Saturday night French arrive

Photographs of the arrival of the French youth group on Saturday, October 22.

French youth arrived

The youth group from Centre Evangelique Protestant (CEP) in Colombes, France arrived tonight, Saturday, October 22. They are doing well, and excited to be with us for a week. They will be singing and performing in morning worship, on October 23, and Pastor Thierry Auguste will preach.
On Sunday night, October 23, we will have a special Lord's Supper service in English, French, and Spanish, as our Spanish-language mission church will join us in worship.
Follow this blog each day for photographs and updates.

Friday: Nicaragua team has much to share

From the youth mission trip team to Nicaragua, we got this message from team member Beverly Harvey: Church Family, Thanks for your prayers and support on this trip. I have seen the kids grow through this amazing experience. God has had His hand on us all week. Thank you! We fly to Miami tomorrow. Please pray for a safe ride home. We have so much to share!!!!

Wednesday: VBS

Photograph of VBS in Nicaragua. The Anglo guy in blue shirt is Student Minister Bryan Gilde!

Tuesday mission report from Nicaragua

 Part of an email received today from Student Minister Bryan Gilde, with our youth mission team in Nicaragua:
"Pray for tomorrow as we will have an invitation time with the kids. We have about 140 kids each day we are working with. We just spent a few hundred on 60 Bibles for the older kids to be handed out in the discipleship program they have here on Saturdays.
 The nursing home we visit has about 12 residents and one of them is 101 yrs old (19 yrs left according to Genesis, right? lol)
 They have a 1000 sq foot bldg that they don´t use cause its too old. This place is sixty seven yrs old! They want to redo it and add 12 more residents. 
  This trip is so rocking my world, it makes you realize how much need is in the world and how we are called to make a difference.  I was reading in I Thessalonians this morning. I think chapter 1 or 2 and it says our labor is not in vain!!"  

Monday: Finished first day of ministry in Nicaragua

It's Monday in Nicaragua where our youth mission team is ministering. In this picture, Student Minister Bryan Gilde says, "On the way home with an AWESOME team after an AWESOME day! True servants from FBC Rincon! Thank you for sending them to Nicaragua!
180 kids in VBS. La Gran Manzana was a hit! Ministered to 13 residents at the Baptist Nursing Home... sweet time. It's hot!"
From team member Beverly Harvey: "Thanks to everyone praying for our mission team! The Nursing home was an eye opening experience. These people have NOTHING and yet so happy.....so in love with God. I felt GUILTY because we came here to bless BUT I was blessed. One woman sang "Rock of Ages" in SPANISH! I simply cannot put to words how that felt. I love our Lord! I am thankful for that experience! For all those praying for our Nicaragua Mission team....THANK YOU!!! God has already shown He is the boss and He is in control. I LOVE IT!!! Everyone is doing fine. The food is good, the driving is wild, and God's love is shining. You would be proud of the youth! God's love is spilling out of them. Watching these kids hugging and touching these elderly people that need it and seeing them hug and love on the VBS kids is a blessing. I AM BEING BLESSED! Thank you for your prayers and support."

Sunday in Nicaragua

From Student Minister Bryan Gilde, with youth mission team in Nicaragua: "Pray for our VBS tomorrow in Nicaragua to communicate the gospel to 300 kids in the size of our youth center building! We are only doing VBS with 200 of them though,a s the other 100 are with Compassion International. We went to church this morning and saw some of the country today. All of the students and leaders are being all they can be for Christ. We will also go to a nursing home in the morning tomorrow."

Arrived

The youth mission team has arrived safely in Managua, Nicaragua.
Message from Erica Bolton, one of the team members: "Mr. Bryan asked me to let you know we got to Nicaragua safely. Everything went smoothly today. Tomorrow morning we're going to a local church. People from the Florida Baptist Children's Home are super nice and really helpful! Thanks for all the prayers!"
Message from Sarabeth Gaskin, another team member: "We safely landed today at the Managura International Airport, which is about the size of Valdosta's airport! Tomorrow we plan to go to church, then to see Managua's famous volcano, which I am very excited to go see! The airplane ride was very bumpy, but we got to watch movies and have a light lunch/dinner so that definitely made it better. It has been a long day of traveling and I'm very ready to get some rest!"

