They “caught a vision.”
When Paul Murphy, pastor of First Baptist Church, Winfield, describes the zeal his church had for furthering missions causes, that’s the phrase he uses. And that zeal is expressed in their giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO).
“We have been blessed over the last couple of years to have grown tremendously in our size, and (giving has) increased way beyond our goal every time,” Murphy said. First, Winfield, was recognized as the top LMCO-giving church in Marion Baptist Association at the association’s October meeting.
A giving spirit
A significant contributing factor to the church’s giving spirit, Murphy said, is the two men who grew up in the church and are now International Mission Board missionaries with their families.
One of the men is the son of the church’s secretary, Grace. Her son, Luke, and his family have been on the missions field for nine years and are in their third term of service in Southeast Asia.
Grace said, “I just think that knowing these men who were born and grew up in this church really does put a face to missions.”
Luke and his wife and three children serve in an area where the population is primarily Buddhist.
“There’s only one other couple who works with this people group and (there are) 32 million people in the group he’s working with,” Grace said. “He has a big job.”
First, Winfield, sent a team of four, including Grace, to serve with Luke in 2012. It was a trip that gave Grace a taste of what her son daily works toward.
“There’s so much lostness. … [You go into a] Buddhist temple and they’re praying to gold and they don’t know our living, true God. Just to see the lostness — it touches your heart to want to reach out and tell them with all our hearts who our Lord and Savior is.”
While there, two women from the church’s Woman’s Missionary Union group led a women’s conference. And the way the native women responded to the Bible study, Grace said, was beautiful.
“It was just amazing the way the Lord spoke and the way He worked through a translator. … [International missions] is not just something far off and nebulous. It’s tangible when you can see people who are questioning. You can see where the Lord is planting seeds and where there’s a harvest.”
And while First, Winfield, has monetarily assisted Luke in the past, the church is considering connecting more directly with him to send missions teams a couple of times a year for the next three years. The church also recently voted to help supplement one of Luke’s national partners in Southeast Asia in an area where “the gospel is just exploding,” Grace said.
A church doesn’t have to have a large membership to make a missions difference, Grace said. It’s not about giving big, it’s about giving faithfully, she said.
“Get involved with adopting a missionary. Then just see how the Lord works in people’s hearts.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Some names changed for security reasons.
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