Author: Russell Lightner

Are you ready to reach the nations across the street?

I recently met a family of five who were on one of the last flights out of Kabul after the U.S. military’s 20-year presence there ended in August 2021. This couple and their three children, the youngest of whom is only five months old, had just arrived in Fort Worth after clearing security at an East Coast military facility.

It may surprise some, but the place where I met this family was at Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where I serve as the share strategy pastor. In one month, this Muslim family went from sheltering outside of the Kabul airport to sitting in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class at a Baptist church in Texas.

Over 20 years ago, Southcliff volunteers began teaching ESL classes with only four students. Today, thousands of newcomers to America have been taught English at Southcliff. We host a variety of ministries targeted to newcomers to America, including Bible studies in Spanish, Burmese, Swahili, and Mandarin. In addition, we give seminary interns experience in cross-cultural ministry by housing them in apartments where refugees live.

A 2016 survey of pastors by Lifeway Research revealed that 86% of them felt that Christians have a responsibility to care for refugees and foreigners. However, 44% of these pastors revealed that there was a sense of fear in their congregations about refugees coming to the U.S. That may help explain why only 8% of these pastors had effectively led their churches to develop ministries to these families.

So how do church leaders bridge the gap between the belief that refugee ministry is important and the reality that so few churches have thriving newcomer ministries?

Set a personal example
Leaders must set the pace by personally engaging in ministry themselves. For example, when a pastor becomes a “family friend” to a Sudanese family through World Relief, people in the church notice. Likewise, when a church leader is seen giving driving lessons to a new Muslim friend, people ask questions.

Set a scriptural standard
Leaders rise above prejudices and politics and teach church members about God’s heart for all peoples. Being a Great Commission church means that Scripture guides our opinions of the lost, not social media or cable news.

Say yes to relational opportunities
Church leaders see opportunities that God puts before them and say yes. When a Burmese congregation asks to meet in your building on Sunday afternoons, try to make it happen. When a refugee from Congo, who speaks broken English, applies for a custodial position at your church, look for a way to hire him. When the children’s minister asks to hold the annual Vacation Bible School at an elementary school in an immigrant neighborhood instead of the church building, say yes.

Make it a budgetary priority
Finally, churches that want to develop effective ministries to newcomers will hire staff and budget for these ministries. Do you want to know if a church values teenagers? Check out their youth ministry budget and staffing. The hard reality is that creating new programs, recruiting team members, and training people in cross-cultural evangelism takes a lot of time and attention. Churches that see missions as something that is both around the world and across the street often make this commitment a reality in their church budget and staffing.

If you would like to know more about practical ways to reach out to newcomers to America, my book, “Reaching the World Across the Street,” will be available in 2022. Feel free to email me at stu@southcliff.com.

Want to see kingdom diversity? Look no further than Amarillo

Paramount partnership

For Danial Habte, pastor of Kingdom Gospel Church and All Nation Worship Church—two congregations connected to Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo—international evangelism begins with relationship and can occur in the unlikeliest of places.

For Yusuf Hussein, All Nation and Habte have been lifesaving.

Habte, a native of Eritrea, planted churches for 13 years in
Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey before arriving in Amarillo at the end of 2012, when the Turkish government refused to renew his work permit.

From Turkey to Texas

When persecution prevented his return to Eritrea—a small African country bordering the Red Sea—Habte, his wife, Weini, and their children applied for and were granted asylum in the U.S.

Embassy officials asked the Habtes where they would like to relocate in America. They prayed that God would choose the city and state for them, assuming they would be sent to a large city.

“Do you know anyone in Texas?” an embassy official asked.

“We don’t have anybody. We don’t know where to go,” Habte replied, assuming they would be sent to Dallas or Houston.

Instead, their destination became Amarillo, a city they had never heard of before.

The family arrived in Amarillo in December 2012. Missionary friends from Turkey introduced them to Paramount Baptist, where Danial shared his desire with church leadership to evangelize internationals. Before long, a significant multiethnic, multicultural ministry began right in the heart of the Texas Panhandle.

Kingdom Gospel Church started as a
Bible study for followers of Christ who met in Paramount facilities. Danial, eventually on staff as missionary-in-residence at the church, led the study and became the group’s pastor. Today, services continue every Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. In 2014, Kingdom Gospel Church affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Kingdom Gospel members are primarily Eritreans and Ethiopians, Habte said.

Recently, a second Bible study, geared partly but not exclusively for Arabic-speaking peoples, launched at Paramount and has become a separate congregation: All Nation Worship Church. The group meets later in the afternoon on Sundays than Kingdom Gospel. Migrants from seven to eight countries attend, including South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, and the Congo.

Paramount also offers English as a Second Language classes on Wednesdays and during the traditional Sunday school hour.

Sundays are busy days for Habte, who is building the two congregations by befriending Panhandle area migrants.

“We build friendships with all communities: Muslims from the Middle East, Somalis, and Sudanese. They know I am a pastor and work in the church. We help them with things like rides, Walmart trips, applications,” Habte said.

Somali and Sudanese migrants tend to cluster in two areas of Amarillo, he said, adding that he and his family live close to Paramount. He has found that if you build friendships with migrants, they will come.

