A north Alabama couple said they are excited about their new responsibilities as Alabama coordinators for the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Mission Service Corps (MSC) and hope they will be able to get others committed to volunteer mission service.
Ray and Joanne Clark assumed duties with NAMB through the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) last fall. In their new position the Clarks, members of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Bryant, will be charged with finding volunteers for missions projects throughout Alabama. They work out of the global partnerships and volunteers in missions office at the SBOM under director Reggie Quimby.
They do a good job in training and will be my point people in my orientation. They help to bring a greater missions awareness to our churches and associations.
“Our basic job is to recruit Mission Service Corps volunteers to work in associations throughout the state,” Ray Clark said. “We plan to do that by making presentations in churches to explain what a missions service corps volunteer is and to fill requests from churches and directors of missions offices.”
The Clarks said the presentations they will make to churches and associations are aimed both at recruiting volunteers from congregations and also educating them on what other volunteer missionaries can do for them.
“If a church has something that needs to be accomplished and they can’t afford to have paid staff, volunteers from NAMB can come in and fulfill those tasks for them,” he said.
Quimby is pleased with the work the Clarks have done so far. “For the time that they have had they have done very well in regard to recruiting and maintaining good contact with each MSC consultant,” Quimby said. The 40 Mission Service Corps Volunteer consultants across the state relate to the directors of missions and help promote hands-on involvement in missions as well as recruit volunteers, he noted.
“The Clarks are my arms and legs in maintaining the relationships with the various consultants,” Quimby said. “They do a good job in training and will be my point people in the orientation processes.”
The Clarks also realize the importance of their role.
“There are not enough career missionaries, there are not enough paid staff in churches and directors of missions offices to do all that needs to be done,” Joanne Clark said, pointing out that 37 percent of all NAMB missionaries are volunteers. “That’s a lot of work that is being done by volunteers.”
She said NAMB requires that MSC volunteers work 20 hours each week. She added that assignments last from a minimum of four months to a maximum of two years.
“When (the volunteers’) time is up they can be renewed in the same assignment if their work is not finished, or they can ask to be
reassigned,” she said.
“We also encourage people in churches to at least participate in short-term missions,” Joanne Clark said. “That’s sometimes the first step toward a missions lifestyle.”
She characterized short-term missions as efforts that last anywhere from three days to two weeks and involve efforts such as church building projects, disaster relief and community outreach.
The couple’s commitment as state coordinators marks the latest chapter in their Christian walk that only began 15 years ago. Ray Clark, 70, said it was only through the efforts of a co-worker that he accepted Christ so late in life.
“I didn’t feel it was necessary that I had to become a Christian in order to live life,” he said.
But his friend’s persistence eventually convinced him that there was something more, he said. “I became a Christian because I felt like I needed direction in my life.”
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