Seven Baptists with Alabama ties were among 61 representatives appointed for overseas work during an International Mission Board (IMB) appointment service March 3 at Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, Tenn.
Jeff and Erin Gautney, both graduates of the University of Mobile, are headed to work among the American peoples. Jeff Gautney, a Mobile native and former youth minister at Mobile’s Travis Road Baptist Church, will work in evangelism and church planting. He holds a master’s degree in missiology from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, Tenn., and previously served as a journeyman with the IMB.
Erin Gautney, a former public school teacher, will serve in community and home outreach.
The Gautneys have two children — Elijah Jace, 3, and Titus Benjamin, 1.
The five other representatives with Alabama ties cannot be named because they are headed to high-security regions.
But the call to missions is not just for “an elite few such as these sent by the International Mission Board,” said Jerry Rankin, IMB president. The Great Commission was given to every church and every believer, he added.
“How grateful we are that we’re able to send out these 61 new missionaries,” said IMB president Jerry Rankin. “But how many more will it take? How many more until the whole world knows Jesus?” (TAB)
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