EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series of stories on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Offering for Global Missions. Additional information and photos about the Offering are available at http://www.thefellowship.info/Global Missions/OGM/OGM Index 200405.icm

Nancy King reads books to school children in Southeast Asia.

LEWISVILLE, Texas – When First Baptist Church, Lewisville, adopted two unevangelized people groups this summer, it was the result of ongoing relationships the church already had with the people and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions field personnel who minister among them.

"We did it backwards," said Truett King, minister of missions. "It grew out of a concern with God’s direction. The groups almost found us."

The journey that led to adopting these people groups began when the church hosted a conference which featured a number of different individuals who ministered in Southeast Asia. At that conference, King learned that individuals or churches could support a national worker partnering with CBF Global Missions field personnel for $100 a month. He shared that information and what he had learned about some of the different ministries with a deacon in the church. The seed was sown.

After hearing about the possibilities, the deacon’s heart was touched, and he spread word of the need around the church. Prayer groups were formed, and the church committed to supporting 10 to 15 Southeast Asian workers a month.

The next stage in the process began when King and his wife had an opportunity to tour Southeast Asia with Beth Ogburn, formerly one of CBF’s Global Missions field personnel and a current member of First Baptist. There they saw the "poorest of the poor."

"Seeing the people broke my heart, knowing there was little chance of them hearing and responding to the gospel," King said. On that same trip, they encountered another group who represent the other end of the spectrum as an influential and fairly well-off, but still unevangelized people group.

CBF Global Missions seeks to partner with churches like First Baptist to be Christ’s presence among those who have little or no opportunity to hear the gospel or who have minimal access to basic resources. Financial support to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Offering for Global Missions goes to those working among the most neglected. Based on 1 Corinthians 3:9, this year’s Offering theme is "Together … Being the Presence of Christ." The Offering goal is $6.1 million with a challenge goal of $6.3 million.

King used the pictures he took on that trip to touch others in his own congregation and give them a feel for the people and work they were supporting. That led to another trip in February 2004 with eight church members.

"They were set on fire," recalled King. "They came back to do whatever is necessary to make (the adoption) happen."

The group appreciated CBF’s approach to missions. "The CBF philosophy begins with the individual needs of different people groups," King noted. "This empowers missionaries to create a strategy that is in tune with the group they are working with."

*One church member who has been on many other missions trips, said this trip, "got me more in touch with the Muslim world. This was the first time I was exposed to their way of life and a lot of their beliefs. Just like us, they are regular people."

The church officially adopted both people groups in July, calling them the M&Ms for short, because both group names begin with the letter M. This gives the church a way to remember and relate to the two groups, and is a fun way to involve the children (and adults), using M&M candy as a reminder to pray, give and go.

Seeing the faces of the M&Ms has made a difference at First Baptist. King again took a lot of pictures of individuals, and the faces impact those who see them, he said. "This (adoption) has given us a connection to the faces of missions."

Ogburn agreed. "I think it has made it personal. We’ve taken what they’ve always given money to, and they could make a connection. They are praying for these people they’ve never met before."

This fall, church members who couldn’t go on a trip to Southeast Asia got a feel for the culture at a missions fair. Among the many stations which displayed local and international missions opportunities were a village that depicted life in their adopted people group world and a mosque.

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