Seven with Alabama ties appointed as Baptist representatives overseas

Seven Baptists with Alabama ties were among 72 new International Mission Board (IMB) representatives appointed to missions work in June. The appointment services were held at Bon Air Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., June 25 and Southern Hills Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, June 27.

Among the Alabama appointees were Joshua and Crystal Murphree, of Cullman. Both graduates of Athens State University, the couple will serve with their two children in Peru. Joshua Murphree, who has 15 hours under his belt from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, will work in evangelism and church planting. Crystal Murphree will serve alongside him in community and home outreach.

Birmingham-native Robert Hamilton and his wife, Kerri, will serve with their four children in Brazil, with him serving as strategy coordinator and her serving in community and home outreach. Robert Hamilton, who has served as pastor and student minister of several Texas churches, earned a master’s degree in economics from the University of North Texas in Denton and a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Trinity College of the Bible & Theological Seminary in Newburgh, Ind.

Mobile-native Michelle Allen and her husband, Michael, have been tapped to serve in Madagascar in evangelism and church planting. Michael Allen, a graduate of Leavell College in New Orleans, and Michelle Allen, a graduate of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, both have a master’s degrees in missiology from New Orleans Seminary. He has served in various roles, including associate pastor and youth minister of two Georgia Baptist churches, and she previously served with the IMB as a journeyman in the Western Europe region and as the youth and children’s minister for a Georgia Baptist church.

Huntsville-native Kelli Johnson has been named leader of a women’s Xtreme Team in Bolivia. Prior to her appointment, Johnson used her doctor of pharmacy degree from Auburn University in Alabama, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. She has also studied at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. (TAB)