Tom Anderson understands firsthand the importance of Southern Baptist missions work among Native Americans.
“I’m a product of Southern Baptist missions work,” said Anderson, a Choctaw Indian. “I’m a product of missions and I believe in it.”
As Southern Baptist church planting missionaries, Tom and his wife, Rhoda, put in a lot of legwork — literally. Whether it’s going door-to-door in an apartment complex, prayer walking a neighborhood or driving 150 miles one way to preach and play the piano, starting new churches requires long hours and a lot of patience.
The Andersons are among the missionaries featured in the 2002 Week of Prayer for North American Missions, March 3–10.
Starting new Southern Baptist churches in southeastern Oklahoma, an area steeped in Native American culture, has its challenges for the Andersons.
The area is home to more than 250,000 Native Americans, 98 percent of whom are unchurched.
The couple ministers among five Native American nations: descendants of the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles.
The tribes resettled in the area in the early 1800s after being forced from their homelands throughout the United States.
Anderson, 68, said that although Indians have increasingly assimilated into American culture, there is a widely held misconception among Native Americans that Christianity is still the “white man’s religion.”
And with the suicide rate among Native Americans four times the national average, the eternal hope that comes through knowing Jesus Christ as Savior is a message desperately needed by the Native American community.
“I just use my own life as a testimony as I tell them about Jesus,” Anderson said.
The Andersons have been serving as church planting missionaries in southeastern Oklahoma since 1995. Before returning home seven years ago, the couple spent much of their marriage as church planters in California, Texas and Montana.
Over the years, they have helped start 12 new churches, nine of which are in Oklahoma.
They have started new churches in homes, vacant fire departments, a chamber of commerce building and even a storage facility used on a county fairground each fall to showcase live chickens and rabbits.
“We start churches wherever,” Anderson said. “From that, people reach people.”
Anderson also works with about 90 churches across four associations helping them in church planting ventures and mentoring young pastors, an assignment that totals about 65,000 miles each year on his vehicle.
“My task is to help established churches become sponsoring churches of missions,” he said.
Anderson said each time he baptizes a child he is reminded of Southern Baptists’ missions legacy among Native Americans — a legacy he has perpetuated.
“Some of these youngsters we minister to and who get saved may become missionaries, preachers or lay leaders in their churches,” Anderson said. “To me that’s worth it all.”
(BP)
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