MISSIONS

When I say missions, what do you think? Do you think about the Cooperative Program that we give money to so that our missionaries around the world can tell others about Jesus? Or maybe you think about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, or the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, or maybe even the Reach Texas Offering that we are in right now, the money raised for this stays here in Texas for mission projects here in our state, all of these are worthy causes. Or maybe you think closer to home and you think about CONNECT, our own outreach from CBC, maybe you connect this with Desert Reign coming every year in the fall and the money we raise for that. Maybe when you think about missions you think about going to Cloudcroft NM with our team to work on that camp, or maybe you have thought about going to Namibia Africa to reach an unreached people group and tell them about Jesus. What do you think about when you think about missions? Did you know that our mission closest to home is Carey Baptist? As a group that is our closest mission, the work we do as a church. As an individual your closest mission may be right next door, or around the corner, or down the road or street, it may be your family or friends. We must always be thinking about missions and what we can do to further the Kingdom; we must be mission-minded. Just saying we are in not enough, just giving money to a missions offering in not enough, we must be mission-minded. If we cannot go on a mission trip we need to be raising money for those who do go, for the Cloudcroft trip or the Namibia trip, those who are lead to go don’t always have the money, and we all can help. We must be mission-minded to the needs around us.
Lord, I pray for those in our church, I pray Lord that you will make us all mission-minded. Let us become aware to the needs that are around us everyday, show us how we can be involved in missions, those that our church are involved in and those that our Southern Baptist missionaries are involved in. Amen.

"GO AND TELL"

How important is it that we tell others about Christ? Jesus said in Acts 1 for us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, that means here at home, and in all Judea, that means here in Texas, and Samaria, that means in the United States, and to the end of the earth, this means, well you know what this means. Did you realize that the Great Commission given to us by Jesus is not a request? If it were a request then we could just say no thanks. Did you realize that he did not say that some have this gift and some don’t? If He did then we could just say, it’s not my gift. He didn’t say if you feel like it, go; or if you think about it go, He simply said GO. He said in Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (ESV) Jesus said to GO into all the world. It is every Christians job to tell about Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. Maybe you are being called to go to Africa on one of the mission trips during the next 5 years, maybe God is calling you to go somewhere else in the world on a mission trip, maybe you are being called to do mission work here in the United States, but one thing that I do know, you are being called upon to tell others about Jesus. And I also know that the best place to begin is with your family and friends, why is this the best place to start? Because these are the ones that you care for the most and if you can talk to those who know you the best about Christ, you can talk to anyone. This may sound strange but our loved ones are sometimes the hardest ones to talk to, we don’t want them to think less of us, or we don’t want them to laugh at us. But if we allow them to go to Hell without telling them about Jesus, they will think less of us and they won’t be laughing. I want to encourage you to tell others about Jesus, by the way, we have visitation tonight. We will not be going out tonight to visit, we will however be getting ready for our big push, on March 8, time changes and we will begin to a big push to reach every home in Childress. On March 8th we will go to one of the apartment complexes and knock on every door, and we need you help to do this. Our goal is to reach every home in Childress county, along with the help of First and Calvary, by Easter 2010.

SOUTH AFRICA

We were happy to have Susan Stokeld with us on Sunday; Susan is a Southern Baptist Missionary with the International Mission Board (IMB). She has been working in the Pacific Rim. She was here for our On Mission Celebration which were are doing in conjunction with our Red Fork Annual Jubilee.
I always love to have a missionary in our service, we need to be reminded of whom and how the message of Christ is being carried around the world. We as adults, youth, and children need to learn about missions. And the best way to do that is to hear from missionaries, this is the best way for that spark to be put in our hearts for missions. We give about 30% of the money that comes in to missions, that includes 20% to the Cooperative Program. The Cooperative Program is what enables our missionaries to stay in the field. It is great to give the way that you do, but when we meet someone who is on the receiving end of our missions money and hear about what they do then we have a better understanding of how it all works. Through the International Mission Board (www.imb.org), Southern Baptists support approximately 5,100 missionaries who are engaging more than 1,170 different people groups around the world.
New churches numbering over 1,458 are planted through the efforts of more than 5,153 North American Missionaries, whose efforts are coordinated through your North American Mission Board (www.namb.net) and individual state conventions.
Working together, Southern Baptists saw 836,898 new believers baptized in 2006!
If you missed hearing Susan, you missed a treat!!
Sunday night at Calvary Baptist in Vernon we had our Annual Jubilee and all of the missionaries that were at Red Fork churches were there with tables set up so that you could see things from all over the world. We also had a missionary speak during the 6:00 service, I had the honor to speak during the 4:00 service. If you did not go because you did not see the importance in it, shame on you. We as an Association to begin going to the Mbalantu tribe of the Owambo nation in the South African country of Namibia.
I will be sharing more about these people soon, but begin praying about going, and get your passport ready, if you don't have one, get one.
Let me know what you think about going to Africa.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:19 (NIV)
In HIS Service, Bro. Randy