Alabama State Board holds summits for missions trips

A series of missions summits will be conducted in September to help Alabama Baptist churches and individuals considering missions trips for the year 2006.
   
Reggie Quimby, director of global partnerships and volunteers in missions for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said the events will provide details about upcoming partnerships between Alabama Baptists and Baptists in Guatemala and Ukraine.
   
“We look forward to the opportunities to provide assistance in evangelism, discipleship and other Kingdom ministries to believers in these strategic countries,” Quimby said. “These summit events will help Alabama Baptists understand how the State Board of Missions can assist in mission trip logistics.”
   
The summits, each planned as an identical event, will include:
    • Sept. 6: Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery
    • Sept. 8: Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham
    • Sept. 20: Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville
    • Sept. 22: Westmeade Baptist Church, Decatur
    • Sept. 27: Mt. Gilead Baptist Church, Dothan
    • Sept. 29: Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile
   
Information will also be provided about missions opportunities within Alabama as well as Impact Northeast in which several state conventions, mostly in the South, have partnered with Baptist state conventions and associations in the northeastern United States.
   
“Our office can provide vital services for a church or association in planning a missions trip,” Quimby noted. “We can help with training of volunteers and team leaders, cross-cultural awareness and prearrangements with career missionaries and Christian leaders in the target area. We also assist with the details of travel arrangements and logistics, such as lodging, transportation and health and travel insurance.”
   
He said each summit will provide those attending with a preview of missions projects planned for next year, opportunities to select a project, an overview of missions project videos and lots of time for questions and answers.
   
Rick Lance, SBOM executive director, affirmed the value of missions trips and missions partnerships, past and present.
   
“As our missions partnership with Venezuelan Baptists draws to a very positive close this year, we anticipate excellent and effective relationships with Baptist leaders in Ukraine and Guatemala,” Lance said.
   
One vital dimension of missions trips is the contact volunteers have with career missionaries, which he describes as persons involved in “incarnational missions.” 
   
“Once participants have seen career missionaries at work firsthand, they often come away with a heightened awareness for the importance of supporting missions through the Cooperative Program,” Lance said. “Missions trip participants generally gain a renewed commitment to reach people locally as well. This enthusiasm and devotion often spills over in a very positive way to other believers in their congregations, who hear the missions trip testimonies and respond in a similar fashion.”
   
Because of the gifts of Alabama Baptists through the Cooperative Program, he said, the SBOM offers its services in planning missions trips free of charge to churches and associations through Quimby’s office.
   
To register for one of the summits, please contact Sheron Poole at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 298, or at spoole@alsbom.org.