FWBIM Blog

It's Okay to Dream

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Missionaries do not demand the right to do it but, by the very nature of their calling, they are permitted to dream. Their dreams are not fairy tales of perfect golf days and world-class fishing holes. I guess those are not the greatest examples to com...

He Knows My Name

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

A couple of week ago I was the pinch hitter (fill-in speaker) for Lynette at a WAC (Women Active for Christ) meeting. That is a pretty big bill to fill. Physically, she was not able to make the trip so I spoke in her time slot. The subject assigned was "He...

Lessons Spurned

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

When I was young I wasn't lazy, but I wasn’t out looking for the next job. That was probably due to the fact that—between my Mom and Dad—I pretty well stayed busy. From the time I was nine years old, I started working in the fields. And when I turned 16, I...

42 Years and Counting

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

No matter how you look at it, 42 years is a pretty good stretch of time. In marriage, especially these days, it might be considered an eternity. Tuesday, May 14, Lynette and I celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. It does not feel like an eternity, but ...

Cemetery Flowers

Thu, 09 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

African people groups have their own ways of dealing with the different phases of life. Among the Lobi people, with whom we worked, many superstitions, rites, and a slim hope the child will live past its first year or two surrounds a child’s birth. The chi...

WALK LIKE A MAN (OF GOD)

Tue, 07 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Today, I walked into my living room to chat with my wife about something that I do not remember at this time. As I approached her, she looked up and said, “Sometimes you walk just like your dad. When you walked in, it sort of gave me a flashback.” I found ...

The End or the Beginning

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Toward the end of the last 40 Days, I had very similar feelings to what I am experiencing today, Saturday, April 27, 2013—a bit of sadness within my spirit that this 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer for IM are coming to a close. I also have a sense of deep re...

Decisions, Decisions...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

It was December 8, 2011. I scanned the faces of the men who sat around the table in the FWB International Missions boardroom. Every face revealed the same things: sadness, stress, and solemnity. The motion to postpone the return to the field of all mission...

Missions in a Changing World

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

The population of the world has passed seven billion people. Estimates indicate approximately two billion people in our world call themselves Christians, 1.2 billion are Muslim, 786 million Hindu, 362 million Buddhist, and 151 million atheists. Regardless ...

Spirit-Directed Witnessing

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Several years ago, I preached at one of our Free Will Baptist churches with over 400 in attendance. The message was focused around the Great Commission. One of my points was the importance of depending on the Holy Spirit to direct us in our witnessing. We ...

Stay or Leave?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Stay or leave? That looks like a straightforward question with two possible answers. In most situations, the question does not appear too complicated. However, the stakes go up considerably if your life hangs in the balance of your answer. In Central As...

Keep On Growing!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Wouldn't it be great if we had an instrument to measure spiritual growth? Well, maybe it would be good when we feel we are experiencing spiritual growth. But, I for one, would not be too enthusiastic about being hooked up to such a machine when things aren...

The Hanna Project

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In the year 2000, FWBIM embarked on a new and challenging venture. The staff and board approval raised our sights beyond, without excluding, the fields on which we were serving. We found a common denominator among agencies focusing on creative acces...

Uruguay: An Unfinished Task

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Many missionary sending agencies are shifting their focus away from some of the countries that have been targeted over the past century. Countries in Central and South America, which once received hundreds of North American missionaries, now have strong ev...

Growing in Panama

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Panama is experiencing an exciting time of church planting. God's Spirit is sweeping the country, and particularly His Free Will Baptist people, and the result is new churches and preaching points springing up all over the place. In the late 1990s, when...

Contagious Faith

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

“The Cuban people just work their way into your heart.” I have heard sentiments like this shared over and over by people who have visited this beautiful island nation. This was my experience with the Cuban youth. I had the privilege of being with 60 of the...

Community Health Evangelism

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

The words Community Health Evangelism (CHE) are almost self-explanatory. We could simply state it as a program by which missionaries and national leaders facilitate the involvement of a community in addressing local health concerns and, building on ...

From Dilemmas to Solutions

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

di·lem·ma n. 1. A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavorable or mutually exclusive. 2. Usage Problem A problem that seems to defy a satisfactory solution. In recent years, we have expe...

Where Are the Laborers?

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Several years ago at the National Association a pastor stopped me and said he had a question. One never knows what the follow up will be at a moment like that. He went on to ask, “Why are we not seeing young people answer the call to ministry?” This q...

Building the Church in Russia

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Guest blog by Mike Corley Our Russian Baptist brethren may not carry the name Free Will Baptist, but in most matters—especially when it comes to core beliefs—they are, in essence, Free Will Baptists. It is hard to believe that we, as a den...

Sending Their Sons and Daughters

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

“Hola Mark, como estás hermano?” I receive this message at regular intervals from a Brazilian brother, Rogerio Silva. I met Rogerio a few years ago in Rivera, Uruguay. On Saturday night, Rogerio spoke with passion to a group of young people—the very...

FIghting for Freedom

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

I like to ask students, “If you lived in another era, when would it be and why?” Typically, a multiplicity of responses ensue—with some interesting reasons for their choices. My answer is always the same: I would love to have lived during World War II. It ...

The Call

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In my missions training at FWBBC (Welch College), I had the honor and privilege of studying under Mr. Dan Cronk. I owe much to him. One thing he repeated constantly to us was to “define our terms.” If we talked about a certain concept, we had to be sure we...

Light in the Darkness

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Imagine a place where the unemployment rate has consistently been over 25% for more than a year; a place where more than one million people have simply left the country, looking for jobs. This is no imaginary place; this is Spain in 2013. From the time...

Committed to Their Task

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

It is interesting to think that we have been in India long enough to have elderly pastors. Some Indian pastors are at retirement age, yet have absolutely no means to insure the well being of their families if they stop pastoring. Others have become weakene...

