June and missions trips go together for many Baptists in Alabama.
The members of Friendship Baptist Church, Grand Bay, really have missions on their minds and in their prayers, with three missions trips scheduled for June.
More than 70 members set out last week on the youth missions trip to Michigan. And Friendship’s members will participate in two missions trips to Guate-mala — June 23-30 and June 30-July 7. Pastor Teddy Turrentine is in his tenth year at Friendship.
Brother Allan Murphy, pastor of North Shelby Baptist Church in Pelham, left last week for Mexico with his wife, Mary. Next Sunday they will be facing the first anniversary of the death of their daughter, Joy, who drowned while in Mexico for summer missions work.
As a direct result of the tragic loss suffered by the Murphys and the families of three other people who drowned at the same time, a church has sprung up in Mexico. The Murphys have sold Joy’s car, and they carried its proceeds to contribute to the new church.
The Murphys, who served as missionaries several years ago, have three other children. John, their younger son, is 16 and accompanied them last week to Mexico. Josh graduated with high honors from Samford University in Birmingham. Daughter Jane was valedictorian at Pelham Chris-tian High School.
Earlier this year I visited with Bro. Norman Rich, church admin-istrator at Muscle Shoals First Baptist Church. Brother Rich said he had two children — a son and a daughter. He pointed out that his daughter has four children herself. But he said his son, Shane, had gone to be with the Lord. While on a student summer missions assignment at Yellowstone National Park, Shane went mountain climbing and died in a fall.
Shane had been rooming with an unsaved student who was a bitter and antichurch person. After the tragic fall, Shane’s parents told the roommate they were confident that Shane was in heaven, because they knew he was a Christian. The Riches told the roommate they would remember him in their prayers.
The next summer there was another fatal climbing accident at Yellowstone. This time it was Shane’s former roommate who died in a fall. But between those two summers a vital change had taken place: The young man had accepted Christ as his Savior.
The Lord gives us opportunity and ability to influence people in a wide range of circumstances. Of course, we may not always see the results.
Several years ago Bro. David McMichael yielded his pulpit at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, to a young fellow to preach on Youth Day. Through the years he had lost track of the young man. Recently Bro. McMichael had a pleasant surprise. He discovered that the former youth speaker, Bro. Joel Carwile, has for several years been serving as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, a rapidly growing country church in the northern part of Madison County.
Brother McMichael retired from Mount Zion in January, leaving its members a legacy of growth and missions support.
When Mount Zion’s members called a new pastor, they found another missions-minded leader. Through the years, Bro. Jess Smith has been on a number of missions trips to Kenya in East Africa and even to India.
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