International (MNN) — 116 new missionaries will be setting out across the globe soon. Recently the Southern Baptist International Mission Board held their missionary appointment service in Texas.
As the second largest group of new missionaries in the IMB’s history, the appointees are widely varied in age, experience, skills and backgrounds. In his charge to the new missionaries, IMB President Jerry Rankin said “It demonstrates that God has a heart for the whole world.”
The IMB sees that much of their work and agenda in the past year has been directed by circumstances only God could foresee. Some doors to witness in Asia had been so tightly closed that only a “high-impact” event could change the status quo.
The tsunami was one of those things. The tragic devastation opened the doors and Southern Baptists responded with overwhelming compassion. More than $16 Million (USD) has been given to help tsunami-affected areas.
Board chairman Tom Hatley says, “Now, even as people are hurting, they are feeling a second wave: compassion. This wave will prove more powerful than the first, and is bringing the example of Christ and the story of our Lord to people who would otherwise have never known of Jesus.”
Pray for these new missionaries and the people they will serve around the world, and pray as they continue responding to needs with the compassion and love of Christ.
