ST. LOUIS – The real treasure at the “Journey of Hope” geocaching event was walking the last week of Jesus. The Easter weekend event at Fellowship of Wildwood, St. Louis, offered a safe, social distancing opportunity to share the gospel. Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS (Global Positioning System)-enabled devices. Participants navigated to a specific set of GPS coordinates to experience a portion of the gospel. “We started planning early in the year,” … [Read more...]
FBC Viburnum strives to love their neighbors
VIBURNUM – Caring for the community prompted the growing ministry, “Love Thy Neighbor,” started by First Baptist Church of Viburnum. “We wanted to establish a large-scale construction-based ministry for our community,” Justin Perry, pastor, said. “Although we are a small, rural congregation averaging about 80 on Sunday, we’ve raised more than $100,000 since we began in 2015,” he continued. “We’ve partnered with other churches in the community. We’ve crossed to denominations with like … [Read more...]
Bates City church volunteer clerk has served since 1973
BATES CITY – A pot-belly stove was the first opportunity for Delores Turner, member of Concord Baptist Church near Bates City, to serve Christ when she was only ten. “My sister and I would walk to church,” Turner said, “and we would be the first to arrive. So, we always got some coal and fired up the stove so that it would be warm when the others would arrive.” With her history of service, it was not surprising that she became the volunteer church clerk in 1973. She worked to keep the … [Read more...]
‘Plant Rural’ hosts event at Hannibal church
HANNIBAL – Equipping for the harvest is the focus of Plant Midwest and its new offshoot, Plant Rural. On Tuesday, Jan. 26, the new group held its first quarterly meeting in Hannibal. Plant Rural is a gathering to encourage and equip pastors and ministry leaders to lead, revitalize, plant and replant Gospel-centered churches in rural communities outside of St. Louis and beyond. Sam Byers, pastor of First Baptist Church, Elsberry, is heading the committee organizing this group. “Since we … [Read more...]
‘A library expands our reach’
RAYTOWN – Librarians are matchmakers. Debbie Atwood, media director at Spring Valley Baptist Church in Raytown, quoted S.R. Ranganthan’s Five Laws of Library Science, “Books are for use,” she said. “Every reader has a book, and every book has its reader.” “A library is only as valuable,” Atwood continued, “as the ability to find what’s in it.” Atwood has 17 years of library experience and when she became the volunteer librarian at Spring Valley, she could see that it would take a lot of … [Read more...]
Camp reaches out to deaf youth
WARSAW – Hugs and laughter usually signal a fun reunion, but this is especially true of the campers attending the Deaf Youth Camp. This Missouri Baptist Camp serves deaf and hard of hearing children and teens from Missouri, Oklahoma and Illinois. “Because they come from a wide geographical area,” Vivian Crowley, business manager and assistant director, said, “they love to be reunited when they see their friends from previous years.” The Deaf Youth Camp was established in 1982 after Leslie … [Read more...]
Slater, Marshall churches build homes in Mexico
ACUNA, Mexico – Acuna, Mexico is a border town just across the Rio Grande River from Texas. Families use scrap materials and anything that they can find for shelter. First Baptist Church, Slater, and First Baptist Church, Marshall, found a way to minister to this need. “In October, we caravanned to Mexico,” Paul List, FBC Slater pastor, said. “We worked with Casas por Cristo to build a house for a family of five. We were able to meet this tangible need while strengthening the … [Read more...]
Floyd calls for Great Commission vision
ST. CHARLES – Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, shared a sobering statistic with the Missouri Baptist Annual Meeting audience. “Seventy five percent of the people in the United States are unable to testify to faith in Christ,” he said. “That means 329 million people are in desperate need of Jesus Christ. 7.7 billion across the globe don’t know Jesus as Savior.” “The vision of Jesus Christ,” Floyd continued, “is for us to reach … [Read more...]
MBC President Muniz declares, ‘Jesus saves’
ST. CHARLES – The challenge was clear. Jeremy Muniz, president of the Missouri Baptist Convention, chair of the Executive Board and senior pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield, shared the need for more evangelism. “God is moving in hearts for evangelism,” he said. “We may be mediocre, but God is not. Look at the common fishermen God used to turn the world upside down. The Spirit of God must fall on us from on high.” Muniz used the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) to … [Read more...]
Faithful service the watchword for Farber Baptist church pastor
FARBER – Faithful service is the watchword for the ministry of Jerry Ostrom, pastor of Farber Baptist Church. Ostrom was ordained at Rock Port Baptist Church on August 14, 1960, shortly after he began serving the church as pastor. “I was so green when I started after graduating college (William Jewell) and seminary (Southern),” Ostrom said, “but God guided us along.” Ostrom and his wife, Jackie, recently celebrated their sixty-third wedding anniversary. She agreed with her husband, “God … [Read more...]
Fellowship Baptist Church, Lesterville, exceeds Annie Armstrong offering goals
LESTERVILLE – Fellowship Baptist Church of Lesterville has a history of working together and having fun doing it. Collecting this year for the Annie Armstrong offering was no exception. In fact, they had so much fun collecting that they shot past the goal of $6,000 to $10,824.41. “I’ve served as WMU director for the last five years,” Terry Bryant, member and financial secretary, said, “and I was asked to head up the collection.” “We’ve had a tradition of competition of teams for the … [Read more...]
Church honors Lesterville’s first responders
LESTERVILLE – The sirens were silent as the emergency personnel arrived at Fellowship Baptist Church of Lesterville on June 27. The group of first responders was invited to enjoy a meal of appreciation. “This dinner was originally planned for March; we wanted to reach out to them,” Daniel Sparks, pastor, said. “Then, when COVID hit, we had to postpone the dinner. Now, first responders are given a black eye and we need to lift them up and care about them and to appreciate what they … [Read more...]
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