediums and perspectives that are fresh and different,” Vestal said. “This event will help equip Baptists for ministry in the 21st century.”

Further information about these Assembly events and more are available at www.thefellowship.info/assembly. Pre-register online or by calling (800) 352-8741. A hotel discount at the Hilton Americas hotel is available following pre-registration.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

ATLANTA – For one medical worker in Southeast Asia, the adventure story of a lifetime takes place on a riverboat that doubles as her transient home and a health care clinic.

Despite daily challenges and setbacks – including a perpetually failing generator and local doctors attempting to shut the ministry down – she and the crew persist in their mission to improve the quality of life for people who generally have little access to health care.

Karen, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel, ministers to small farming communities along the river in Southeast Asia. With a background in environmental science as well as medicine, she is uniquely positioned to care for the sick and provide health education.

“Most of their health issues [are] related to environmental issues,” she said. “[The villagers] are almost completely dependent on the river water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, going to the bathroom, fishing, and irrigating their rice paddies and other fields.”

Since many of the villages have no road access, the river is often the primary means of transportation. It’s also where industrial plants dump waste.

“With raw sewage and chemicals in the water,” Karen said, “this river is the number one source of illness and disease.”

However, most people can’t afford the fuel needed to boil their water before drinking it.

“Conditions are harsh and the level of poverty is extreme,” said Karen. “Most families live on less than $1 a day, which the World Health Organization calls ‘the poverty that kills.’ If a family member gets sick, the family must literally decide between seeking medical attention for that individual or feeding the rest of the family for the week.”

The most common conditions that Karen treats are routine issues such as coughs, colds, runny noses, ear infections, dental problems, stomach problems, scabies and lacerations.

“We see a lot of infections that can be easily treated with antibiotics or even just good hygiene, but have become debilitating or even life-threatening due to the poor conditions in which most people live,” Karen said.

Sometimes, the riverboat team sees more serious cases. Karen told the story of a 9-year-old boy whose mother brought him to the boat to be examined. As it turned out, he had tuberculosis and an infection in his lung. Karen saw that the boy was admitted to a hospital and assisted the family in completing the necessary steps to qualify for a free medical program so he could continue treatment after discharge.

“I am continually awed and humbled by their stoic acceptance of hardship,” Karen said. “People who live along the river are used to not having health care. They habitually live with chronic and debilitating illness as just a normal part of life.”

The staff on the medical riverboat often serves as many as 150 people a day, and village leaders offer fruit and fish as tokens of their gratitude.

“We spend a considerable amount of time educating patients as to the nature of their illness and ways to prevent a reoccurrence,” Karen said. “In the villages where we have been working for almost a year, we have seen a decrease in the severity of illness. There are young children who have regained function of limbs that were previously useless, and adults who are less likely to suffer a stroke or heart attack because their blood pressure is under control and they are eating healthier.”

For Karen, the riverboat ministry is an attempt to reach out in a tangible way to share the love of Christ.

“I always think of Matthew 25:35-36, which says ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me.’ To really show people what Christ looks like,” she said, “we must explore ways to help people obtain their most basic and critical needs.”

To this end, Karen and her co-workers are working to address the root causes of poverty at many levels. In addition to providing free basic medical care on the boat, they are building water filters in the villages for clean drinking water, and operating an experimental farm looking for ways to improve agricultural practices to boost economic stability.

Karen’s ministry is funded through gifts to the CBF Offering for Global Missions. To give to the offering, go to www.thefellowship.info/give. To learn about partnership opportunities with the riverboat, contact engage@thefellowship.info.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

There, the congregation found Dowey-Gaston African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, whose sanctuary couldn’t seem to escape localized flooding. Beginning with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the church had flooded three additional times: Hurricane Rita in 2005 and hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008.  To make matters worse, floodwaters didn’t rush in and immediately leave. Water levels stayed high for days, leaving four distinct marks on the pews as a result of standing water.

Bridgewater Church used some of the funds from a missional ministries grant, awarded by the Fellowship in 2007, to help renovate Dowey-Gaston AME’s sanctuary.  In a mission effort that crossed cultural and racial lines, the two congregations worked together and formed relationships along the way.

“On our first day, 26 volunteers showed up to help, but the rain poured all day, forcing us to work inside and get to know each other,” said Bridgewater Church’s pastor Reid Doster. “A problem became a blessing.”

