Every once in a while you get an email that absolutely makes your day. This month I got one of those. It was a note from one of our hardworking pastors, Tom Beutler. I have since found out he pastors two churches, Watson Baptist Church in Missouri and another congregation across the northern border in Hamburg, Iowa.
Tom granted me permission to print his letter:
Dr. Yeats,
Welcome to the mission of the Missouri Baptist Builders and Missouri Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
I can never repay Jesus and I can never repay the Southern Baptists, and neither can Northwest Missouri. I know people from all over the world can say the same thing. I know firsthand about Atchison County Missouri and some of Holt County.
It began 8-8-2011 with the meeting of Leighton and Kay Clemons. They came to Watson, Mo., to assess flood damage. I kind of became a coordinator of their efforts and that led me to becoming volunteer coordinator of Atchison County. As of 5-5-2012, I have had two local men from Rock Port, Missouri volunteer 1/2 day and two young volunteers from AmeriCorps volunteer one day. Five Methodist women came from Kansas City. They worked for three days cleaning up one yard and a wood shed.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and Southern Baptist Builder volunteers have done all the other work. I have met 22 Southern Baptists who left the comfort of their homes. They came and worked hard—dirty work.
This is their mission. This is their sermon and they show God’s love everywhere they go. They do mud outs, mold removal and give advice to people who have mold problems. They are doing two major rebuilds right now. They are spreading the love of Jesus.
Because of their work, I met a couple who had flood water over six feet deep in their home for four months. On my second visit to their home, the lady asked me if I would go see her father-in-law, because he had not accepted Jesus as his Savior. This man also lost his home in the flood. God led me in what to say and Walter Shandy accepted Jesus and two weeks later to the day Walter went home to be with the Lord.
Praise the Lord! If the Southern Baptists were not here, I would not have met Walter. They help people with their homes. They pray and they give them a Bible. By example, they give them hope and show them HIS LOVE.
I’m so pleased to know these brothers and sisters and to be associated with them.
Thank God for every one of them,
I pray my sermons give as good a message as they do,
Pastor Tom Beutler
When I finished reading this testimony letter, I too was so grateful to God for the powerful testimony of our Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Disaster Relief teams and our Missouri Baptist Builders. These faithful warriors of the cross aren’t leaning on a shovel watching others. They are engaged in the full demonstration of what it means to be the hands of our Lord in the face of a crisis.
No one knows when the next disaster will strike. But the storms will come and challenges face us all. However, every one of us can be part of the solution by acquiring the appropriate training. Authorities do not welcome people who “just show up” without credentials and without training. So we must prepare.
How? Consult your local association for the next training event nearby. The MBC statewide training events are posted on the MBC website and announced through The Pathway. So let’s be trained and don our yellow shirts to help those who need. By doing so, we demonstrate the love of Christ.
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Cooperative Program is missions.
Thank you for your church’s consistent support of the Cooperative Program (CP). It is by Missouri Baptist’s cooperative giving that ministries such as Disaster Relief, leadership training, collegiate ministries, children’s ministries, Super Summer, VBS training, and a myriad of other vital ministries continue to impact the lives of real people in the cities, towns and villages of our state.
The Cooperative Program not only supports our state missionary work but it also supports the SBC International Mission Board. As a result, the sun never sets on the gospel witness that goes forth from your church through the CP network. The Cooperative Program is Missions.