FBC Montgomery international ministry reaches refugees near Atlanta

The nations are here.” That’s been a common thought among missions-minded evangelicals for the past several years. And it’s a reality for Bill Johnson, a North American Mission Board missionary who serves as church planter with Reach the Nations near Atlanta.

“There are 52 languages spoken in a five-mile radius and 112 within a 10-mile radius — many of them refugees,” Johnson said.

His ministry to these people depends a great deal on partnerships with churches throughout the Southeast that send groups to do things like prayer walking, visiting homes and hosting backyard Bible clubs. Several groups from First Baptist Church, Montgomery, have worked with him the past two years. And recently a group who can relate to the refugees perhaps more than anyone else went to assist Johnson — the international ministry of First, Montgomery.

“Before coming to America, I was a Buddhist monk in Laos. I also lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for three months,” said Victor Phakonekham, a member of the Montgomery Baptist Association church who has lived in Montgomery for more than 20 years.

“They looked a lot like me when I first came to the United States,” he said of the refugees with whom the international group worked. “I understand how they felt, because I have felt like them. They need to know about Jesus.”

So telling them about Jesus was what the group set out to do.

“I [wanted] to tell them that Jesus Christ loves everybody. He died for us. He’s a God for everybody, for all nations,” church member Rattana Vongphachanh said.

But communicating that to the refugees wasn’t necessarily easy.

“I spoke with some of them in Thai,” Vongphachanh said.

Phakonekham’s wife, Vanna, wanted the refugees to have peace.

“Before I came to know God, I didn’t have any peace,” she said. “Now that I know Him, I have peace. I want them to have that peace.”

Johnson praised the group.

“Their love for the refugee community is evident,” he said.

Of course, Vongphachanh said the group members were simply obeying God’s command.

“We went to share with them because God says to love Him first and to love your neighbor.”