Dowey-Gaston AME is led by Enola Lee, who in her short tenure as pastor has seen the church grow from just a few members to now more than 30 youth and 18 adults. “And the repairs to the sanctuary may just help continue that growth,” Doster said. “That congregation is so grateful, and so are we. It’s been good for our church, for their church and for CBF.”

The Fellowship’s disaster response efforts continue in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast in places like Pearlington, Miss., and Plaquemine Parish, La., where there are still families waiting to rebuild their homes and lives. Some churches, like Johns Creek Baptist Church from the metro Atlanta area, are still sending mission teams to the area to help. 

“We’re not finished on the Gulf Coast, but volunteer teams have not been coming nearly as much,” said Doster, who helps coordinate the Fellowship’s disaster response efforts. “If a church-based team wants to come, I’ll do everything I can to connect them with a meaningful project and arrange for meals, housing, supplies and supervision on the site.”

The Fellowship’s continued hurricane recovery efforts haven’t gone without notice from other response groups. In April, Catholic Charities of Arkansas transferred the remaining $10,000 of disaster response donations to the Fellowship’s response efforts.

“This is a reason to be thankful,” said the Fellowship’s disaster response coordinator Charles Ray. “And it’s a reason to create partnerships. We can help each other.”

Since Katrina, the Fellowship has actively developed numerous disaster response partnerships that will enable a more effective response when future disasters strike.  Nearly 10 Baptist organizations have met several times to discuss ways to combine resources, mobilize volunteers and work together.

“The intent is if a disaster strikes in a state with one of our members, we will generally bow to the partner closest and strongest to the disaster. We would follow their leadership, and they would be expected to use us as an equal under their leadership,” Ray said.

Among the partnering groups are the Fellowship, Texas Baptist Men, North Carolina Baptist Men, Canadian Baptist Ministries, National Baptist Convention USA, American Baptist Churches USA and Virginia Baptist Men. 

For more on the Fellowship’s disaster response efforts, visit www.thefellowship.info/cbfresponds.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

The Banjara people’s socio-economic status often limits their access to healthcare, education and jobs with decent wages.

“The same God who created you created me and loves us,” Macarena Aldape, a registered nurse, tells her patients. “As a nurse, Christian, woman and mother, I try to show them love and acceptances. It is what God has told us to do – to love our neighbors as ourselves. That’s what I try to do.”

Macarena Aldape and her husband, Eddie, who serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in India, hold medical camps twice a month in cities across northern India. Often, they conduct a camp for six to seven hours in one location and then conduct another one in the afternoon at another location.

The extreme poverty in which many of the Banjara people live prevents them from seeking the care of a physician. The Aldapes, natives of San Antonio, Texas, provide a variety of medical services – from treating diseases and common illness to providing education about good health practices.

“When a person learns something, that knowledge is power,” Macarena Aldape said. “It makes them feel so good about themselves. It makes a world of difference to them.”

The Aldapes are also work to educate people about HIV/AIDS. With limited health education and medical care, many do not know that they are infected. Eddie Aldape said that in one Banjara community it is estimated that approximately half the adults are HIV positive.

In 2006, the Aldapes started a boys’ home to serve families living in extreme poverty that  could no longer care for their children. Approximately 100 boys wanted to live in the home, but only 50 could be accepted. Many of these children come from homes where one or both of the parents is infected with HIV/AIDS. The Aldapes predict that the need for children’s home will increase in the next few years and more children are orphaned by AIDS.

Rajesh, the oldest of the three children, was 5 years old when he came to live at the boys’ home. His parents, who were both HIV positive, did not want to separate their children, but also recognized that they could no longer provide them with adequate care.

“When Rajesh’s father’s health went from bad to worse, he called us over to make a promise to him that we would take good care of Rajesh,” Eddie Aldape said. “He also asked us to take the other two boys once his wife was not able to care for them. He apologized over and over and he had never before seen the love of God. He and his wife accepted Christ as their personal savior and became active members of the local church. He has since gone on to be with the Lord.”

The Aldapes conduct medical clinics at the boys’ home and other children homes. They dream of outfitting a school bus or van with medical equipment and supplies. Such a mobile clinic would give them more flexibility and “go wherever the needs are.”

“Fellowship Baptists have a vision to reach out to marginalized people –those that have been ignored and neglected,” said Macarena Aldape. “For me, it is an answered prayer to have people that care that much for others and send people all over the world to work. Through CBF we are doing the work of many others in India. It is a privilege to know that there are people out there that still care for those nobody else does.”