Yusuf’s story

Yusuf Hussein understands living in constant danger. In 2014, the Somali native came to the U.S. from the Awbare refugee camp in Ethiopia.

“I had to leave my country for fear of genocide, killing. [It was] generally unsafe for life. Every day people kill each other for no reason,” Hussein said.

His path to the U.S. first took him to San Diego, Calif., where he heard of work available in a meatpacking plant in Amarillo. To Texas he went.

A Christian friend gave him a Somali-language Bible in 2016. Hussein hadn’t encountered Christians in Somalia but remembered contacts with believers in Ethiopia, where he “started to see good things from Christians.”

Christian behavior contradicted his preconceptions about the faith gleaned from his Muslim background in Somalia. “I found out it was misconception and contradiction; what I had heard before about Christianity was wrong,” he recalled.

Hussein decided to read through the Bible, and he said he “believed and accepted Jesus in the same year I finished reading the Bible.”

It hasn’t been easy since.

Once they learned of his conversion, family members forbade Hussein from associating with them. He was barred from the Amarillo Somalian community and businesses. Once he was harassed and physically beaten by local Somalians. He has experienced “cultural discomfort” not only learning to live in the U.S., but also adjusting to Christian community itself.

“Living among people with whom I had never lived before was hard for me,” he said.

But through Habte and All Nation, Hussein has found a home.

"I feel relieved and comforted. Pastor Danial helped me connect with other followers of Christ who have the same background and culture."

Yusuf Hussein Tweet

Hussein said he thanks God that he found Pastor Habte: “I feel relieved and comforted. Pastor Danial helped me connect with other followers of Christ who have the same background and culture.”

Hussein serves as treasurer of All Nation and, though forbidden from formally socializing with other Islamic migrants, has learned to share the gospel with them nonetheless through YouTube presentations, thanks to training provided by Habte and others at Paramount.

Hussein’s experience illustrates the power of relationship and the methods by which All Nation is growing God’s kingdom. “We use relational evangelism skills. Evangelism is all about relationship,” Habte noted in a description of his ministry, Kingdom Gospel Mission.

Were it not for Paramount’s ongoing partnership, Habte’s work would be far more difficult. “Paramount is always missional and continually supportive,” he said.

With the nations migrating to the U.S., sharing the gospel internationally can take place on one’s own doorstep, even in the Texan Panhandle.

Mastering one of the hardest words

People learning English as a second language often say it is one of the hardest to grasp, with its vast assortment of idioms, punctuation rules, and pronunciations that can change literally depending on what zip code you’re standing in.

Yet there’s one word I’ve found that’s hard to pronounce whether you’re from Dubai, Des Moines, or Dallas: No.

We just don’t like telling people no. And that’s a problem.

A few weeks back, I had the privilege of having a conversation with Lance Witt, who will serve as the keynote speaker at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Equip Conference in August. Witt is among a growing number of voices trying to convince followers of Christ—including pastors and church leaders—to pay at least as much attention to nurturing their own lives and souls as they do members, budgets, and strategic plans.

On our way to that healthier version of ourselves, at some point we’re going to have to learn to say no. I love how Witt put it during our conversation: “We need to realize that every no is rooted in a higher yes.”

That statement is profound, but it’s not rocket science, is it? We all know that saying yes to some things will naturally mean saying no to others. So why is saying “no” so difficult, especially in ministry contexts? Because if we say no, we will feel like we’re somehow not meeting someone else’s needs. We might feel like we’re not being nice if we say “no.” In some instances, we might feel like saying no will shatter the tenuous peace we’ve been able to keep with the person pressing hard for a yes.

"You can’t be all things to all people. Let’s let God take care of that role. His shoulders are big enough to handle that kind of load."

Jayson Larson Tweet

I’ve been there. As a lead pastor with a penchant for people-pleasing, I admit I had a hard time saying no. One particularly busy week, I was behind on sermon prep and knew Saturday was going to have to be a catch-up day for me, so I said no to a family who invited me to their teenager’s birthday party. In another instance, we had a truck driver in the church who would often call my cell because he got bored on his long drives—usually as early as 5 a.m. or after midnight. For my own sanity (and sleep!), I had to set a firm no boundary there, as well. Neither instance was easy, but the higher yes came in being prepared to deliver God’s Word on Sunday morning and protecting rare times of rest.

What about you? Are you getting ready to deliver a yes because it seems too hard to say no? Your yes may keep the church activity wheel turning, but will that come at the expense of a season God might intend for you to be still as He opens another door in His timing? Your yes may keep that grumpy church member happy, but will it come at the expense of an activity your child is participating in that will never happen again?

Don’t get me wrong—if we find ourselves saying no all the time, we’re going to miss golden opportunities to minister to others and share the hope of Jesus with those who desperately need to hear it.

But you can’t be all things to all people. Let’s let God take care of that role. His shoulders are big enough to handle that kind of load.

Chances are, yours are not.

