For Alabama Baptists who haven’t had a chance to get involved in the state’s partnerships with Baptists in Ukraine and Guatemala, there’s still time.
This month, leaders of the partnership effort decided to recommend extending the three-year partnerships for an additional three-year period, ending in 2011.
The extension of the partnerships — which were originally set to end in 2008 — will be voted on during the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention in November.
“Three years has been our traditional segment of time, but we’re finding that three years doesn’t go very far,” said Reggie Quimby, director of the office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
He noted that it takes two years to get good traction in a nation and get Alabama Baptist churches entrenched in the work there.
“In Ukraine, especially, we’ve been forging new ground (with a partnership between Alabama Baptists, the Baptist Union of Ukraine and the International Mission Board), and the distance has made the process a little slower, too,” Quimby said.
But the project is gaining speed — more and more teams are showing interest, he said. A team of associational leaders, pastors and SBOM staff recently returned from a vision trip to Ukraine to continue the process of teaming Alabama Baptist associations with Ukrainian oblasts (similar to states).
Ed Cruce, director of missions for Bessemer Baptist Association, is one such leader looking at starting a new effort with an oblast after the partnership extension is voted on.
“We are excited about plugging into a partnership effort. This (vision) trip kicked it off for us, and we probably won’t start until next year,” Cruce said. Morgan Bailey, pastor of
Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer, accompanied him on the trip, and he and other pastors in the association are interested in participating in the effort.
“Alabama Baptists have an opportunity to make an eternal difference in the lives of people (in Ukraine) who were held hostage to atheistic tyranny just a decade and a half ago. For Ukraine and the former Soviet Union to find the Way, they must have help,” said Rick Lance, SBOM executive director, who went with the vision team.
So far in Ukraine, Quimby said Alabama Baptists have seen:
- church planters take new steps in taking the gospel into areas with no Baptist work,
- inroads made in advancing the partnerships with oblasts,
- strengthening of church leadership and
- the development of a Cooperative Program-style giving program for the Baptist union.
Teams from Alabama Baptist churches also continue to work in Guatemala through Operation GO (Gospel Outreach) and GT projects (for more information, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org; keyword “GT projects” or “Operation GO”).
Many state Baptist churches have even taken their work a step further, establishing partnerships of their own with specific churches or areas in Guatemala.
SBOM leaders will travel to Guatemala in June to finalize the partnership extension details with that nation. If the two partnerships are extended, then they will end simultaneously with state Baptists’ other current partnership with Michigan.
For more information on how to volunteer for current projects in Ukraine or Guatemala, call Quimby at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 239, or visit www.alsbom.org for a list of projects. The project list for 2008 will be posted on the Web site by Aug. 1.
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