To learn about partnership opportunities in India, contact engage@thefellowship.info. To financially support the ministry of CBF field personnel, give to the CBF Offering for Global Missions at www.thefellowship.info/give.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

It began when CBF of Texas decided to invest $10,000 – 10 percent of its reserve – in the CBF Foundation’s new micro finance initiative. Texas challenged CBF of Florida to add 10 percent of its reserve or endowment funds into the project. Then the challenge spread to all of CBF’s states and regions, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

Now, more than $1 million is committed to micro finance through the CBF Foundation, said Foundation president Don Durham. But he cautioned that CBF is not in the banking business. CBF Foundation invests the funds in micro finance banks through an investment banker who monitors and evaluates them regularly. These banks then make short-term (six months to a year) loans of $50 to $1,500 to entrepreneurs in low-income countries who, Durham said, “are ready to be productive caretakers of their families and homes.” Between 96 and 98 percent of the loans are repaid.

According to research by Duetsche Bank approximately $25 billion is available worldwide through micro enterprise banks, but the same research also shows that demand for these loans is around $250 billion.

That’s why Rick McClatchy, coordinator for CBF Texas, wants to extend the 10 percent challenge he made to CBF of Florida and subsequently taken up by other states and regions to local churches at the General Assembly in Houston so that more money is available for micro enterprise lending.

“This venture is important because it works to reduce poverty, and the need for capital in these countries is great,” McClatchy said. “For us to have such resources in our hands and not be willing to lend them to the extreme poor of the world is a sin.”

Ray Johnson, coordinator for CBF of Florida, agrees. “We felt that this use of our wealth was an appropriate expression of our values,” he said. “In fact, our boards were all very pleased and excited to have a chance to invest our funds in this way.”

Johnson said that CBF Florida is investing 10 percent of its funds-under-management in micro enterprise financing, approximately $91,000.

“The overwhelming consensus of our governing boards was that investing in micro enterprises helps CBF Florida align its financial stewardship with the principles of Matthew 25 – to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to the thirsty,” he said.

CBF’s micro finance project is not a charity approach, McClatchy said, “It is a financial capital approach that promotes responsibility, hard work, and cooperative partnerships.”

Both McClatchy and Johnson said that CBF’s involvement with micro finance is one way the Fellowship can help meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“My research indicated that micro finance has been proven to make a significant impact upon the lives of those who live in abject poverty and connects with several of the MDGs,” McClatchy said. “We think that many Texas CBF churches have endowments and could use some of their endowment funds to provide capital for microfinance, but we could not ask churches in Texas to do so unless we, that is CBF Texas, had done so too.”

“This kind of investment makes sense at a number of levels,” Johnson said. “It is a simple, concrete way to help the poor. It is one way for CBF Florida churches and individuals to become more aware of what we can do to help achieve the MDGs. It is exactly the kind of investment that CBF Florida churches can be excited about. And, investing in micro enterprises is a very stable investment strategy, particularly in today’s world where typical stock investments are a bit more volatile.”

“Our bigger mission in the CBF movement is to advance the kingdom of God vision that Jesus gave us,” McClatchy said. “The kingdom of God is concerned about the spiritual and physical needs of human life upon this world. Caring about the poor is kingdom work and any failure to understand this and do this is failure to follow Jesus. Microfinance is a tool that enables us to successfully help the poor and is therefore kingdom work.”

“CBF Florida’s basic mission is to motivate and equip followers of Jesus to be his presence,” Johnson said. “Micro enterprise financing extends our reach beyond our own borders. It is, to use the theme of this year’s CBF Offering for Global Missions, an additional way for us to ‘embrace the world.’”

To learn more about the CBF Foundation’s micro finance initiative, contact Don Durham at ddurham@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

“I reminded them that ministers, especially in the latter stages of their careers, should be careful, lest they lose some of the vitality of their ministry commitment and simply settle for coasting until retirement,” Newell said.

Knowing the potential for such stagnation existed, Newell and his wife, Janice, continued their own personal and professional growth throughout their careers, so that as their ministry matured, they themselves would be ready to meet new challenges.

It came then as no surprise that the Newells were prepared for the calling they began to recognize in the late 1990s to work with Albanian refugees. At the time, Bob was pastor and Janice organist at Memorial Drive Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.