Equip Conference keynote speaker Witt says ‘doing’ is necessary for leaders, but ‘being’ comes first

Strong leaders are built from the inside out

Lance Witt will be the keynote speaker at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s annual Equip Conference set for August 13 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Witt is the founder of REPLENISH ministries and author of “Replenish,” “High Impact Teams,” and, most recently, “Your ONE Life: Own it, Live it, Love it.” He recently spoke with the Texan about the importance of soul care, self-awareness, and understanding identity as it pertains to pastors and church leaders.

When it comes to leadership, so much has been written and taught about how to lead in an external sense (structures and strategies, processes and procedures). Yet the heart of your ministry has focused much more on the internal parts of leadership like “being” and spiritual health. What were you seeing in the Christian landscape that led you to make that the focus of your ministry?

Lance Witt: The first thing I was seeing was a lack of health in my own soul. I was coming out of seven years as an executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church. I was there when Rick [Warren, Saddleback’s pastor] wrote “Purpose Driven Life,” so that was a huge game-changer for him, for our church, and for our staff. It was a season of amazing ministry influence, but also a season with a lot of challenges because the church was exploding in growth, everybody was contacting the church, Rick sort of became this global celebrity. And so the bottom line is, I just really wasn’t leading myself very well. I just began to see, as hard as I was working and trying to do good things and serve the Lord on the inside, I was pretty empty.

I think my story is not unusual, especially for a lot of people who are either pastors or who serve as volunteers in leadership. We’re sort of taught like—we’re very Word-centered, we’re very evangelistic, let’s go win the world for Jesus—but in the process, we haven’t really been taught much about caring for our own souls. What I began to discover is that even though theologically I would’ve known I had a soul and that my soul was headed for heaven and had been redeemed by the cross, what I didn’t really live with was the experiential reality that my soul needed attention on a daily basis and that I had to care for and nurture my soul and the being side of my life.

That doesn’t minimize the importance of doing, but I think being comes first. And by the way, I think this is really consistent with what Jesus taught, that the Christian life is inside to outside. He says it starts with the root and then it moves toward fruit, it goes from the invisible to the visible. I think that’s why Solomon said in Proverbs 4 that, above everything else, guard your heart, your inner life, because everything you do flows from that.

Equip is an event designed specifically to train leaders in the local church. Many of those leaders are lay leaders who have full-time jobs, busy families, and they’re working through the stresses and struggles of everyday life. What are some practical ways lay leaders in 2022 can find a balance between being present with their families and active in their churches without running themselves into the ground?

LW: I think part of this is just embracing that there is a dual component to this thing. There is paying attention to my inner life, my soul, my relationships, but then also realizing that the reason God left me on earth … was that He has an assignment for me and He has given me gifts and called me into the body. He’s wired us in such a way that at the end of the day, we can never be fulfilled when we’re just consumers taking care of ourselves. Now, I really do believe that self care is not selfish—it’s good stewardship. But we can become self-absorbed, and it just becomes all about us and our comfort and meeting our needs and taking care of what we want. God just didn’t wire us that way. He wired us so that our great fulfillment comes in part when we’re actually serving.

One of the things I’m going to talk about in my main session comes out of the book I just released last year called “Your ONE Life.” I think if people are going to live meaningful lives in 2022 as lay people who have full-time jobs, families to take care of, and serve in the local church, it starts with first getting really clear about your purpose in life, what is your true north, and what is it that, at the end of the day, you truly value? The whole book is based on the idea of how do we really steward well the one and only life we’ve ever been given? A key verse I use is Psalm 90:12, which says, “Teach us to number our days that we may grow a heart of wisdom.” We need to live with this sense of [understanding] that we get one shot at this life. We need to be really clear about our purpose. We need to be crystal clear about our values. And then I think this is where it gets really practical, but I need to align my priorities and align my week around the things that I say are most important to me, because what I’ve discovered is that my life and my calendar sort of become like my garage. If I just leave it alone, it ends up really cluttered.

I think getting clear about what’s really important and then aligning my life around that is what really leads to the beauty of a life that is paying attention to my personal life, but also is engaged in serving. I will talk in my main session about grabbing your life by the throat—like, you really have to take responsibility for your life and where you’re going to commit to.

You plan on addressing a couple of other important topics at Equip: rhythms and relationships. Can you just share a glimpse about what God has put on your heart about those two topics?

LW: We live in a world where everybody is on 24/7, where we can stay plugged in all the time and have our smartphones attached to our hip. I think for me to really live a great life and be an effective servant, I need to have a rhythm of life that works hard and produces, but one that also has built into it a time for rest and replenishment. Go back to the very beginning of creation, where God’s model for us is this rhythm of produce, create, work, and then pause and rest. I need that rhythm because God made everything in the universe with this sense of rhythm. Nothing was made to give out all of the time. I love in Leviticus when God is talking about sabbath and He says, “Every seven years, I want you to give the physical dirt a Sabbath because nothing was made to give out all the time.”