Phases of Cross-Cultural Ministry

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

In the world of missions, ways to describe the different phases of field ministry are varied. One of the better-known classifications is presented as four phases: 1. PIONEER: At this stage, the missionary takes the gospel to a basically unreached area. ...

It's All About the Shoes...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Guest blog by Tim Awtrey Most of the world is divided into two camps: shoe-fanatics and shoe-haters. Some of you may have more shoes than you need or could ever comfortably wear. For you, the biblical promises include finding a “land flowing with...

He Has "Big Faith"

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Please allow me to tell you a story I heard directly from a man who truly took up his cross and followed Christ. We will call him Paul since he is a church planter in a country where many laws are set up to stop the spread of Christianity and to reveal...

Growth is Normal

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Our first two terms in Africa were each almost four full years out of the United States. When we left the first time we had two little boys. Trey was three; his brother Adam was one. Four years later, we returned to the U.S. with another boy in tow. It was...

Unity ≠ Uniformity

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I sat in a council meeting of the International Training Alliance in a small, snow-covered retreat center in northern Germany. Representatives from nine global mission organizations gathered to focus on matters that unite us in Christ—His ...

In Any Other Language

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

We said our goodbyes to family and friends then boarded a plane bound for Paris, France. In Paris, Tom and Patty McCullough and Barb and Jerry Gibbs welcomed us. After spending the night in the City of Lights, we traveled across the country with Tom and Pa...

Weep With Those Who Weep

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

October 7, 2010, Lynette and I prepared for a trip to Saint Nazaire, France, to visit our missionary friends Jerry and Barb Gibbs, and to make a presentation about The Hanna Project. She seemed a bit tired that day but nothing extraordinary. The followin...

Preaching the Word in Japan

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

COLOSSIANS 1:3-6 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints--the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored...

Impacting Individuals and Communities

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT
In his book, The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, describes the plight of people who need our help around the world. One of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” as he calls them, that keeps people helplessly trapped ...

He is Risen!

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
I have often been in services where the worship leader or pastor calls out, "He is risen"; and the expectant congregation responds, "He is risen indeed." Every time I hear this, it stirs within me an even greater desire to share this Good News with those w...

Funding the Great Commission

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Guest blog by Mark Price As we pray for missions, we have to consider the less appealing side of our mission enterprise...funding. While missionaries and foreign lands are exciting and appealing, nothing is exciting about funding. But without it, we wou...

Who Am I?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
This is both easy, yet difficult to write. I could write a long time about missionary kids, so keeping this short will be a bit of a challenge. Some of the forgotten members of the missionary enterprise are the children of missionaries. Years ago, I heard ...

Hanna's Journey

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Hanna didn’t grow up Free Will Baptist. Her family had been out of church for quite some time, but started attending a small Free Will Baptist church in Hector, Arkansas, where her great-grandmother attended. When her family moved to Wichita, Kansas, they ...

A Million and One

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
There are a million and one definitions of love. Well, maybe that is a bit overstated. But you probably could ask a million and one people to define love and get that many different answers to some varying degree. If you ask someone to tell you ...

"Aunt Alice"

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Throughout our years of ministry in Cote d'Ivoire we were privileged to work with several single lady missionaries. All of them were committed to God, to holy living, and to their ministry. Alice Smith, recently retired, served with International Missions ...

They Love the People!

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
“Every time God has moved them from a church, everyone in the area grieves their loss.” One of the members of the Cuban national leadership said this of Ramon Sanchez, the president of the Cuban Free Will Baptist Convention. “Ramon and his wife Margarita a...

Humility and Unity: A Winning Combination

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
I have often told my friends, “I want to stay humble but I wish God didn't have to humiliate me to keep me there.” Maybe that is an overstatement. Yet, humility is a characteristic of a true believer. This principle is clearly established in Philippians 2:...

II Timothy 2:2

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Many Scripture verses provide clear-cut principles. II Timothy 2:2 lays out a plan for leadership training with clarity and finality. We are simply told to tell others what we have learned from the Word. The Apostle Paul certainly practiced what he preache...

Educating MKs

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
People often ask, "What is the greatest sacrifice you made as missionaries?" Generally I respond by repeating a statement I heard from a friend. He said, “Once you have surrendered yourself completely to Him there are truly no more sacrifices.” I do believ...

40 Days and Counting

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
I am sitting here at my desk thinking about March 20, 2013. It is not a long list of “to do’s” occupying my thoughts. Rather I’m considering what is going to happen to me, and hopefully many others, beginning that day. For several months, we have talked ab...

Voices

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
“Robert Alan!!!” I can still “hear” mom’s voice calling for me as a child. We would go out to play and sometimes be down the alley or in the field behind the house, but I could almost always hear mom’s voice calling us back to the house for dinner or to ge...

Mufflers and the Wisdom of a Child

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
God blessed us with four children. Each of them brought their own personality, temperament, and point of view to our family life. For each one we have a proverbial treasure box of memories. We literally have some of their childhood toys and other wonde...

Jezebel Got Baptized?

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT
For the Lobis, a people group in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa, with whom we worked, names indicate their numerical order among the children born to a particular woman. The names are not numbers, but rather particular names for each new infant up to ten. After ten...

Melons and Whited Sepulchers

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT
I have a missionary friend who is well known for his dry sense of humor. When he recounts a story his manner stirs as much laughter as the images he paints with his words. He is also known for his love of watermelons. The particular area of Africa wher...

The Joy of Salvation

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT
There are moments in our missionary experience we will always cherish. I had one such unforgettable moment when Lynette and I were still in France. I went to the FWB Church in Saint Nazaire to present the work of THE HANNA PROJECT. The church has a tru...