The inkling of a call started at a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, when Bob learned about ethnic cleansing and tensions among Balkan people. When he returned to the States, he learned that Houston had become home to more than 500 Kosovar Albanian refugee families, and that relatives of a church member were beginning a ministry among Albanians in Kosovo.

“Seemingly at every turn, factors conspired to alert us to a fresh concern for ministry among Albanians,” Janice said. “Bob led the church to focus its ministries on Albanian people; as a result, Albanian children became members of my children’s choir and we led ministry teams to work with Albanians in Macedonia and Kosovo.”

By then, the Newells were convinced God was calling them to some form of cross-cultural ministry in the final chapter of their careers. They began to explore opportunities through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In 2003, they were commissioned as CBF field personnel to Athens, Greece.

“We were not surprised that, after prayer and conversation, we both sensed a powerful tug toward the needs of Albanian immigrants in Athens,” Bob said.

Everything matched. Houston was about the same size as Athens. Their skill sets, abilities, and experience equipped them for innovative ministry. They had worked on a university campus and in a local church.

“In addition, our years of experience in working with ecumenical and interfaith groups, merged with Bob’s training in sociology/anthropology to help us to be somewhat prepared for an assignment which focused on the needs of a minority ethnic group with Muslim, Christian and atheistic backgrounds, living in a foreign cultural milieu dominated by the Greek Orthodox Church,” Janice said.

“For us, this opportunity to serve has been a genuine gift from God,” Bob said. “Our gifts have been utilized; we have been challenged to remain alive and growing in our ministry; and, we have found adventure, excitement and fulfillment, despite the terrific challenges associated with learning two languages and adapting to different cultures.”

The Newells’ primary ministry venue is through PORTA – the Albania House in Athens. Located in a neo-classical house, built in 1916, this distinctive facility houses an art gallery, library, and four classrooms. The center offers a variety of programs (such as language and computer classes) to a large group of non-Christian Albanian refugees while about 300 Albanian Christians take advantage of Bible studies, evangelism and Christian discipleship programs, marriage and family enrichment, social events and relationship and reconciliation workshops at PORTA.

A photo exhibit, “Albanians in Athens – a Positive Picture,” was created by Gary Barchfeld, a professional photographer from Houston. Barchfeld and his wife, Martha, went to Athens three times to take photos of Albanians at work, worship and play. Sixteen photos were included in an exhibition that was shown first at PORTA and now is traveling to churches throughout the United States. It will conclude its United States tour at the CBF General Assembly in Houston.

“This traveling exhibit has literally put a face on the ministry among Albanians in Athens,” Janice said.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will hold its 2009 General Assembly in Houston, Texas, July 2-3. To learn more or register for the event, go to www.thefellowship.info/assembly. To learn about partnership opportunities with the Newells in Greece, contact engage@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

“I have a heart to work with internationals in an international setting,” said Angel, one of CBF’s field personnel. “Although I didn’t know much about working among Muslims when I arrived, I felt Belgium was the place God wanted me. Almost five years and a lot of experience later, I still feel the same way.”

Angel’s ability to build relationships with those she teaches affords her opportunities to minister on a more personal basis. 

“Everyone knows I am a Christian – the English teacher,” said Angel, a native of Effingham, Ill. “They know I am in church every week. They know my priority to worship and know God. My Muslim students know more about God by the way I live.  I am asked countless times about my God, my worship, my faith. If I meet people in the classroom, in the church or on the street I become the hands and feet of Jesus. We try to live out that idea by meeting the physical needs, educational needs, relational needs and spiritual needs. For me that is being the presence of Christ.”

One major change that has happened since 2004 when Angel arrived in Belgium, was her 2008 marriage to Hary, a man she met while attending the local Arab Protestant church.  Together they open up their home for others seeking to know more about their faith. 

“With his [Hary’s] help I have taken a giant leap into the Arab culture,” said Angel, a graduate of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. “Together we open our hearts, our lives and our home to Muslims and Christians and disciple those who are seeking the truth.”

In addition to Angel’s teaching English in the community, the couple works with the local Arab church where they first met. Angel assists in worship and preaching.  Together they lead Bible studies, disciple men and women desiring to know more about the Bible, feed the homeless and visit church members in their homes.

“Our goal is to help grow a sense of unity and connection in the Arab church. Sometimes we are disconnected with our diversity and need to feel the responsibility of the body of Christ,” said Angel. “We want to teach the church how to serve the Lord and others in a practical give-a-person-a-cup-of-water way.  And we constantly have people in our home for dinner and fellowship.  We are an open door.”

