by Noah Angel
EDITOR’S NOTE: Noah Angel has served as pastor of Familia Cristiana Internacional (FCI) in Jefferson City for the past 15 years.
JEFFERSON CITY – In late spring of 1993, I received an invitation to come to Missouri through the Language and Missions Department of the Missouri Baptist Convention. The program was called Super Summer. I was living at the time in Los Angeles, and I was recommended by a pastor friend of mine to Mauricio Vargas, who at the time oversaw ethnic ministries for Missouri Baptists.
After my time was over that summer, I felt that God was making it clear that I should remain in Missouri, specifically in mid-Missouri. Mauricio became one the best mentors I have ever had. I traveled with him all over the state, wherever he was informed that groups of immigrants were present. We went to see what their needs were and, most important of all, to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.
Noah Angel
I learned how Mauricio made appointments to speak with the pastor of the First Baptist Church in the towns we visited, requesting requested space where our new friends could meet for Bible Study and, perhaps, English as a Second Language classes. He was never denied. It was a vibrant enthusiasm to make Jesus known to newcomers in our state.
It was in early 1994 that I became pastor of the Hispanic Mission in California, Mo., hosted at First Baptist, California, and sponsored by the Missouri Baptist Convention. Mauricio then explained to me how Baptists in Missouri supported each other through the Cooperative Program. It’s when I learned that my airline tickets to visit Missouri the first time, and all the expenses for that summer were covered through the Cooperative Program, as well as the sponsorship of new mission work in California and surrounding areas.
A few years later, while studying at the University of Missouri in Columbia, we felt the need to start a Hispanic congregation there. Again, it was through the initiative of the Language and Missions Department (Mauricio Vargas and Jerry Fields), funded through the Cooperative program, that a new Hispanic mission was started in the fall of 1998.
Two years later, a full-time pastor was called from Mexico and, as of this year, two Hispanic churches are still thriving in Columbia because of that effort. More pastors from many different countries have been sponsored to come to Missouri to serve the needs of people groups in our state.
In the 2000s, I was part of the first partnership between the Missouri Baptist Convention and Puerto Rico. Other partnerships followed with El Salvador and, more recently, Mexico, again funded in large measure through the Cooperative Program.
And what else can I say? Our Ethnic Leadership Development Program, affiliated with Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has graduated many students from the church I now pastor, Familia Cristiana Internacional in Jefferson City. In 2012, six students received diplomas in Biblical Studies and six more last year. We currently have a student in the doctoral program.
What a beautiful way to pull together resources. Through the Cooperative Program, even the smallest church in the state can play a part in the mission work, spiritual and academic formation in our own state and beyond our borders.
What a blessing! Go CP!