Recognition reflects Stevenson’s commitment to volunteer work

It may not be an Olympic gold medal, but being the recipient of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) Volunteer of the Year Award certainly requires a heart of gold.
   
And that’s why Bob Stevenson of Auburn received the most recent prestigious award for his many years of volunteer service as an Alabama Baptist.
   
Testimony to his years of faithful volunteer service was evident when 24 individuals submitted his name for the annual nomination. Stevenson was presented the award at the November 2001 Alabama Baptist State Convention held in Huntsville. He was one of 35 Alabamians nominated by Baptist churches across the state. The 76-year-old winner and his wife, Frances, have been members of First Baptist Church, Auburn, for 40 years.
Several members of First, Auburn, as well as Mrs. Stevenson and the Stevenson’s two adult children, Amy Hall and Mark Stevenson, attended the event. Stevenson said he was not expecting all the attention.
   
Stevenson, who has a background in agriculture and dairy science, approaches his ministry of missions work with a servant’s heart and is modest about his accomplishments. “I’m not like these young folks winning medals at the Olympics,” he said. “But it’s always a good feeling when you’re recognized by your friends.”
   
Since 1987, Stevenson has participated in 28 missions projects, one of which took 23 months to complete. In addition to his volunteer work with the Lee County Habitat for Humanity, Stevenson has been a part of Alabama Baptist disaster relief volunteer teams. He has also participated in many volunteer missions trips out of the country.
   
In August, Stevenson spent two weeks in Saoluis, Brazil, participating in a volunteer missions trip under the umbrella of the International Mission Board’s volunteer program. Stevenson has participated in 13 missions trips to Brazil, 11 of which he organized and led.
   
“The Brazil trips have been multiproject trips,” he said. Though construction has been at the center of Stevenson’s Brazilian efforts, Stevenson takes pride that “in the early years, we set up medical clinics.”
   
Free health care was provided thanks to Stevenson’s recruitment of volunteer physicians, dentists and optometrists. The medical focus has been stymied the past three years due to constraints placed by the Brazilian government on health-related aid from international missions.
   
“Some of the Brazilian doctors started complaining that groups like ours were taking away their business,” Stevenson said.
   
In addition to Brazil, Stevenson has completed five missions trips to Spain and two trips to the Czech Republic.
   
Although Stevenson notes that volunteer missions work in other countries is rewarding, he cites the work he did helping build a chapel at the Bullock County Correctional Facility in Union Springs as the most fulfilling missions project he has ever undertaken.
   
“A friend of mine asked me for advice on how they might build the chapel, and the next thing I knew I had spent 23 months helping complete it,” he said with a laugh.
   
“I knew he’d been on at least 14 missions trips overseas,” said friend and fellow First, Auburn, member Wayne Mitchell. Mitchell, one of the many people to nominate Stevenson, added, “Bob deserved the award.”
   
According to Reggie Quimby, director of SBOM’s office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions, the Volunteer of the Year Award was created in part to recognize the generous volunteer efforts that Alabama Baptists make in the missions field.
   
“We hope this award will get people excited about volunteering their time in missions work and seeing the results of their efforts,” Quimby said. The award is based on the recipient’s amount of involvement with local, national and international missions work, he noted.
   
“The decision is not based on the number of times the person is nominated but more on the quality of missions work they have participated in,” he said, noting two SBOM representatives and one Alabama Baptist pastor (who serves for only one year) selects the recipient.