Danny Wood, pastor of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, was surprised during this morning’s worship service at the Birmingham-area church wrapping up its 20th annual Global Impact Celebration.
Kevin Ezell, president of North American Mission Board, announced the church planters care fund at NAMB has been named after Wood, who is the previous past chairman of the board of trustees for NAMB.
Shades executive pastor Chad Cossiboom shared that the church will contribute $25,000 to the fund in honor of Wood, and a new children’s book was commissioned to help raise money for that contribution. The “A to Z: GIC!” book is dedicated to Wood’s young grandson and was illustrated by one of the many missionaries sent out by Shades.
Wood also was surprised by a video message from Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board, and Todd Lafferty, IMB executive vice president, who recently served on staff at Shades.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of holding a GIC at Shades and honoring Wood during it, his final GIC as pastor, is timely because he was the one who brought GIC to Shades after the prompting of a few church members and has led the church to continue growing its longtime focus on missions and giving to missions. Shades has contributed $42 million to global missions during the past 20 years. (Jennifer Davis Rash contributed)
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