Literacy missions volunteers from as far away as Laurel, Mont., and as near as Birmingham gathered for the 2012 National Literacy Missions Leadership Workshop at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega in late June. Each of the 29 participants spent a week learning the skills required to teach local church volunteers how to use one of the three Literacy Missions Ministries to reach a specific target group with the gospel.
Ray Willis, a Mission Service Corps volunteer, is minister of evangelism and discipleship at Fellowship Baptist Church, Billings, Mont. Looking for ways that his church could reach out to the southeastern area of Billings led the 72-year-old to begin a tutoring ministry. Last year he attended the National Literacy Missions Leadership Workshop so he could train volunteers to witness through tutoring ministries. In a year, he led three Tutoring Children and Youth Basic Workshops in which 22 local church volunteers were trained. Fellowship Baptist had 17 elementary-age students enrolled in the 2011–2012 school year. Willis’ student, William, became a Christian. A parent of another tutoring student came to Christ, too.
This year Willis returned to the leadership workshop to learn how to equip volunteers to begin adult reading and writing ministries. He feels a burden for the seven Indian reservations in Montana where, he said, “Adult reading and writing ministry is a major area for sharing the gospel.”
Roberta Simms, of Epps, La., believes God has a plan to use what she learns at the conference as she ministers in Louisiana. She, like Willis, is training to equip churches to help adult low-level readers read the Bible for themselves.
“God has been preparing me for this week all my life,” she said. Simms grew up in Girls in Action and Acteens where she learned that meeting people’s basic needs opens doors to sharing Christ. She currently leads a Bible study in a men’s prison and teaches inmates to read better. “When this opportunity (to become a trainer to begin ministries) was presented to me, it was an ‘aha’ moment. All of my family, church family and prison ministry students were in complete agreement that this ministry was foreseen and meant to be. I am so humbled to have this blessed opportunity to serve God.”
The Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, Georgia Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board jointly funded this year’s training. For more information, visit www.namb.net/
literacy.
(Shocco)
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