The pipeline’s growing, but so is the need Four years ago, 300 candidates waited in IMB’s missionary pipeline, considering a call to the nations. That pipeline just surpassed the 1,100 mark, the highest in decades. This means that more than 1,100 individuals have started a process to help solve the world’s greatest problem – lostness – by becoming a missionary with the IMB. When IMB President Paul Chitwood came into his role four years ago, he knew something needed to change. Due to … [Read more...]
Teaching kids hygiene, worth opens doors for gospel in Southeast Asia
SOUTHEAST ASIA (IMB) – Part of International Mission Board missionary and nurse practitioner Rachel’s ministry in a rural area of Southeast Asia is educating elementary school girls on their health. These girls are often forced by their families to drop out of school by the sixth grade in order to help provide income. She and her IMB colleague Anna, missionary and public health specialist, know they only get to interact with these girls for a short time before they enter the workforce at … [Read more...]
Hispanic women embark on mission trip to Peru
PERU (IMB) – A mission trip for a team of women was an all-hands-on deck, transformational experience. Six women from Iglesia Bautista Nueve Jerusalem in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Arkansas Hispanic Woman’s Missionary Union, traveled to Peru to aid in the ministry of Iglesia Bautista Gracia y Verdad, alongside International Mission Board missionary Amy Fisher. Diana Rodriguez, the Arkansas Hispanic WMU president, led the trip. She was accompanied by her daughter, Natalie (14); sisters … [Read more...]
God’s presence, provision emphasized at MedAdvance 2022
GLEN ALLEN, Va. (IMB) – Nick is a pediatric nurse practitioner. He also serves as a missionary, formerly in Ukraine. Before the war broke out, he used his gifts, talents and passion for medicine in underserved areas affected by the smaller ongoing conflict. In addition to helping with church-planting efforts, he partnered with established churches to offer clinics for the community. Now, living outside Ukraine, he partners with Baptist unions in bordering countries, to deliver food, … [Read more...]
Gospel changes life of 108-year-old woman in South Asia
EDITOR'S NOTE: Read about how these SD cards are pushing back the darkness among an unreached people group in South Asia. SOUTH ASIA – At 108 years old, Auntie’s vision has essentially failed her. But what hasn’t failed is her new-found love for the gospel. A local believer shared the gospel in her home, using the Ek Rasta SD cards. The name Ek Rasta is translated in English as “The Way” and is based on Acts 24:14. These cards, compiled by International Mission Board teams in a remote … [Read more...]
New missionaries remind Southern Baptists ‘why we exist’ during Sending Celebration
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Jonathan Derbyshire grew up as a missionary kid in Thailand. But he never thought the missionary life was for him. His parents have been missionaries for three decades, and they’re still on the field. Even though he saw their calling modeled well, he had other plans for his life. While studying the film industry in college, he heard a sermon from Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Akin said, “Don’t ask, ‘God should I go?’ but instead … [Read more...]
Access to God’s Word proves life changing among UPG
NORTH AFRICA – IMB missionaries Andy and Marie Hoffman served more than 11 years without seeing any fruit among their unreached people group (UPG) in North Africa. During those years, the family and their partners built relationships and shared the gospel with these nomadic farmers and desert horsemen. It wasn’t until the culmination of their hard work was almost complete that they saw nationals come to saving faith. Andy, with the help of national believers, finished a translation of … [Read more...]
SEND Relief offers coaching to engage Afghan refugees
AFGHANISTAN – In response to the number of resettled Afghan refugees in communities in the United States, Send Relief, the combined compassion ministry of the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, is facilitating coaching to help churches engage their new Afghan neighbors. This coaching is a limited-time project and will only be offered for another five months. The United States has evacuated thousands upon thousands of Afghans to the U.S. The majority have … [Read more...]
Global Health Rotation provides real-life medical and missions experience
NALERIGU, Ghana (IMB) – Anna Leigh Breedlove spent the fall engaged in what she calls “one of the best and most challenging experiences of my life.” The physician’s assistant (PA) student spent eight weeks in Nalerigu, Ghana, working at the Baptist Medical Centre through the International Mission Board’s Global Health Rotation program. When she began the rotation in Oct. 2021, she was a final year PA student. She has since graduated from the program. While there, Breedlove was … [Read more...]
Students encouraged to have ‘obedience in the unseen’ at REV7:9 kickoff
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hand, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” – Revelation 7:9-10 Matt List wasn’t even supposed to be at the kickoff tour of REV7:9, a missions movement for 18-25 year-olds organized … [Read more...]
‘Good things happen when God says go’
International Mission Board celebrates 48 new Southern Baptist missionaries GLEN ALLEN, Va. (BP) – Neither John nor Serena Tail grew up as believers. “We routinely just lived for ourselves,” John explained. As a young person Serena often heard that church was full of hypocrites. But one day, as a married couple, a neighbor invited them to church. On the same day, they both made professions of faith. After participating in several short-term trips, their “faith in Christ’s plans, … [Read more...]
IMB ‘calling in reinforcements’ for mission field Chitwood says at Sending Celebration
COLUMBIA, S.C. (BP) – Sangseo and Yun Na Park met and married in Korea, but they both felt God calling them to the nations. “Once I personally met Jesus, I threw away my goals that I had in the world,” Yun Na said. “I went to a church conference and while we were praising the Lord with a song called ‘I want to be Your joy,’ my soul started to confess the lyric deeply. “After I came back home, I was watching TV, and I saw an African mom holding her child and she looked as if she had no … [Read more...]