So I just think we need a more developed theology of rest. We need to learn how to work hard, and then also unplug hard. I think that if we could learn to have healthy rhythms, we could actually do ministry from a place where we are filled up, in love with Jesus and in love with people. When it comes to relationships—and this will be more in my breakout session—I think the key to really effective leadership is that we need to be relational leaders. God has called us to shepherd sheep, to love on them. We can never forget that God called us to love people. I just want to challenge people to really shepherd and love the people that they are with in a very profound way. I think sometimes we are very transactional in our approach [with volunteers in the church] and it ends up feeling very utilitarian. I want my volunteers to feel that what I care about is what I want for them, not just what I want from them.

Let’s say someone pulls you aside at Equip and says, “Hey, I’m a follower of Christ, but I know my internal life is a mess. What should I do?” There’s no quick and easy answer to that question, but what are a few practical, immediate steps that people can take to get their life headed in a better direction?

LW: I think one would be just acknowledging that you actually have an inner life and that maybe it’s not in the healthiest place right now. I always say that whatever is going on inside of me internally is always going to leak out externally. So just the fact that you are acknowledging that is a huge gift, but I would also say, make yourself begin to go on journey—and it’s going to take a while—to raise your level of self-awareness. I love this quote: “Self-awareness is your best defense against self-defeat.” I think if you can become a more self-aware leader and understand how your family of origin has impacted you, how people’s voices over you in the past have created a narrative in your head that you tend to believe … you will begin to better understand your identity in Christ.

Luego de que el evangelio literalmente le salvara la vida, una mujer de Watauga pasa el resto de su vida hablando a otros de Jesús.

El Poder de una voz

Durante el transcurso de sus 78 años, Carmel Valerio puede recordar muchas voces que han hablado a su vida.

Ella recuerda con claridad la voz de su padre abusivo, quien le hacía un bombardeo constante de insultos, humillaciones y desprecio. Su exposición a esa voz se intensificó cuando la sacaba de la escuela desde los 8 años para ayudar a criar a sus hermanos y así su madrastra pudiera trabajar fuera de casa.

Llena de odio, resentimiento y un inmenso dolor por todos los abusos recibidos, Valerio dijo que empezó a escuchar otra voz a los 14 años. Esta voz, una voz maligna, decía cosas como: “¡Nadie te quiere!” y “No vales nada”. Esa voz incluso ofrecía una solución: “Quítate la vida”.

Cuanto más escuchaba esa voz, más convencida estaba de que esa sería su salida. Sin embargo, el día en que decidió intentar suicidarse, escuchó otra voz. En su más profunda desesperación, Valerio dijo que oía esa voz repitiendo una y otra vez:

“Te amo. Te amo. Te amo”.

Valerio se dio cuenta de que esa voz, que la detuvo en su intento de suicidio, era la voz de Dios, mostrándole que Él tenía un glorioso propósito que cumplir en ella. En ese momento, Valerio dijo que Dios comenzó a sanarla de toda la amargura, el resentimiento y el odio que sentía por su padre. Llena de una nueva esperanza, se levantó del suelo y corrió a verse en el espejo.

Esto fue un logro en su vida: pues nunca se había mirado en un espejo antes de ese momento, asumiendo que no había nada que valiera la pena mirar porque su padre siempre le había dicho que era fea. Pero ese día, frente a ese espejo, Valerio descubrió que ella era una hermosa y nueva creación.

“Comencé a sentirme especial y liviana, porque Dios había quitado mis pesadas cargas,” dijo Valerio.

De vez en cuando, la abuelita de Valerio la llevaba a ella a la iglesia y durante este tiempo Valerio reconoció quién es el Señor Jesús y comenzó a servirle. “El ambiente en donde yo estaba ni mis circunstancias cambiaron, dijo ella, pero Dios me cambió a mí.”

Una de las cosas que Dios estaba cambiando en ella, era la forma en que veía a su padre. Ya no lo veía como a un hombre al que había que odiar, sino como un hombre que necesitaba a Jesús. Ahora, la voz de Valerio fue la que pudo hablar en la vida de su padre. Un año antes de su padre fallecer, la voz de Dios guio a Valerio a compartirle el evangelio y él, entre lágrimas, recibió a Jesús en su vida.

Otra voz comenzó a hablar en la vida de Valerio. A los 16 años, conoció a su esposo, Elías, en la iglesia. Estuvieron casados durante 58 años, la mayor parte de los cuales él pasó sirviendo como misionero y plantador de iglesias en varios pueblos de Texas y México. Carmel y sus cinco hijos estuvieron junto a él, fielmente a su lado. Elías fue pastor de la congregación hispana de la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Watauga, antes de fallecer a la edad de 85 años.

Dios llamó a la señora Valerio a la evangelización personal a través de su esposo. Según Valerio, un día, mientras agradecía a Dios por la forma en que estaba usando a su esposo para compartir el evangelio con grandes resultados, escuchó la misma voz amorosa del Señor que le habló en el momento de su salvación muchos años antes.

“¿Y qué estás haciendo por mí?”, sintió que el Señor le decía. “Tú estás llamada a hacer mi obra. Quiero que hables y testifiques de Mí”.

Mientras escuchaba la voz de Dios, Valerio dijo que se puso de rodillas y pidió perdón al Señor ya que no se sentía capacitada para hablar a los demás sobre Cristo porque decía que no sabía hablar bien. Ella admite que siempre se ponía nerviosa cuando se le acercaban otras mujeres que parecían hablar con más elocuencia.