Mission team departs Miami for Managua

The youth mission team spent last night in Miami, and left at 3:50 p.m. today from the Miami airport, flying to Managua, Nicaragua. They will be doing a VBS in a local church in the afternoons, and at a nursing home in the mornings.

Miami at night

Here's a picture of the youth mission team riding the bus at night in Miami. They fly to Nicaragua on Saturday morning.

Update from youth mission team Friday afternoon

UPDATE on Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. from Bryan Gilde:
We are in Miami. Spending night here. Going to tour Miami night life afterwhile. Very nice visit with Florida Baptist Children's Home. The people are FBCH are well prepared. Thanks to all who sent us off this morning and who are praying for us.

Nicaragua mission team departs

Our youth mission team departed early this morning, riding to Miami, Florida, today, to spend the night at the Florida Baptist Children's Home in Miami. They will fly to Nicaragua tomorrow morning. Pray for the team members: Timmy Burnsed, Virginia Perry, Frankie Mesmer, Josie Beebe, Lauren Way, Hillary Marks, Olivia Bolton, Erica Bolton, Sara Beth Gaskin, Cason Gaskin, Danielle Abbs, Beverly Harvey, Jonathan Davis, Leah marks, Tim Gaskin, and Student Minister Bryan Gilde. Their team leader will be Howie Hooper.
Follow this page for daily updates.

Reflections on the 2010 Southern Baptist Convention

Over 11,000 messengers attended the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando June 15-16, 2010.
We heard inspiring sermons and music, and challenging reports from our mission boards. The concert by Casting Crowns at the end, with a sermon by the dynamic young preacher Tony Nolan, was awesome.
But what was on everyone's mind was the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force Report. This task force was elected last year with the job assignment of finding out how Southern Baptists could use missions dollars "more effectively." Prior to the convention, many feared that this meant dismantling the Cooperative Program (CP), our unified missions budget, in favor of allowing more designated missions giving.
A few weeks before the convention met, the report was released by the task force, called "Penetrating the Lostness: Embracing a Vision for a Great Commission Resurgence among Southern Baptists." The GCR report is an eloquent call for sacrificial giving to missions and getting those dollars to the places where the most lost people are living. It encouraged support for the Cooperative Program, and also encouraged support for any "Great Commission Giving," which was defined as missions dollars given directly to any Southern Baptist ministry. It called for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) to end its cooperative agreements with state conventions, so as to stop sending so many missions dollars back to the Southern states, and redirect more missions dollars to areas of North America that are less evangelized. It called for the International Mission Board (IMB) to be allowed to work with internationals living in the USA. It called for state conventions to promote stewardship and Cooperative Program giving, instead of the SBC Executive Committee. It called for taking a percentage of the SBC budget away from the Executive Committee and giving it to the International Mission Board.
Many young pastors and pastors of mega-churches embraced this report, while many older pastors, denominational employees and strong supporters of the CP were opposed to this report. The young pastors who are less loyal to denominationalism and are tired of doing Christianity the same old way were attracted to its radical move to get more missionaries to the lost. For example, 31-year-old David Platt, pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, preached a passionate sermon on sending missionaries, and quoted Carl F. H. Henry, saying, "The gospel is only good news if it gets there on time." Many mega-church pastors liked the report because their churches often use large percentages of their missions dollars for their own projects or for direct missions giving, rather than giving as much to the CP. Johnny Hunt, pastor of FBC Woodstock, Georgia, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is pastor of a church that gave a very small percentage to the Cooperative Program, although this spring he announced a dramatic increase in giving to CP.
Older pastors, denominational employees and other strong supporters of the Cooperative Program were afraid that these changes were too much too fast. They feared there were too many unanswered questions about what would happen to the cooperative agreements between NAMB and the states, and who might be hurt by those changes. They feared that the new category of Great Commission Giving would be given equal respect with CP giving, and our denominational unity would fall apart.
Four men were nominated to be the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention: two who said they were opposed to the GCR task force report (Jimmy Jackson and Leo Endel), and two who said they favored it (Bryant Wright and Ted Traylor). Bryant Wright and Ted Traylor got in a runoff, and then Wright was elected president. Wright is pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta. His church gives 4.4% to the Cooperative Program, and it gives an additional 4.4% directly to the International Mission Board.
The debate on the GCR was hot and heavy, and confusing at times. The biggest debate was over the wording about Great Commission Giving and CP giving. Dr. John Waters, pastor of FBC Statesboro, Georgia, offered an amendment that was eventually adopted, saying we "continue to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach." Originally Waters' amendment was offered to replace the statement about Great Commission Giving, but when the vote was too close to call by a show of ballots, after several parliamentary debates and confusion, it was finally added to the original statement, so that both kinds of giving were affirmed. After all the debate, the overall report was adopted by a show of ballots, which I would estimate to be about 65% in favor and 35% opposed.
I came to the SBC undecided. After hearing the debate, I voted in favor of Waters' amendment and I voted in favor of the GCR report.
What does all this mean?
I agree with Dr. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, that the category of Great Commission Giving will be helpful, not hurtful. Currently, when a church reports its missions giving to the denomination, it reports two categories: Cooperative Program and other designated missions. The "other" category could be anything the church called missions, including non-Southern Baptist ministries that it supported. That will no longer be the case. To be called Great Commission Giving, designated missions offerings have to go to Southern Baptist causes. For example, giving directly to the international mission board would be credited as Great Commission Giving, but giving to the Salvation Army would not.
I am cautiously optimistic about ending the cooperative agreements between NAMB and the state conventions. I realize that it may mean there will no longer be NAMB funds to support the Hispanic mission pastor at my own church here in Georgia, because that money may be taken from Georgia and sent to somewhere like New Mexico. But my church is in better financial shape to support a Hispanic mission than churches in New Mexico are, so I'm okay with that.
Moving the promotion of stewardship and Cooperative Program to the state conventions makes sense to me, since the monthly checks are mailed to the state conventions and then distributed from there. It also means a decentralization of our denomination, as it takes a lot of power away from the SBC Executive Committee.
The increase in percentage to the International Mission Board is good, too. I hope we can increase it another percentage next year, and the next, and so on.
Jerry Rankin, who is retiring as president of the IMB this year, reminded us of how urgent it is to make sure our missions dollars are getting where the lost are located. He said, "How much do you have to hate someone to know the way of eternal life and not tell them?"

New Orleans mission trip - having fun

Our mission team left New Orleans on Friday morning. Some of the group came on back Friday night, and the rest came in on Saturday. Today I thought I would post some of the humorous pictures I took during the week. Although we worked hard, we also had a lot of fun, as you can see.
Woody worked hard installing a toilet, so he had an excuse for sitting down on the john-- I mean, on the job. I was caught by surprise in this picture while eating ice cream. We kept playing pranks on one another and acting silly. Julie wanted to recycle the paper lunch bags, so a prankster glued the inside of the bags together so that the next morning when Judy started to make our lunches, the bags wouldn't open. One day they packed a bag for "Sam" and "Roger," when we had nobody on our team by that name, and in one of the bags a mustard and peanut butter sandwich. Somebody tied James's shoes together, and James said he figured something would happen to him, since he was the main instigator of many of the pranks. Items would disappear and then reappear later.
Several times we would get lost, and every time we got lost, we seemed to end up circling the Super Dome. It got to be a joke that we had to come see another side of the Super Dome. Becky got a tiny cut on her arm, and Woody acted like it was a major injury in need of a tourniquet. We saw a poster advertising a concert by a group called "Slighty Stoopid" and that phrase became a favorite phrase if we did anything dumb. Dan the coffee man really enjoyed the coffee and beignets at the Cafe du Monde. In fact, Dan also enjoyed the coffee at the Community Coffee House, and the coffee at Celebration Church, and the coffee at Cracker Barrel, and anywhere else he could find coffee. And I had to include this picture of Glenn pointing to home in the map at the seaport ministry, mainly because it reminds me of all his funny expressions. Here are a few of his quotes:
"Elvis is dead, and I don't feel too good myself."
"I'm like Daniel Boone. I've never been lost a day in my life. I've been bewildered for weeks at a time, but never lost."
"We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible with nothing at all for so long that we are now qualified to do anything with nothing at all."

