The pioneering Mississippi Missionary Parents Fellowship has celebrated its five-year anniversary in undergirding parents of Southern Baptist missionaries.
It was in Mississippi the idea of forming such a group first took hold. Bill Causey, who retired two years ago as executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, encouraged the parents to maintain a strong base for their missionary children as well as missionary parents in other states who are looking to Mississippi for leadership.
“The Missionary Parents Fellowship was born here, but it is now in eight other states. You are the most special group I know anything about in the state of Mississippi,” Causey said. He suggested one of the best ways missionary parents can help their children is to “successfully and happily deal with your own life.”
“It was in your home, at your hearth, at your table that they got the first impression that this is important,” he said.
Causey also implored the parents to pray for their children and provide a sense of permanence in their home, making it a place on which missionary children know they can always depend. “Just as sailors need the North Star, (missionary children) need you,” he said.
Terri Willis, associate director for stateside assignments at the International Mission Board, also stressed the importance of missionary parents. “We rely on you to be an anchor for your children overseas. We at IMB know who puts missionaries on the plane at the airport.”
Willis also commended the Mississippi parents for establishing the group. (BP)
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