Another Great Missions Conference

We were just in a local church’s missions conference where the theme was “The Call to Arms”.  Being highlighted for this event were missionaries who were going out to pastor or plant churches near US military bases around the world.  We were encouraged to tag along and put up a table so that the people in the church could get to know us a little better.  We were not one of the speakers, though Charlie was able to share our ministry with one of the adult Sunday School classes this morning.

While we were not the focus of the conference, it was great to be part of an event where the church obviously rose to the challenge of getting missionaries out to the world.  These are some highlights from the conference. 

Every night the missionary families were fed supper.  After the meeting, the whole church was invited to a time of refreshments in the fellowship hall where the missionaries’ displays were set up.  Also every night there was a missionary “store”.  The three main families were invited to take part in taking things from the store on the first two nights.  After that, the other missionaries who were there were encouraged to take part.  Every night new objects appeared so that even though we only went into the store on two nights, we still walked away with a lot of usable items – things like soap, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, work gloves, water bottles, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, shampoo, and other things.

Someone did a great job decorating.  With a theme of “The Call to Arms” they had three displays in front and one in the back that highlighted the need to obey Our Commander in Chief and take the gospel around the world.  These pictures will give you an idea.

Two men from BIMI preached, alternating each night.  They did a very good job of encouraging people to get behind the missionary endeavors of the church.
Tonight they took up their “Faith Promise” offering.  From this church of about 130 people, $126,000 was promised by the people for the next year.  What a great show of faith by the people of that church!

It is exciting to be in any missions’ conference, but it’s especially encouraging when we see the church very excited about the way they are personally helping the cause of missions throughout the world. 

On the way to the car, I said to Charlie,”I would like to be in more missions conferences.”  He replied, “I’d like to have the job of speaking in missions conferences all the time (like the BIMI speakers at this conference).  That would be like giving candy to a kid.”

We came away blessed and so thankful to see people excited about spreading the gospel around the world.

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life . . ."