Happening in Alabama

This morning Alex woke up in a safe, caring place. It is the only safe place he has ever experienced. Drugs and violence tore his family apart, aging him beyond his tender childhood years. 

Thankfully the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) was there to offer a helping hand. Alex is safe now. During the course of the last year of record, ABCH cared for 164 children like Alex on its campuses and group homes across the state. In addition, 263 children found homes with Christian foster parents. These parents demonstrate Christ’s love to boys and girls, many of whom, like Alex, have never seen self-giving love. 

At another site a homeless mother and her children have a safe, clean living space that will be theirs for a few weeks, another ministry of ABCH. Last year 105 homeless mothers and their children found a safe place to live through this Alabama Baptist ministry.

This week summer camps are filled with boys and girls from Alabama Baptist churches learning about missions as a lifestyle. Last year more than 400 boys participated in Royal Ambassador (RA) camps and other RA events in August alone. At WorldSong Missions Place, a camp owned by Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), more than 600 girls interacted with missionaries and learned about sharing Christ at summer missions camps. 

It is a busy time at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega too. More than 20,000 people attend events at Shocco every summer. Last year’s number was 21,104. Some come for church camps. Others come for camps like the camp for the deaf sponsored by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). Last year the camp for the deaf attracted 87 campers and 27 of them made professions of faith. 

Thousands of decisions

All together more than 1,100 decisions for Christ were recorded from summer activities at the Alabama Baptist-sponsored conference center last year. 

Few people now recall February’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) training events but as summer ends and VBS reports are compiled, state missionaries remember their investment in the conferences. It was the first step in the VBS process. Alabama has the most extensive VBS training program among Southern Baptists and it works. VBS is the state’s largest evangelistic outreach with more than 7,400 professions of faith reported last year. 

Colleges and schools will soon open and Baptist campus ministers are eager to welcome students back to campus. The 16 Baptist campus ministers serving the state’s four-year schools enlisted 40,086 students in various programs last year. More than 2,500 college students were involved in weekly Bible studies led by campus ministers with 234 professions of faith.

Christian education

Through Alabama Baptist-sponsored missions programs 1,807 college students served as student missionaries and the Lord used their collective efforts to lead 170 people to personal faith. 

Alabama Baptist-related schools — Samford University, the University of Mobile (UMobile) and Judson College — will welcome about 8,000 students combined. In each place, students will find an environment emphasizing learning and faith. In addition to things like Bible courses, chapel and dorm Bible studies, Christian service is stressed. Last year Samford students participated in missions efforts in 10 states and 40 foreign countries. UMobile sponsored 16 missions trips and did more than 22,000 hours of service locally. More than 85 percent of Judson’s students served in various Perry County ministries. 

Reaching international students is another goal of Alabama Baptists. One work involves an International Friends Retreat, which drew 100 participants from five countries. The retreat allows participants to build relationships and to present the gospel in relaxed circumstances. 

English as a Second Language (ESL) and literacy work are other tools. Last year Alabama Baptists trained 70 new workers in ESL and 65 were trained for literacy work. The Bible and other Christian literature are taught as people learn English and learn to read.

The yellow shirts of Alabama Baptists’ disaster relief work are well known. Last year Alabama volunteers provided 15,180 days of disaster relief service. Every project is an attempt to communicate God’s love through the love and service of volunteers. Because the need is ongoing, so are efforts to recruit and train volunteers — a necessity before one can wear the yellow shirt. Last year Alabama Baptists trained 656 new volunteers. 

Alabama’s shifting population makes new church plants necessary. New churches are needed to serve the new housing developments in different parts of the state. New churches also are needed to reach the changing makeup of the state’s population. One study said Alabama Baptists worship in 20 languages each week. 

The state’s goal is to plant 220 intentional church starts by 2020, and Alabama Baptists have already funded 50 of those. 

Altogether more than 20,000 church workers will be trained in programs led by state missionaries this year. They will be Sunday School officers and teachers, discipleship workers, Bible Drill leaders, family ministry resource personnel and more. Their training will be reflected in thousands of churches through better teaching, better leading and better service. 

Thousands of children will participate in Bible Drill competitions. Hundreds of youth will celebrate their faith at youth evangelism conferences. Churches and associations will be partnered with International Mission Board (IMB) affinity groups to work alongside IMB missionaries. Missions team leaders will be trained in safety and security. 

Training, care

State missionaries will work with hundreds of churches providing guidance in pastoral transitions, advising about technology needs, helping churches work through conflict that has escalated to dangerous proportions and providing resources for church constitutions, bylaws and policies to help churches run smoothly and to minimize risk in today’s society. The list goes on and on.

Almost countless are the hours state missionaries will spend in visits, calls and conversations with pastors, staff members and church leaders all toward one goal — meeting the needs of the 3,286 local Baptist churches in Alabama. 

Missions is happening in Alabama. Missions never stops. It is 24/7. It is evangelism. It is ministry. It is Christian education. It is church planting. It is strengthening churches and growing Christian disciples. Missions in Alabama involves every Baptist entity and every area of SBOM. 

Your Cooperative Program (CP) gifts make it possible. When you give to missions through the CP you are helping share Christ locally through your church, across Alabama through your state convention and around the world through programs of the Southern Baptist Convention.