Mission Opportunities

May 2008

Ministry Highlights:

African American Church Plants

Robert Washington of New Beginnings Ministry of Jackson reports: On Mother’s Day, we had a combined Men’s Prayer Breakfast honoring all mothers. Brother Robert gave a red rose to all the charter member mothers who were in attendance. May 18 was a combined service in which we baptized three young ladies and also honored our 5 high school graduates and one college graduate (Brother Robert’s son, Fred, graduated from JSU). It was a great day for all! There were several privileges given me during the month of May. On the 15th, I gave the morning devotion at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, and also on the 18th, all the mothers of Oak Forest, New Beginnings were given a rose, and the day culminated with me doing the evening worship at Oak Forest!

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

Warren Jones of Crossroads Church of Corinth reports: Vacation Bible School and Back Yard Bible Club, being planned with the help of other mission. Also a Block Party is being planned for our mobile home Bible Fellowship Ministry.
Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church of New Albany reports: We paid the down payment on our church and the first payment!
Brad Ball of North Harrison Church of our Gulf Coast area reports: We were able to minister to Mothers on Mother’s Day, plus we were able to minister to some graduating seniors.
Kevin Wood of The Church at Trace Crossing of Tupelo reports: April was another good month although we saw our weekly attendance in both worship and small group begin to go down for the first time in a while. We’d crossed that 200 barrier a few times in March and April, but it seems like we leveled off and came down some. We have a number of families involved in baseball or soccer each weekend, but I have a feeling that if we had a day when everyone was here it would be almost impossible to seat everyone! March was such a busy month, it seems like April had a much slower pace. Our leadership team continues to press through the Simple Church process and how we can keep things at a focused few things done with excellence as opposed to a multitude of things done with mediocrity. The biggest highlight of April was probably our indoor picnic to honor new members held on Sunday, April 27th. We presented each of the families that had joined Trace Crossing since January 1 with a Trace Crossing shirt and shared a little about each family. There were somewhere around 25-30 people total (including children and babies) that have joined since the first of the year! It was a great day—we even threw in a little karaoke competition for our small groups.
John Richardson of Traceway Baptist Church of Clinton reports: May was a transition month for us at Traceway. We saw a few college students graduate, and we had a few new faces come in! Patrick Chandler, one of our graduating college students, had been working as an apprentice under John Richardson, and he preached his first sermon at Traceway in May!
Rob Westbrook of LifePointe Church of Amory reports: Baptized our fourth person of the year! We opened our building to a Hispanic mission for them to meet in.
Ray Taylor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church of Crystal Ridge Choctaw Community reports: We have scheduled Vacation Bible School for June 16-20. Classes are for PreK through 12th. Grade. We started using Sunday School quarterlies; they are participating more and speaking out!
John Morris of Stable Baptist Church in Saucier reports: God is saving whole families!
Bradley Bagwell of The Lighthouse Church of Pontotoc reports: We had a very productive trip to California! We thank God for providing the way for us to go on this mission trip!
Jimbo Miller of Downtown Fellowship of Meridian reports: We just finished four (4) months of studying the “End Times” on Wednesday nights; we averaged 25 attendees.

Chinese Work

Peter Liu of Chinese Church of Greater Jackson reports: Many church members went back to China to visit relatives. We have provided more than 1000 copies of gospel cd/dvd and books for them. Seminar on how to share your faith was conducted to equip people for evangelism.

Hispanic Church Plants

Juan Singh of Iglesia Esperanza reports: We are planning baptism for June!

Future Projects: Requesting Volunteers and Assistance

African American Church Plants

Robert Washington of New Beginnings Ministry of Jackson reports: Gospel-Fest is planned for Saturday, August 23rd, beginning at 6 p.m. If you know of a gospel group that would like to sing or if any of you would like to attend or get additional information, please send Email to infor@ofnb.net. Also, be it known that the boys in the Wednesday night Bible study are preparing to go door to door getting out information on our Vacation Bible School.

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

Brad Ball of North Harrison Church reports: We are praying about a Gas Buy-Down in the future. Pray for a gas station to allow us to do that and some people to help us pull this off.
Kevin Wood of The Church at Trace Crossing of Tupelo reports: There are some spaces coming up for lease in our shopping center, and we are considering what it might look like to take one of them and use it for our children’s and student ministries. Pray for us as we look at these options. We are scheduling our summer programs and fall programs and will be communicating them to the church in May.
Rob Westbrook of LifePointe Church of Amory is looking forward to a possible community wide event in August!
Ray Taylor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church reports: We are still meeting in gymnasium.
John Morris of Stable Baptist Church of Saucier reports: We need help with our new building.
Bradley Bagwell of The Lighthouse Church of Pontotoc asks: If you know of anyone who has the gift of artistic freehand painting, we could use them to paint our sign and logo on the outside of our building.
Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church of New Albany reports: We are working on our first VBS at Lighthouse Baptist Church!

Chinese Work

Peter Liu of Chinese Christian Church of Greater Jackson reports: Trying to find a permanent location for this congregation.

Newsworthy Information:

African American Church Plants

Robert Washington of New Beginnings Ministry reports: Three new baptisms this month with a joint worship and the Mother’s Day Special Men’s Prayer Breakfast honoring the Mothers by inviting them to breakfast were all newsworthy.
Dwight Cunningham of New Life Baptist Church reports: We will have Vacation Bible School, June 24-27, 2008!

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

Brad Ball of North Harrison Church reports: We have been having some good prayer meetings on Wed. nights.
Kevin Wood of The Church at Trace Crossing reports: Our biggest highlight in the month of April was an indoor picnic to honor our new members held on Sunday, April 27th. Had around 25-30 people total (including children and babies) that have joined since the first of the year! It was a great day, even had a little karaoke competition from our small groups!
Ray Taylor of Ridgecrest reports: We have a new family that moved here on the reservation, and he is trying to locate some property for us! Have baptism scheduled for June 22; have two, but hopefully after VBS will have more!
John Richardson of Traceway Baptist Church of Clinton reports: We have joined the Clinton Chamber of Commerce and are already experiencing some positive benefits. Traceway was highlighted in this month’s Chamber newsletter, and all new Clinton residents will now receive a full color Traceway brochure through the Chamber of Commerce! We are also excited that our Backyard Bible Club will culminate at the Clinton 4th of July Fireworks Extravaganza!
John Morris of Stable reports: We are building a new building!
Bradley Bagwell of The Lighthouse Church reports: Our newsletter Lighthouse News is up and running well! We have started small group meetings.
Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church of New Albany reports: We are planning our first VBS; this is exciting, and we added another member to our church roll!

Chinese Work

Peter Liu of Chinese Christian Church of Greater Jackson reports: Chinese church members took up an offering to help China earthquake victims. Money was sent to China for purchasing tents and water.