Ministering to others in foreign lands presents many challenges.
In some countries, merely sharing the gospel can result in death. Missionaries are more welcome in other nations, but are often limited by shortages of money and resources.
Missionaries also must deal with another challenge — reaching people who are literally starving to death.
“If a man’s hungry, he’s got one thing on his mind — that’s getting something to eat,” said Gene A. Triggs, chairman of Agricultural Missions Foundation, Ltd. (AMF). “He doesn’t think about food for his soul as much as he does food for his body.”
Triggs believes AMF meets people’s needs worldwide by addressing what they hunger for both spiritually and physically. He said AMF was created “… to support the work of agricultural missionaries and other Christian missions groups as appropriate.”
“I think it is the most effective was to reach people for the Lord,” he said. “When they (missionaries) really get the confidence of people — the know them, and they know that the agricultural (missionaries) love them — then they really do reach people for Christ.”
Missions Methods
Agricultural missionary Noel Elmundo shares agricultural methods, followed by sharing God.
“We are extensionists not only for the soil, but the soul. We plant life,” said Elmundo, who is based in the Philippines.
“Our mission is that the people will have a good life and spiritual life.”
Comparing the work of agricultural missionaries to that of medical missionaries who also use their professional background to help others, Triggs said AMF’s goal is to help people become self-sufficient.
“An agricultural missionary goes primarily to Third World countries, where there’s a lot of poverty, and he helps natives learn how to grow more food and ministers to them,” he said.
Working in conjunction with the International Mission Board (IMB), Triggs and AMF’s main thrust is supporting missionaries’ work when they face budget reconstructions. Additional support involves putting out newsletters, placing agricultural missionaries on mailing lists, visiting with agricultural missionaries and other efforts.
“Agricultural missionaries know who we are,” Triggs said. “We get them on our mailing list, they give us information about what they’re doing, and we in turn write newsletters about the work.”
The organization also uses the experience of experts from different colleges, such as Auburn University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M.
“So, if we have any kind of problems or questions which we can’t answer, we always have somebody that we can uses as consultants,” Triggs said.
Its goals may be lofty, but AMF’s beginnings were simple.
Triggs said the group was formed in 1970, when more than 100 farmers, agricultural workers and pastors from Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana met to discuss ways to achieve “more involvement in agricultural missions.”
Teaching the Natives
“The long-range goal of our group was to help natives learn how to produce more food and fiber themselves,” Triggs said.
The group was founded by the late Owen Cooper, the last layman to serve as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Triggs said AMF was organized to support agricultural missionaries appointed by the IMB. “That’s almost entirely what we do,” he said.
The cooperation between the two organizations is an ongoing process. Triggs said AMF regularly has agricultural missionaries appointed by IMB speak at AMF board meetings, along with IMB officials working with the agricultural foundation on long-range projects.
For information about Agricultural Missions Foundation, Ltd., write 1153 Owens Road, Terry, MS 39170.
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