North American Mission Board missionary Melanie Lawler is a real, talking, walking-around miracle.
To follow Lawler around northwest Nevada, where she serves Sierra Baptist Association as a ministry evangelism specialist in Reno, you’d never guess she first suffered seizures as a fourth-grader in Leland, Miss. Lawler first was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Lawler’s seizures followed her family’s move to Carthage, Miss., where, during the 11th grade, doctors discovered a brain tumor. The tumor was removed but then 17-year-old Lawler suffered a stroke.
Following the stroke, “they (the doctors) said I would be a vegetable,” Lawler recalled. But the doctors forgot to consult God, who had other plans.
Lawler remembers that as a teenager, her pastor at First Baptist Church, Carthage, Miss., Russ Barksdale, challenged her to memorize Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you … plans for [your] welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
“And I memorized that verse and shortly after, God began speaking to my heart saying, ‘Melanie, I have plans for you.’”
Lawler is one of more than 5,000 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. The 2008 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $61 million, 100 percent of which is used for missionaries like Lawler.
“Reno continues to grow on me and I’m even beginning to find beauty in the desert,” she said. “But I still go to Lake Tahoe at least once a month to get my tree fix. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
Think of Reno and one usually conjures up bright lights, casinos, gambling and other assorted sins and vices. Lawler is ready to take them on.
“My goal is to see our churches reach all our communities for Christ,” she said. “So that includes the people working at the casinos and the tourists visiting the casinos. We don’t have casino ministries in Reno at this point, but it’s a dream I hope to carry out in the future.”
Assigned as a ministry evangelism specialist for the last six years, she serves cities in northwestern Nevada — Reno, Sparks and Carson City, the state’s capital — and smaller towns most have never heard of — Gerlach, Empire, Silver Springs, Minden and Gardnerville.
“Our association is a mixture of rural and metro communities,” Lawler explained.
She said the people in her mission field are from all walks of life — from the middle-class and inner-city neighborhoods of Reno to the “second home” owners at Lake Tahoe to the ranchers in the Nevada desert.
“I help our churches develop and do ministries that reach beyond the walls of the church and into their communities to share Christ. They can be ministries like a food pantry, an ESL (English as Second Language) class, or a ministry presence at special events in our cities,” she said.
One ministry Lawler is especially excited about is a food ministry local Southern Baptists recently have been given responsibility for by the county government in Lyon County. Another ministry Lawler helps run is ESL classes, and her favorite ministry is the Kid’s Club, an initiative geared to kids in Nevada’s apartment community.
She asked that Southern Baptists pray that churches in northern Nevada will realize and cultivate their harvest fields.
“Ninety-five percent of the people here in northern Nevada don’t know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior,” she said. “The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is vital to our ministry here. We would not be able to be here at all if it weren’t for the Annie Armstrong offering.” (NAMB)
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