Ables named new catalytic missionary for north Alabama coalition

Ed Ables is seeing the fulfillment of a 52-year-old promise in his new job as the catalytic missionary for the North Alabama Baptist Hispanic  Ministry Coalition.
   
In 1951 Ables’ father was pastor of Geraldine Baptist Church in north Alabama. The church hosted a missions conference where Albert and Thelma Bagby were speaking about their missions work in Brazil. Ables said as he listened to Thelma speak, he felt God telling him, “I’m going to send you there.”
   
After sharing that experience with his brother and friends, and hearing their laughter that God would send someone who did not do well in school as a missionary, Ables said he again felt God speaking to him. “God said, ‘You will go, and when you come back, you will work with the Spanish-speaking people in Albertville.’ ”
   
Although there were no Spanish-speaking people in Albertville at that time, the area was the first place that Hispanics began moving into in the early 1990s, according to Richard Alford, an associate in the office of associational/cooperative missions at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
   
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Census 2000 reported that the Hispanic population of Albertville is 2,773, or about 16 percent of the total population. Alford and others who work closely with Hispanics in the state said the Hispanic population now is probably three times more than that.
   
“I thank God for telling me those things ahead of time,” said Ables, who served as an International Mission Board missionary in Ecuador for 16 years and then in Argentina for nine.
   
Currently serving as pastor of Enon Baptist Church, Montevallo, Ables will begin working with the coalition May 12. He said he is looking forward to the challenges of the job of serving 11 associations in northeast Alabama. (Read more about the coalition on page 1.)  
   
He and his wife, Linda, have both been appointed by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) to serve the coalition, although Linda will serve by continuing her work as missions coordinator for the world languages and culture department at Samford University. Their position is funded by the coalition, the SBOM and NAMB.
   
Alford, who is also a member of the coalition’s search committee, said the group is pleased to have the Ableses coming to the area. “I’m delighted the Lord led us to Ed and Linda, and I’m looking forward to working with them,” he said.
   
Alford said Ed Ables’ missionary work will help Ables as he gives guidance and serves as a resource for area churches and the Hispanic Baptist Bible Institute in Albertville.
   
Established by the coalition to provide classes taught in Spanish for Hispanics called into the ministry, the Institute will be Ables’ main focus.
   
Alford said in addition to Ables’ responsibilities to the institute, he will also serve as a resource for the associations and their churches as they begin Hispanic ministries. He will help them find pastors and resources as well as help them know how to best minister to Hispanics in their areas.
   
Because the term “Hispanic” includes all who come from a Spanish-speaking country or background, it also encompasses a variety of cultures.
   
Don Reese, who has been serving as the interim catalytic missionary, said the variety of Hispanic cultures may pose the biggest challenge to Ables in his work, especially with the Institute.
The challenge will be integrating these different cultures into the same churches and the school,” Reese said.
   
But Alford is confident that Ables will surmount that challenge. “Ed is very understanding of the (Hispanic) cultures, and very adept at working with the culture and leadership,” Alford said.
   
Ables, who noted that most Hispanics in the coalition area come from Mexico or Guatemala, is confident that the God who fulfilled a 52-year-old promise will provide him with the resources he needs.
   
At every house the Ableses have lived in, Ables planted muscadine vines, blueberry bushes and sweet shrub bushes. But at this house, all three were already planted and flourishing.
   
“It was like God said, ‘See, I’m taking care of you,’” Ables said. “I am very thankful for what God has offered and what He’s done.”