It is through that open-door policy where Angel sees the difference they are able to make in the lives of others, like the single Muslim woman who moved to Belgium from Morocco on her own. The woman lived alone and only left the house long enough to drive back and forth to work every day with no outside social life. Soon she began attending Angel’s English classes to brush up on her grammar, then she became a regular at a café Angel hosted on Friday nights at the Centre Oasis for English. It was apparent the woman was seeking a sense of community in her new city, and she and Angel quickly became friends.

When she asks Angel why she is so happy all the time, and not depressed like she is, Angel patiently tells her the stories of Jesus.

“She now celebrates Christmas with me and my husband.  And her whole family knows about me.  She told them the reason she is drawn to me is because she loves the way I worship my God,” said Angel.

As she looks to the future of her ministry, Angel remains open to the possibilities. 

“As God opens new doors we are ready to walk through them, we are continually learning the art of flexibility in a foreign land and remaining sensitive to the Spirit,” Angel said. “We are looking to see His vision for the future and prepared to see changes along the way.”

To learn about partnership opportunities with Angel in Belgium, contact Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or visit www.thefellowship.info/angel. To financially support Angel’s ministry, mail your contribution to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 2930 Flowers Road South Ste.133, Atlanta, GA 30341 and write “Janee Angel” in the memo line.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.

Carson Foushee, a first-year graduate student at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology is planning to lead a group of students to Uganda this summer. 

Working alongside CBF field personnel Jade & Shelah Acker, the students will deliver mosquito nets and conduct soccer skills camps for youth. Partnering with His Nets, a non-profit organization focused on distributing nets to areas plagued by malaria-infected mosquitos, Foushee’s goal is to raise $15,000 to purchase 2,500 nets for people in Uganda and Nicaragua.

“I feel that this project embodies CBF's mission in being the presence of Christ by meeting the physical and spiritual needs of people,” said Foushee.

Mary Beth Gilbert, a junior at Samford University, in Birmingham, Ala., returned from the trip and hosted a simple meal of black bean soup for 12 of her sorority sisters to raise their awareness of poverty and hunger. Gilbert’s next idea is to have all five sororities on Samford’s campus join together to raise money for mosquito nets to send with Foushee and collect toys for the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

“What better way to live out the gospel of Christ than to be who God has made me to be, and to meet people where they are, just as Christ continues to meet me where I am,” said Gilbert.

Caitlin Sandley and Jacob Smith, seniors at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., are developing curriculum for young adults to learn more about the MDGs .

“Jesus often challenged the rich to give up their possessions, stating that it is much easier to follow God without an attachment to the things of the world,” said Smith. “That is what our guide to MDG-friendly living is all about: examples of ways one can give their resources (their possessions) to those who have not been given the same advantages.”

“I know that God, throughout scripture, commands us to seek justice,” Sandley said. “The MDGs are a wonderful blueprint for how the developed and the developing world can partner together to pursue justice for the poor and oppressed. As a young person in one of the wealthiest, most powerful nations, one of the most important tools I have for seeking justice is my voice. Through this project, I can use my voice to educate others, especially my peers, about our role as people of faith in the pursuit of social justice.”
 
Jennifer Wilmore, 23, left in February for a seven-month stay in Uganda through the Fellowship’s Student.Go program, to work alongside the Ackers, whom the group met on their trip.

“Jesus' ministry on earth was one of mercy, healing and redemption,” Wilmore said. “Through this project I pray that God would make my attitude like Christ's and use me to make these aspects of the gospel known: to show mercy and bring some sort of healing and redemption to the poor, the neglected and the outcasts.”

Rosie Stafford, 22, is currently interning with the ONE Campaign in Washington, D.C. through the Student.Go program. Stafford will soon begin writing a series of e-mails sharing her experiences from last summer’s trip and educating readers on practical ways they can respond to poverty both at home and abroad.

“I wanted to find a way to connect my life here in the U.S. with the life I witnessed and was inspired by on our travels,” Stafford said. “By sharing the stories of the work of God's people around the world, I'm inviting other people to share in this ministry, the ministry Jesus began and calls us to continue here on earth.”

To learn more about how the United Nations’ MDGs align with the Fellowship’s mission and vision, order “Our Fellowship At Work” brochure by calling (800) 352-8741. To learn about partnership opportunities, contact Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741. For information on Student.Go, visit www.studentdotgo.org.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission