BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Jacob had only a stone for a pillow much less a roof over his head. Did Elijah have three square meals a day? What about an advance team? Forget it. But those called today to the unforgiving climate of the Rio Grande Valley to tell of the love of Christ can have all of that?at a price that would put most hotels out of business.

The vision of Bob Clements, former pastor of First Baptist Church Brownsville, has become the mainstay of mission work for the congregation. The Mission Outreach Center (MOC) provides dorm-like housing and meals for mission groups who come to the valley to spread the gospel. Groups sleep in bunks and eat food prepared by volunteers from the church’s youth department and kitchen coordinator Connie Hendrick.

Groups are charged only $99 a person for a seven-day stay at the Center. That’s just enough to cover food and electricity costs, said FBC Minister of Missions and Education Ricardo Rivera.

“Our vision is we’re in kingdom work,” said Rivera. “We’re not in this for our church.”

FBC Senior Pastor Steve Dorman described the MOC as a staging area for mission activities in the valley and across the border. In addition to providing meals and lodging, FBC helps churches find locations in which to work, and transportation. Rivera and long-time valley missionary Dwight Hendrick act as an advance team, completing prep work so groups can get right to work as soon as they arrive.

“I do all the leg work,” Rivera said. To secure locations for Vacation Bible School programs, Rivera contacts area parks departments, property owners and churches for permission to use their land and facilities. Hendrick maps out areas within Mexico’s colonias for door-to-door evangelical outreach. The colonias are regions on either side of the Texas-Mexico border inhabited by squatters living on the fringes of civilization ? most colonias have no running water or electricity and some people live in homes made of nothing more than cardboard.

It is these people and the families of the Rio Grande valley who draw mission groups from across Texas, the southern United States, and from as far north as Michigan to the Brownsville MOC, the only facility of its kind in the valley.

This “kingdom work” has changed scores of lives throughout the years. Rivera and Dorman said hundreds of decisions are made for Christ each summer through the colonia outreach and the Vacation Bible Schools held throughout Brownsville and the surrounding area.

Most of the mission groups bunking at the MOC are youth groups. A new group arrives at the MOC every Saturday evening throughout the summer from the time school is out until the first week of August.

Work begins right away, Rivera said. Teams who arrive early enough are taken to the sites where they will be hosting VBS. If a church is not available to co-sponsor the program, private property and parklands are used, and a big white tent is erected as center stage.

Building relationships with families in specific neighborhoods keeps some mission groups returning to the same site year after year. Some mission workers have seen families grow up. Adults ? who as children, attended the VBS under the white tent – are now bringing their own children.

Before the groups head out on Sunday to recruit VBS participants, they receive Spanish evangelistic training from Hendrick for their work in the colonias. Most of the youth staying at the MOC do not speak Spanish so they are given Spanish/English gospel tracts and given some very basic instructions on how to present the information in Spanish.

On Monday morning, Rivera said, “We pack up the vans and go to Mexico.” The youth are transported to a predetermined site within the Mexican colonias. Most of the participants are very excited about the outreach. They will go into the streets and door-to-door presenting the gospel all morning. But last year was different for one young missionary.

“We had a little girl?and she was scared to death,” Rivera said. He recalled how she couldn’t even speak she was so afraid of going into a different place. As the teams dispersed into the streets of the colonia, a little boy approached her and read the Bible tract she held in her hand. On the spot he accepted Jesus as his Savior and led the girl all morning through the streets translating the gospel message for her.

On average 35-40 children will attend each VBS, said Dorman. With hundreds of decisions made each summer, the biggest challenge for his congregation is not housing and feeding hundreds of hungry and tired teenagers but following up on all of the decisions, ensuring that each person who accepted Christ is then channeled into a church or some form of discipleship. Rivera said, “We get so many that it’s very hard to keep up with.”

But other valley churches are recruited to help. Rivera said if the VBS was done in conjunction with another church, that church would do the follow-ups. If there is no co-sponsor, a church in the area is contacted and given the list of prospects from their neighborhood.

What happens south of the border is just as exciting

SPLENDORA, Texas ? In the four years since Lori Smith started at United Baptist Church in Splendora, Texas, the church has participated in mission endeavors to 12 different countries, spanning four different continents. The church has reached Ecuador, Zambia, Australia, the Ivory Coast, Poland, and Honduras to name a few. But it is the Dogon people group of Mali in West Africa that has captured the heart of Smith and United Baptist church members. Located northeast of Houston and Kingwood, Texas, the 600 members of United Baptist Church seek to span the globe with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Our desire is to take it to the ends of the earth and that is in every place,” Smith said, missions ministries director at United, who recently returned from Jamaica, where she led a team of 18 to begin Vacation Bible Schools and reach out to a girls’ home.

Walter Kahler, senior pastor of United, said he has been amazed at the church’s response to missions needs because United “is not a huge church.”

“Last year, we had over 850 people involved in missions,” Kahler said, adding that many were from neighboring congregations. “We’re seeing that God may be moving allowing us to get other churches involved in missions as well. It’s an amazing thing.”

In 2001, Smith joined a group from the Dallas-area to investigate a possible partnership between United and missionaries currently serving in West Africa.

“I asked God to break my heart for the people there and show me what he wanted our church to do among those people groups,” Smith said, adding that they visited the Bozo, Dogon and Flami, people groups during her first trip. “But the Dogon people captured my heart.”

Smith’s trip to Mali yielded a partnership with the Dogon people aimed at building a school for them. In March of 2002, Smith led a team of 14 United Baptist members to Mali, later teaming up with other missionaries and journeymen.

The team entered the small community determined to build and complete a school facility and found the land covered in large rocks.

“For a week we broke up rocks and moved rocks and filled up gaps with rocks,” said Smith, adding that God had a plan for the week-long struggle to clear the land so a foundation could be laid. As the team worked to build a foundation for the facility, they also worked to lay a foundation on which to lay the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“In order to share the gospel, we had to build relationships. It’s a village with tons of tourists so all they know of Americans is tourists, and they aren’t the best examples of respect and how you treat others,” Smith said. “We made sure to impact them with the love of Christ by getting to know them, carrying water, feeding them lunch, and just serving them.”

Perhaps due to the team’s servant attitude, the Dogon people also sought to help their guests, often serving as guides over the country’s rough terrain.

“There is a certain age group of boys that when visitors come they attach themselves as a guide, and they help you climb up the cliffs,” Smith said. “Each one in our team had a person that would hold their hand and help them climb the rocks.”

Between the guide and the team member, Smith said a relationship often developed in which team members were often forced to find creative ways to share Christ due to language barriers.

“Watching them develop relationships with them and seeing the desperation that they wanted to share the love of Jesus,” is etched in Smith’s mind, she said.

“One woman, Rita, had a French tract, and she went through that with her little boy,” Smith recounted. “He seemingly understood it, and she found out that he was a believer. She asked him what he wanted to do when he got bigger, and he said he wanted to tell others about Christ.”

In June of 2002, a second team from United returned to Mali to continue work on the school facility seeking new ways to communicate God’s love.

United’s Youth Pastor, Forrest Coulter, tried to share the gospel with his guide, a boy named Mark. Before leaving, Coulter bought matching rings with a cross on them giving one to Mark and wearing one himself. When the second team returned in June, Coulter sent along a letter written in English outlining the plan of salvation.

“When the journeyman translated it into French, [Mark] acce

IRVING, Texas – Prayers of gratitude for God’s blessings on the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention took priority during the July 31 Executive Board meeting. With unanimity the board approved support of East Texas Baptist Family Ministry, recommended a 17 percent increase for the 2004 budget, elected a new managing editor, praised Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees for their election of Paige Patterson as president, selected evangelist Rudy Hernandez for the SBTC’s highest honor, and commended SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards for five years of service.

John Morgan, a board member from Houston, set the stage with a devotional reminder that every word or deed should be offered for the glory of God. When Jesus is present in the midst of believers, Morgan said they will experience peace, gratefulness, gladness, usefulness, and power.

SBTC Chief Financial Officer Joe Davis explained the process whereby the convention has set aside funds to start construction on an office along Highway 360 at the southern edge of Grapevine. Prior board action allocating $3.2 million in surplus funds from 2002 coupled with $530,000 of the current year’s overage allow the building to be completed debt-free.

“The giving has continued to be strong,” Davis said, noting that Cooperative Program receipts from local churches are averaging $1,278,000 per month. “We have received about a million more than budgeted this year?running sixteen percent ahead.”

Morgan asked for permission to interrupt the agenda after hearing the financial report, calling for a prayer of thanksgiving to God in appreciation for men and women who led in allocating the funds. “I don’t want to take this for granted. This is an awesome financial report.”

He recognized that many of the 35 board members have leadership roles with other organizations where financial setbacks have occurred. “I challenge any of you to tell about an organization that has such a wonderful statement as this.”

Board member Miles Seaborn of Fort Worth responded, praying, “We have made a concerted effort to be true and faithful to the principles of your Word.” He asked God for wisdom in expenditures, recognizing “the most dangerous times are when we have more money than anticipated.” Seaborn added, “Don’t let us get diverted or lead into a path that’s not your path, a will that’s not your will. It’s all in your wisdom that we know when [to spend], and we give you the glory and honor.”

The board approved an Executive Committee recommendation creating a Committee on Affiliated and Fraternally Related Ministries as a standing committee with five members appointed by the board chairman annually. Currently, SBTC has a fraternal relationship with Texas Baptist Men and, in addition to an existing affiliation relationship with The Criswell College, approved an affiliation agreement with East Texas Baptist Family Ministry.

The new ministry in Timpson, Texas, is developing 50 homes that will accommodate 300 children, two 5,500-square foot maternity homes and 150 retiree homes. Facilities will be built on 272 acres along FM 137 between the towns of Garrison and Center.

“This [affiliation agreement] is in keeping with the SBTC not being an owner, but a partner with institutions,” explained Human Care Task Force Chairman Steve Cochran of Longview. “The SBTC will be able to provide churches with Baptist options for childcare, maternity and retirement housing. And we’re keeping institutional spending in the operational budget under fifteen percent.”

Board member Al Kawamotto of Arlington offered a strong endorsement of the plan, having served on the task force that studied ETBFM, praising the work of Director Gerald Edwards. Kawamotto distinguished Edwards from many people who “think and talk” about starting a ministry, noting, “If God says, ‘Go do it,’ and he does it, that puts him in a different spot from all the other people.”

Long-range plans call for ETBFM to offer recreational, educational and retreat events, as well as housing equipment for disaster relief, volunteer buildings, and crusade evangelism. As funds are made available later this year, the first children’s home will be built, followed by construction of the first maternity home after the second phase of fundraising.

The SBTC provided $10,000 for assistance in the initial operation of ETBFM, pledging an additional $75,000 next year and $125,000 in 2005. Another $148,700 has already been received from other sources. The SBTC will nominate five individuals to serve as members of the ETBFM Executive Board. ETBFM agrees to support the ministries and affirm the efforts of the SBC and the Cooperative Program, supporting the Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement, comply with applicable state and federal law, and engage an independent CPA to perform a year-end audit.