La voz de afirmación de su esposo, junto con el llamado del Señor, la impulsó a comenzar a sentirse de otra manera. “No te sientas así”, recuerda que le dijo su esposo. “Lo más importante es que ames a Dios. Hay muchas personas que conocen la Palabra de Dios, son buenos maestros, son buenos oradores, pero eso no significa que estén consagrados a Dios. Saben muchas cosas de Dios en la mente, pero no en el corazón”.

“Dios no quiere que hables bien, sólo quiere que digas lo que te ha pedido que digas”.

Carmel Valerio Tweet

A partir de ese momento, Valerio comenzó a entender que “Dios no quiere que hables bien, sólo quiere que digas lo que te ha pedido que digas”.

Desde que ella entendió esto, Valerio ha utilizado la voz que Dios le ha dado para compartir el evangelio con cientos de personas. Ha ganado almas para Cristo enseñando inglés como segundo idioma, en cárceles, en baños públicos, en su vecindario, en ventas de garaje, en tiendas y centros comerciales, incluso entre personas de diferentes nacionalidades. Sus lugares de trabajo se convirtieron en campos de misión, incluida la clínica médica donde trabajaba haciendo la limpieza. Dios le permitía a menudo entrar en el cuarto de atención médica para orar por los pacientes y presentarles el Evangelio.

“Las primeras bancas de la iglesia estaban llenas de personas por las que oré en la clínica”, dijo Valerio.

Valerio vio enfermos ser sanados por medio de sus oraciones de fe y muchas almas ser salvas por el evangelio. También trabajó como capellana para Marketplace Ministries, donde era conocida como “la mujer de Dios”, lo cual Valerio expresa es un privilegio.

Valerio es ahora viuda, y aunque la voz de su esposo permanece en el recuerdo, ella sigue firme en su relación con el Señor y en su llamado.

“Ahora, en lugar de tener a mi esposo a mi lado, tengo mi Biblia, mi himnario y alabo al Señor”, dijo.

Su deseo es ayudar a otras hermanas que han sufrido una pérdida como la suya, a superar su depresión por medio de Jesús. “Las enfermedades son buenas porque nos hacen confiar en Dios y vivir más felices”, dijo. “Mientras Dios nos dé vida, tenemos que dar el mensaje de salvación a todos los que sufren”.

Un mensaje que ella misma escuchó una vez porque eligió escuchar aquella pequeña voz apacible y amorosa del Señor.

After the gospel literally saved her life, Watauga woman is spending the rest of hers telling others about Jesus

The Power of a Voice

Over the course of her 78 years, Carmel Valerio can remember so many of the voices that have spoken into her life.

She clearly remembers the voice of her abusive father, who delivered a steady barrage of insults, humiliation, and contempt. Her exposure to his voice intensified when he removed her from school from the age of 8 to help raise her siblings so her stepmother could begin working outside the home.

Filled with hatred, resentment, and immense pain from all the abuse she received, Carmel said she began to hear another voice at age 14. This voice, an evil one, said things such as, “Nobody loves you!” and “You’re worthless.” That voice even offered a solution: “Take your life.”

The more she listened to that voice, the more she was convinced that would be her escape. On the day she had decided to attempt suicide, however, she heard yet another voice. In her deepest despair, Carmel said she heard that voice repeating over and over:

“I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Carmel realized that voice—which halted her suicide attempt—was the voice of God, showing her that He had a glorious purpose to fulfill in her. In that moment, she said God began to heal her of all the bitterness, resentment, and hatred she felt for her father. Filled with new hope, she got up from the floor and ran to see herself in the mirror.

It was a milestone in her life: she had never looked at herself in a mirror before that moment, assuming there was nothing worth looking at because her father had always told her she was ugly. But that day, in front of that mirror, Carmel discovered she was a beautiful and new creation.

“I began to feel special and light, because God had taken away my heavy burdens,” she said.

From time to time, her grandmother would take her to church. This is where Carmel recognized who the Lord Jesus is and where she began to serve Him. “The environment I was in and my circumstances didn’t change,” she said, “but God changed me.”

One of the things God was changing was how she viewed her father—not as a man filled with hate and one to be hated, but as a man who needed Jesus. Now it was her voice that could speak into her father’s life. A year before he died, the voice of God led her to share the gospel with him and he, in tears, accepted Jesus into his life.

Another voice would soon begin speaking into Carmel’s life. At age 16, she met her husband, Elias, at church. They were married for 58 years, most of which time he spent serving as a missionary and church planter in several towns across Texas and Mexico. Carmel and their five children were right there with him, faithfully by his side. Elias pastored a Hispanic mission church started out of First Baptist Church of Watauga before passing away at the age of 85.

God called Carmel to personal evangelism through her husband. According to Carmel, one day, as she was thanking God for the way He was using her husband to share the gospel with great results, she heard the same loving voice of the Lord that spoke to her at the time of her salvation many years before.

“And what are you doing for Me?” she felt the Lord saying to her. “You are called to do my work. I want you to speak and testify about Me.”

