Reaching the Multitudes

The Cooperative Program Stage provides an opportunity for messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting to hear firsthand reports about a variety of SBC missions and ministries. Listen to a panel discuss making disciples of Jesus who live on mission at the CP Stage in the exhibit hall of the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention. You will be inspired by their testimonies. Joining Sandy on the CP stage are Mark Bethea, senior pastor for First Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL; Liz Encinia, executive director-treasurer for Kentucky WMU; Chris Martin, executive director for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention; and Tamiko Jones, executive director-treasurer for WMU of Texas.For information on getting missions discipleship started in your church, visit https://wmu.com/missions-discipleship.

Today’s conversation is with Mark Stevens who serves with the International Mission Board. In March of 2003, terrorists placed a bomb at a small airport in the Philippines. The explosion took the lives of 23 people including our missionary, Bill Hyde. Bill’s widow, Lyn Hyde, placed flowers and a sign at the airport that said, “Filipinos are worth dying for.” That courageous gesture galvanized Southern Baptists in the Philippines. Filipinos began saying they wanted to be missionaries to unreached people groups. Mark talks about his experience that day and the miraculous things he has seen God do since that tragic event.

We don’t live in a fixed time in history. We are always pressing forward to the future God has for us. The stories of our past help propel us. The vision that motivated women 134 years ago is the same today because it is God’s vision to make disciples of Jesus who live on mission. Every generation must find their place in God’s plan. In this podcast, Sandy Wisdom-Martin will share the circumstances which gave birth to WMU and celebrate milestones through the decades.

Author Julie Busler says, “Depression doesn’t always look like lying in bed crying all day.” From an outsider’s point of view, Julie’s life would have seemed picture perfect, even remarkable to those who knew she had experienced the death of her mother and the suicide of her father. Unresolved issues, significant trauma, and her own mental health struggles led Julie down the path of considering suicide as well. Follow the journey of this courageous woman to the mission field, as a patient in a psychiatric hospital abroad, and home again.

Missie Branch, director of graduate life and assistant dean of students to women at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary shares how to get beyond your own space to make relationships with people that are different than you. Look for opportunities to have conversations outside your bubble. Missie says, “When I was a kid, my mama was on the corner with her tracts. She had her speech; she loved the people in her community and so she wanted to see our community captured by the gospel.” We need that same passion for the lost of our community today. Overcome fear and be intentional about sharing the hope within you.

Join Sandy as she visits with Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board as well as Connie Dixon, president of Woman’s Missionary Union. Discover who influenced them for missions. Hear their passion for the nations. Celebrate what God is doing even in the midst of a global pandemic. Learn how to be an advocate for the global work of Southern Baptists.

In the last episode, Harper* discussed how missions discipleship throughout her life nurtured a desire to follow God’s call and how that led to her serving in international missions. Now hear the rest of her story, including blessings along the way and candid insights about the types of challenges many missionaries experience while serving. Learn how you can better pray for these faithful Christ followers and be challenged in your own faith journey as she shares from her heart.*name changed

Harper* describes herself as introverted, someone who enjoys being home, and comfortable in her small home town. Yet she followed God’s call to serve as a missionary on the other side of the world. Hear her journey—from her introduction to missions as a child in Girls in Action, then later as a member of Acteens, both WMU missions groups for girls—to a church with a focus on discipleship and reaching the nations for Christ. You will be inspired by how God used faithful mentors and parents coupled with a lifetime of missions discipleship experiences to prepare this faithful servant for Kingdom work.*name changed

Many sources offer insight to the benefits of being grateful, such as improved sleep, feeling hopeful, reducing stress and increasing resilience. But an attitude of gratitude is more than self-help, it is an intentional mindset to focus on God—His goodness and His grace—and be thankful each day. Like the apostle Paul when he was imprisoned, we are to be grateful despite our circumstances or life’s challenges. Listen in as Kelly King, women’s ministry specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources, and Sandy discuss how to cultivate a grateful heart.

Ron Harvell felt called to serve in foreign missions at the age of 17. In college, he met his future bride and continued to prepare by seeking out courses on cross-cultural ministry and church planting. But halfway through, to their surprise, the Lord redirected their minds and hearts to chaplaincy. After retiring as a one-star general in the Air Force and serving all around the world, Ron reflects that God allowed he and his wife Marsha to essentially be foreign missionaries with their people group being the Air Force. Be inspired by this Christ follower who risked everything to follow God.