I had not intended to write a blog this evening, or about this evening, but I felt compelled to do so.  Tonight at 6:30 we had the Missions Banquet at our church, First Baptist Moss Bluff.  Matching our conference theme, “Go Near, Go Far”, we had missionaries representing ministries from Lake Charles to the ends of the earth.  The program was not elaborate: we spent a few minutes mingling with the missionaries and looking at the booths they had set up in the gym, then we ate, then heard each missionary share 2-3 minutes about how a person could be involved in ministry in their field.  If you were not there, I wish you could have been.  You would have heard:

— The missionary to the Philippines who said they can use medical personnel to do health clinics, and English teachers to do language training.

— Louis Charrier shared how he is currently pastoring three new church plants in the Cajun French area east of us in Louisiana, and how he needs people to come and pass out flyers, and do some kind of outreach event for one of the new church starts.

— One of our own church members, Linda Rogers, told about how she had volunteered as a secretary at the ABC Pregnancy Resource Center (crisis pregnancy center) right here in Lake Charles, but the Lord opened up the door for her to become a counselor.  She pointed to the picture of a baby who was born as a result of their ministry there – and asked for more volunteers to come and help.

— Terry Robertson, the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New York, said that there are 28 million lost people in the New York area, and that God has laid on his heart the need to start 1000 new churches in New York in the next 10 years – but we need strong Baptist laymen to take job transfers to that area to help support and serve in these new churches.  And language ministry needs are great: of over 800 languages spoken in the NY area, only 45 are being engaged by Baptists presently. 

— Merci Dixon, another of our church members, shared how our ladies currently have two teams doing 6-week lessons in the Calcasieu Women’s Prison on Mondays – and how we could start more teams if we had more volunteers. 

— Lee Whitley, a former member at FBCMB, who is pastoring our Grand Lake mission, announced that they are having a flyer distribution on Saturday, April 16^th, from 9:00-12:00, to promote their Easter outreach service.  (Let’s get a big group from Moss Bluff to help them cover the whole Grand Lake area that morning!  I hope you’ll put that on your calendar right now!)

— Ryan Rindels, former Journeyman (2-year) missionary to Suriname, shared how FBCMB had impacted the whole Aukan nation with the radio station we built there, and how our church has an opportunity to go back on a mission trip there this July. 

— What broke the hearts of most of those present tonight was the testimony of a young couple who is serving in an unnamed Mideast country – their names and location have to be withheld for security reasons.  They shared how they need people with virtually any job skill, to come and teach their skill so that the local peoples can learn a trade, because jobs are scarce.  The missionary’s wife then related how in their culture, men must minister to men, and women to women.  She said she could use women to come in and do Vacation Bible Schools, bake cookies (Cheryl leaned over and said, “I can do that!”) and just encourage them.  Breaking into tears, she said “just come over and encourage us – lead us in worship, because we miss it so much and don’t have a church to worship in; share with us what God is teaching you in His word; just come encourage us!”  There were not too many dry eyes in the room at that point.

What stood out to me most overall was just the vast range of needs: there are so many!  From right here in Lake Charles to the other side of the globe, the needs of our world are virtually unlimited.  Whatever skills or abilities a person might possess, there is something they can do, somewhere each person can go on mission to help.  Elbert Smith, the director of orientation at our Southern Baptist International Mission Board, said tonight that each of us should just pray that God would give us His heart for the nations, and that He would open up the right door for ministry wherever He wants us.

The only thing I wished was that more of our people from First Baptist Moss Bluff could have been at the meeting tonight – and all of my Facebook and blog friends as well.  Because if you had been there, the one response that would have been unthinkable for you, in light of the vastness of the needs of the world, would be to walk away and do nothing.  Your only question would be: “God, where do you want ME to go on mission?” 

(For more information on missions and ministries related to First Baptist, Moss Bluff, visit our website at www.fbcmossbluff.org, or call the church office (337) 855-9067)