Upon hearing from the Lord, Carmel said she got on her knees and asked God for forgiveness because she did not feel qualified to speak to others about Christ because she said she did not know how to speak beautifully. She admits that she would always get nervous when approached by other women who seemed to speak more eloquently.

The assuring voice of her husband, along with the nudging from the Lord, helped her begin to feel differently. “Don’t feel that way,” she remembered her husband saying to her. “The most important thing is that you love God. There are many people who know the Word of God, they are good teachers, they are good speakers, but that does not mean that they are consecrated to God. They know many things about God in mind, but not in heart.”

God doesn’t want you to speak well. He just wants you to say what He asked you to say.

Carmel Valerio Tweet

From that moment on, Carmel began to understand that “God doesn’t want you to speak well. He just wants you to say what He asked you to say.”

Since that realization, she has used her God-given voice to share the gospel with hundreds of people. She has won souls for Christ by teaching English as a Second Language, sharing about Jesus in jails, public restrooms, in her neighborhood, at garage sales, in stores and malls, even among people of different nationalities. Her workplaces became mission fields, including the medical clinic where she worked as a janitor. God often allowed her to go into the rooms where medical care was being given to pray for patients and present the gospel to them.

“The first pews in the church were filled with people I prayed for in the clinic,” Carmel said.

She saw sick people being healed through her prayers of faith and many souls being saved. She also worked as a chaplain for Marketplace Ministries where she was known as “the woman of God,” which she says is a privilege.

Though the voice of her husband remains in her memories, she remains steadfast in her relationship with the Lord and her calling.

“Now, instead of having my husband by my side, I have my Bible, my hymnal, and I praise the Lord,” she said.

Her desire is to help other sisters who have suffered a loss like hers, to overcome their depression through Jesus. “Illnesses are good because they make us trust in God and live happier,” she said. “For as long as God gives us life, we need to give the message of salvation to everyone who is suffering.”

A message that she, herself, once heard because she chose to listen to a still, small, and loving voice.

What’s your story? God’s grace is sufficient beyond my comfort zone

I have served in children’s ministry for over 20 years, from Sunday school teacher to Vacation Bible School and even seven years as the children’s ministry director at my home church, Nolan River Road Baptist Church in Cleburne.

I stepped out of that role in 2019 to become the founder and executive director of Hope is Strong Ministries. Our ministry primarily does relief and education work in Tanzania. We have recently had a door open to also work in Zambia.

It took a few years of praying and preparation for me to come to the point of launching a ministry. For me, the biggest challenge was feeling unequipped. My life verse is 2 Corinthians 12:9. It reminds me that because of my weakness, it’s obvious that it’s His ministry. So, even though I don’t feel equipped with the right education or the gift of speaking, I know that He is sufficient. And if I’m just faithful in going, as we’re commanded to do, then He’s the one who’s prepared the way.

You see, each time the Lord has called me to serve, He has always been faithful about bringing others alongside me who would train and encourage me. As a kid, even, I remember having a strong desire to learn more or even go to Africa one day. In 2011, I learned that our local Baptist association, Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association, was taking mission trips to Tanzania.
I joined them on their second trip in 2012.

It was on that trip that the Lord planted. And I knew even then this challenge was going to require me to not just step out of my comfort zone, but to really, completely, jump out of my comfort zone. As we traveled to a village one day, one of our translators on the bus, a pastor in Tanzania, said to me, “Beck, please pray of a way to help our orphans.” And I just remember telling him I would pray, but I took it very seriously.

What’s my story? In the face of my shortcomings, I’m reminded of God’s grace. His grace is sufficient for me.

Becky Willyard Tweet

I could only pray though, because I had no idea even where to start. So, I prayed for years. In fact, I fast forward all the way to 2017 when this pastor, Pastor Jeremiah, contacted me on Facebook Messenger. He sent me a picture of three children he was feeding. They were about 10 years old and under. The youngest, probably about 3 years old, had showed up at his house that day looking for food.

Their dad had lost hope and left a few years earlier. Mother had been gone for three days and was looking for ways to provide for her children. So, these children had been at home for three days, no mom, no dad, and no food.

I knew then, when I received that message and that picture of those sweet children, that was the moment God said, “Are you ready?” And I still was in denial that He was calling me to something big. I reached out to a few others, including Rick Hope, the pastor at First Baptist Lillian, at that time. And together we raised enough money to send this mom and her children some corn. So that’s really where the initial call was, to start from there.

We put together a plan, providing meals through Pastor Jeremiah’s church in Bunda, Tanzania, but God had already gone before us. And we have been given amazing opportunities to just be the ones to serve. Our hope is to reach vulnerable children and widows, both physically and spiritually.

So, the way it works is as they come for Sunday service, they receive a meal. Many of the children attend church without their parents. We saw this as an opportunity to unite the families in Christ. When we provide a meal for the children, it opened doors for the leaders. As they would go follow up on the children, the children would recognize them and tell mom and dad, “Hey, I know them. They can come in, let’s talk to them.” And the leaders are able to share Christ with the entire family.

