A Message From our Director of Missions: April

I have a praise and a prayer need to share with our readers this month.

The proverb “good things come in small packages” is not just about Cracker Jacks and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It also refers to Psalms 67, a seemingly innocuous prayer with an enormous impact on the world of missions. Depending on the translation, the word “all” appears four times in seven verses. All nations, All peoples (2x), and verse 7, where God blesses us so that All the ends of the earth may fear Him. In what we call the Great Commission (Mt. 28.18-20) we read that our Christ-given mandate is to make disciples of ALL nations.

Praise: Psalm 67 was the centerpiece of the 3/15 service of Meet Us At The Cross International, a multi-ethnic church, in what was formerly Calvary BC on Highland Ave., Bluefield, WV. Their official launch is Easter Sunday at 2pm when they begin weekly services in that storied building. I cannot describe to you the energy and joy that filled that service and that room. Folks and pastors from at least ten different MSBA associational churches were on hand to encourage MUATCI. The pastor, Andre Jones, was so overcome at the beginning of the service he couldn’t even greet the audience. The worship songs, the specials, the testimonies all gave witness that the time had come on that spot for a church that would make disciples of all nations. Former members of Calvary shared publicly that their prayers had been answered for the gospel to once again ring forth from that place. Happy tears flowed freely as did the fellowship afterwards. To stand in the pulpit where I had presided over Calvary’s last service, and now to see and hear the joy of the Lord as our association pledged its support and love for this new work was a singular experience I will long remember. The Missions Development Committee will walk alongside this church for a year in a mentorship as it charts its future ministry in the west side of Bluefield.

Prayer Need: Our Alaska Mission Trip (July 25-Aug. 2) has 32 going from Mt. State and 8 from a sister association in Georgia, Hephzibah-Kilpatrick BA. We rejoice in how greatly God has blessed the participation in this inaugural MSBA mission trip which we pray will become an annual or regular event. When in Alaska the group will divide into two teams, one staying in Anchorage to minister to children throughout the city and one traveling to the Kenai Peninsula to undertake several construction projects.

We have a lot of willing hands and hearts in the construction crew, but the situation in AK has developed to where we need one additional person skilled enough in construction to be our project manager. At this rather late stage I am asking you to pray about one or more of these options:

1) that God might call one or more of our sister churches to financially scholarship a qualified person to come with us (the time is fairly short in which a person can raise the $2000 for the trip).

2) that God might call an individual from within or without our association to volunteer to go on this trip who has construction expertise sufficient for our needs, people skills sufficient to work with volunteer workers, and a heart to serve the Father with his/her gifts.

3) that God might move in the heart of one or more individuals to sponsor this person (the association does not have a budget for this trip; donations can be made to Mt. St. Bapt. Assoc. and are tax deductible)

Feel free to ask any question about either of these issues; they both illustrate that the MSBA is simply churches helping churches do Kingdom work.