New Orleans mission trip - Thursday

Today was our final day of work at the two homes where we were doing repair. Lester and his crew got a lot of cabinets installed, and we even did a little painting in the home on Leonidas Street. The work on the house on South Claiborne seemed so painstakingly slow, but the paint is now stripped from the boards and trim and doors, so the next crew will be able to paint.
We shared gifts with the neighbors at each locations who allowed us to use their water, etc. Mrs. Williams, the neighbor on South Claiborne, was really excited to get her gift. We had prayed with her earlier in the week.
After dinner, we went to the French quarter and got some beignets (French donuts) in the famous Cafe du Monde near the Mississippi River.
Tomorrow we head home!

New Orleans mission trip - Wednesday

We worked hard at the job sites on the two homes, today, and then we visited the seaport ministry in New Orleans. As you can see in the picture, they have computers and games and lots of Bibles in 75 languages for people to read. They also have telephones, and they give seafarer's a ride to Walmart. They have more ships come through the port of New Orleans than any other port in the world.
There's a picture of our whole group in front of the map at the entrance to the seaport ministry, and a picture of the chow line at Celebration Church where we are lodging.

New Orleans mission trip - Tuesday

Today we continued work on the two homes. The work is hard and slow. The team on South Claiborne continues to strip paint from boards. The team on Leonidas Street was installing cabinets and fixing wiring. Judy is feeling better today (she was not feeling well yesterday) and she worked with us.
Tonight we went door-to-door again for the new church in Kenner, in suburban New Orleans. We left information at 55 homes, including 37 homes where we talked to people in person. We found 12 prospects for the church. I shared the gospel with a Muslim family who listened politely and took a Christian CD from us.

New Orleans mission trip - Monday

Today we began work on the two homes in New Orleans. The work is tedious and slow. Some of us are stripping paint from boards and trim in a house. Others are fixing things under a house, a threshold, and getting it ready to put in cabinets. We met the daughter and granddaughter of the homeowner, Mrs. Graham (see the picture above.)
Tonight we went door-to-door visiting in a neighborhood in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, representing a new church, Crescent City Rock. The church is a Southern Baptist church plant meeting in a local YMCA. We talked to people in 30 homes, left information at another 25, for a total of 55 homes, and we found 4 homes that are good prospects for the church. The area is heavily Roman Catholic. Pray for Pastor Jim Louviere (LOU-vee-aye) as he starts this new church. (You can see him above wearing an LSU shirt and talking to James McElveen.)

New Orleans mission trip - Sunday

Today we left our hotel in Mobile, Alabama, and drove to church services at First Baptist Church, Biloxi, Mississippi. We ate lunch in Slidell, Louisiana, then we drove to our lodging at Celebration Church, located on Airline Highway in Metairie, about two miles west of the New Orleans city limits. Compared to where we stayed last year, the lodging this year has less privacy, as we have to share a bunch of bunk beds in a large room, but the building is nicer and nearer to New Orleans and our work site.
There are two other groups staying here to do mission work. One is from Maryland, and another from Massachusetts. In the pictures above, some of the group from Massachusetts are unloading. Some of the other church group volunteers are also repairing homes, and some of them are doing VBS and other ministry in New Orleans.
Celebration Church owns a big shopping center, and they rent out shops on the right end of the shopping center, and they have their church on the left side. They have a second location where they currently have worship, as they repair this location's worship center. After orientation, we drove to the two houses we will be working. Pictured above is one of the houses we will repair, located on Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, and then there is a picture of the view from the rocking chair on the porch of another home we will repair, looking across the street. We met the neighbor of the first home, and they told us the homeowner is named Mrs. Green, she is 70 years old, and she and her family live with her in another part of town until they can repair their home and come back. Pray for Mrs. Green, and pray for our witness to Mr. and Mrs. Williams, the neighbors who were so friendly.

New Orleans mission trip begins

We have a team of 14 volunteers from First Baptist Church of Rincon, who are going on a mission trip to New Orleans. We are on our way. Today we drove to Mobile, Alabama, where we are staying overnight. On the way through Georgia, we stopped at Lane's Packing near Fort Valley for some peach ice cream, of course!
On Sunday, we will drive to First Baptist Church of Biloxi, Mississippi, for worship at their early service, then continue to New Orleans. Work begins on Monday.