We started in 2017. By 2020, we were a 501(c)3 and opened the doors to our first kindergarten, serving about 80 children. We hope to open a full Christian school one day. We serve widows and children through four churches in Bunda, and hopefully soon, in Zambia.

In 2021, we led our first mission trip as Hope is Strong Ministries. We hosted a Bible club and had almost 400 children attend. It was so much fun to see, just to be able to play with these children, and develop relationships. We had a day of ministry with the widows, hosted leader training, and we walked door-to-door in the community sharing Christ with families. Our second trip is planned for this August.

What’s my story? In the face of my shortcomings, I’m reminded of God’s grace. His grace is sufficient for me.

Want to share a story of what God is doing in your life or your church?

Share your story here

Divine appointment opens door for Filipino SBTC church to minister to Afghan refugees

‘I noticed that they’re not like me’

While many churches find opportunities to travel to other countries to reach the nations, the staff of Sugar Grove Baptist Church have found the nations just around the corner.

Earl Alcazar, one of the pastors at Sugar Grove, said one of the church’s most interesting and unexpected gospel outreaches was the result of a chance encounter with some Afghan refugees staying in a hotel near the church.

Alcazar said he was driving one day when he noticed children running around a hotel parking lot near a Sam’s Club.

“I noticed that they’re not like me. I’m Southeast Asian, and I said, these are not Southeast Asian people,” Alcazar said. “These are not Hispanic [people]. They’re wearing the Middle Eastern clothing or something. … I felt that maybe I should just give something to them, so I bought something from Sam’s Club and gave it to them. And I learned that they don’t speak English. There was a driver that was helping them, and he said that they were Afghans.”

This was during the pandemic, around the spring of 2021, and Alcazar said he was praying for the Lord to help him overcome his fear of reaching out to people he had never met and did not know how to communicate with.

“And I was just praying, Lord, help me. I have a little heart for missions, but I’m afraid to do something like that,” he said. “There are times that I would try to reach people and my wife would warn me that they might not like it or something like that. I just gave them some stuff, chocolates and toys, and I told my wife that there are kids there and I think they’re in need.”

Late last year, Alcazar noticed that two Afghan men began showing up on Sunday morning to church services at Sugar Grove, which is almost entirely comprised of Filipino believers.

What are their needs

International people groups face many challenges as they settle in Texas. Though they vary, general needs include:

+ English as a Second Language classes

+ Basic household needs

+ Assistance in adapting and adjusting to life in Texas

+ Community support

+ Friendship

Above all, their greatest need is to hear the message
of hope found in Jesus Christ.

Source: SBTC People Groups Department

“Maybe last quarter of 2021, we were having a worship service and we saw these two guys [visiting] the church. We asked them, and they said they’re Afghans and they were living in the hotel that I’d been going to. And they just saw our church and joined us,” Alcazar said. “They did not know each other back then in Kabul. They just met when they were here in the states, and they were able to connect because they can both speak English. They were helping the people there. And they were walking around the area, and they saw this church, and they joined us, and I said, ‘Well, God was sending them to us. They are Muslims, but they are open minded.’”

Alcazar said that the two men had Filipino friends back in Kabul and those in the church had an instant camaraderie and connection with them.

“The connection was there already. And the people, we were excited,” he added. “I was desiring for it, praying for it. And as a church, we were not really praying for it. But God brought these two guys. And yeah, we are taking it as God giving us a ministry. I know, we know that. It’s hard. But yeah, this is it. God is guiding us.”

Alcazar said the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention provided some resources that were particularly helpful as they have tried to minister to the Afghan refugees living nearby. Martin Gonzalez, who serves as a SBTC people groups strategist for the Houston area, equipped the church with some digital Bibles so they could read Scripture in their native language.

While the church hasn’t yet seen any professions of faith from their ministry with their Afghan neighbors, they are hopeful that their continued work with them and service will provide more inroads for gospel conversations.

Alcazar said one of the most encouraging things has been seeing the way these people from another part of the world have opened their hearts and homes to the members of his church. One recent example was being invited for tea at the hotel room where one of the refugees was living. One of the two English-speaking Afghans who had been visiting the church explained the nature and importance of hospitality to Alcazar, stating that it is considered an honor to be invited into someone’s home.

“I was thankful that it is an expression that they [would welcome us] as Christians to be near their families. That’s the simple way of saying it, that they’re opening their house for non-Muslims, or Christians if you will … to be in their house.”

At The Well in San Marcos, everybody is a missionary

Central Texas plant seeing fruit after ‘by far the hardest’ ministry season

Any person or church supporting a church plant should realize the vital role they play.

“You very well could be a direct answer to prayers they’re praying just to keep going another day,” said Chris Millar, lead pastor of The Well, a congregation that started about two years ago in San Marcos.

The Well started with a goal of reaching students at Texas State University. He considers the first 18 months of the plant “by far the hardest” of his life.

“God graciously sustained us through all of that. We felt inescapably called by God,” Millar said of himself and his wife, Ashley. He describes the work as slow and tough, but he said he could share a thousand stories of what God has done.

Millar was the college pastor at University Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville, content to reach students at Sam Houston State University for the rest of his life, when God used a Send Conference in Dallas to stir his heart in 2017. Specifically, it was a breakout session on collegiate church planting.

“We had never heard those words before,” he said. “We realized God had made our church to plant collegiate churches.”

Chris and Ashley committed to being the first couple sent out from University Heights to plant, and they chose San Marcos because of its similarities to Huntsville. They moved with a team of about 10 people in January 2020 and had about two-and-a-half months of normal before COVID shut everything down.

“All our strategies went out the window,” Millar said.

Through COVID, the church planting team gathered with whomever God sent their way, investing their lives in others with a short-term goal of disciple-making and a long-term goal of sending
college students out as missionaries and church planters. They’ve already sent their first graduate to start a church in Osaka, Japan.

“We’ve said from the beginning that God was planting a church in San Marcos and He’s invited us to be a part of it because, if we were planting this church, we wouldn’t be here,” Millar said. “We would have quit.”

The Well meets in an elementary school, which Millar attributes to God opening doors with the school district and specifically the principal. The church does various things to bless the students and teachers, including egg hunts with each grade level during recess leading up to Easter.

Church planting is important because everyone has to be a missionary in a church plant. If it’s going to survive, everyone has to be a missionary.

Chris Millar Tweet

After inviting school families to church, Millar said a child had been asking faith-related questions. The child’s family—including at least a couple of family members who had never been to church—attended a service at The Well. A teacher at the school asked Millar to officiate her wedding because she said, “You’re the closest thing we have to a pastor.”

“We love getting to see what God has done as we invest deeply in the city,” Millar said, “and all of this has been made possible by cooperative giving.”

The church plant’s name, drawn from John 4, addresses the fact that people in San Marcos are searching.

“There are thousands of people who are thirsty, and they don’t know what they’re thirsty for,” Millar said. “We are longing to be a people that can help people meet Jesus at The Well to find living water and life in Him.”

To sustain a church plant in a college town, Millar was advised to reach families in the community first or at least alongside college students. That has been the focus so far, but they’ve done some things to reach students, such as offering two hours of free pizza rolls at a popular restaurant next to campus.

“We’re preparing to formally reach the campus this fall,” Millar said. Their primary strategy will be “relational disciplemaking, reaching one student, helping them grow in Christ and showing them how to make disciples of other students.”

Last summer, The Well was a church of about 60 people, Millar said, and that number has grown to 130 with an average attendance from 70 to 100. They’ve baptized about 20 people.

“Church planting is important because everyone has to be a missionary in a church plant. If it’s going to survive, everyone has to be a missionary,” Millar said. “That helps solidify the missionary nature of the church.”

He contrasted it to being on staff at University Heights, an established congregation of 800 people.

“It felt like that church was really stable and healthy. We had so many adults, I spent a lot of time just trying to get people into groups instead of really reaching lost people,” Millar said. “In the church planting world, there’s only an option to reach people.”

Millar again commended the support he has received.

“While the church planting journey has been hard, the community that has come around us through the SBTC has really helped see us through storms that I don’t think we could have weathered on our own.”

The 5: Practical ways to develop a Great Commission heart

To help you and your church do the Great Commission, here are some ways to begin to think globally. As you begin to expand your vision, perhaps your burden for your neighbors and the nations among you will increase:

1

Follow the news with Great Commission ears and eyes.
Most of us hear the news as events, but we should hear newsworthy happenings as calls to prayer. People who have never heard of Christ die every day due to war and famine. Governments are in turmoil. Natural disasters destroy homes and lives. If we pray as we hear the needs, God will grab our heart for the nations. It’s possible in some cases we might be the only person who has ever prayed for some people around the globe.

2

Put a map on a wall in your home (or get a globe).
Frankly, North Americans can sometimes be geographically ignorant. And, it’s easy to ignore the spiritual needs of the world when people are only anonymous folks living in a nation we cannot name. You might find yourself more interested in the nations—and praying more for them—when a map is always before you and your family. Start by praying for a different country when your family says grace each night.

3

Take a look at who’s in your community.
My experience is that many church leaders assume their community looks like their church—and that’s not always the case. Learn about the ethnic makeup of your community and pray specifically for individual people groups in your ministry area. Your church might even partner with others to plant a church among one of these groups. Ask your pastor or another church staff member about obtaining a demographics study from the North American Mission Board.

4

Visit ethnic restaurants in your community.
Instead of choosing restaurants based on your tastes, visit restaurants just to learn about other cultures and food. Ask to meet the owners. Talk to servers who’ve been raised in other countries. Even if the food isn’t your favorite, you’ll probably like the people—and then pray more for them, their family, and their country of origin. Pray specifically for opportunities to invite your new friends to church and to your home.

5

Invite international students to your home.
If there is a university near your home, I suspect you’ll find international students there. Many of those students will never be invited to visit an American home, and some will spend holidays alone on their campus. Opening your home will not only invite fellowship and learning, but it will also open the door to sharing your faith.

Chuck Lawless is dean of doctoral studies and vice president of spiritual formation and ministry centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. For more from Lawless, visit chucklawless.com.