Mission Opportunities

December 2009

Ministry Highlights:

African American Church Plants

• Eddie Jones of First Baptist Church of Jackson, West Campus, reports: we had our clothes give away! These clothes were donated by a church in South Carolina. We gave these clothes to the neighborhood and church members.

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

• Bill Warren of Jacob’s Well in Kiln reports: we had a great month in December and are starting January well also. During December, we were able to minister to several with special needs, which is always a blessing. Also, we continue to have folks attend, with most coming back and becoming regular attendees.
• Kenny Culpepper of LifeSong Community Church of Florence reports: we had 2 Professions of Faith this month! We were blessed with great participation in our Children’s Christmas program. We had over 30 residents at Brandon Court Nursing Home come to the worship service there. The children from LifeSong sang several of the songs that were presented in our Christmas program. What a blessing!
• Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church of New Albany reports: we are still working on our church building and receiving blessings every way we turn. We had two more people join our church in December and recently baptized five people. God is good!
• Brian Tillman of The Church at River Bend of Hernando reports: we closed out the year with four (4) baptisms! Praise the Lord!
• Rob Westbrook of LifePointe Church of Amory reports: we have many new faces! We want to thank the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board and the Church Planting Department for their prayers and support during the last two years!
• Bradley Bagwell of The Lighthouse Church of Pontotoc reports: we served 165 cups of hot chocolate for the Pontotoc Christmas parade!
• John Richardson of Traceway Baptist Church of Clinton reports: we are incredibly excited about the mission that God has given us for the upcoming year. We are in the process of raising $60,000 outside of our normal partnerships to cover our entire budget for 2010. Then, we are going to use all of the money that is given on Sunday mornings for ministry opportunities in Clinton. Please pray for us as we follow God down this exciting road toward meeting the practical needs of people around our city.
• Charles Smith of DayStar Church of Starkville reports: we celebrated two years of service to the Lord Jesus as His Body in the Starkville area. We continue to operate as the “church without walls” as one person described us, holding ministry events in numerous places in and around Starkville and the MSU campus. Praise the Lord for His Faithfulness!
• Brian Bridges of West Bay Community Church of Waveland reports: we wrapped up the year with fewer attending because several families have moved away from the area due to two (2) main reasons—economy or ministry purposes (one good-one bad). We made over 50 good connections this year with many attending sporadically. As we end the year we have 5 committed families attending regularly (not including the core group). Christmas was a special event that included children, students, and a candlelight service (that connected well with our families that grew up a different faith). We also had a student event on New Years Eve that went very well. Needless to say benevolence was an important aspect of outreach in November and December and God used these moments to reach even the most rebellious of those we are trying to reach in Waveland. The economy still is hitting our attendees hard…but a big highlight of this month is several of our families are now getting jobs and in 2010 will be in better situations financially. God is providing…but several have learned good lessons on prayer…patience…and faith during the last year.
• Shannon Marshall of The Beginnings Church in Derby reports: we took our first Lottie Moon Christmas offering on December 20, 2009, receiving over $500.00! Observed the first Lord’s Supper and Christmas Eve service with over 100 attending. Completed the second new members’ class. Added a Ministry Assistant to the staff on a voluntary basis until she will accept compensation. This person has over five years experience as a Ministry Assistant in a church with over 1000 members. We have been blessed with additional musicians to the worship team!

Chinese Work

• Peter Liu of Chinese Church of Greater Jackson reports: Pastor Peter taught apologetics in China and preached in Chinese local house church the number of Chinese Christians is growing dramatically in China.

Hispanic Church Plants

• Cosme Arana of Iglesia Hispana de Clinton reports: we met and exceeded our church goal for the Lottie Moon Christmas offering!
• Cosme Arana of Iglesia Bautista Puerta de Salvación of Pearl reports: we had a Happy Birthday Jesus Christmas party and it produced life changing testimonies during share time! Christmas gifts were donated to our special needs families.
• Juan Singh of Iglesia Esperanza reports: we had a wonderful December at Church!!! We had a great Christmas Eve service at the sanctuary with a real nativity performed by the elementary kids. The youth performed another act and we ended with a great service! We dined and waited until 12 a.m. to celebrate Jesus’ Birth!!! We stayed at the church until 2 a.m. We also got new stage lighting system and used it for Christmas!!! We were using another system that was borrowed. Now we are blessed with a new one! We hope to finish with the electrical improvements by the middle of Jan. 2010.
• Gabriel Silva of Comunidad Cristiana of Monroe Association and of Comunidad Cristiana Cristo Viene of Lowndes Association reports: we traveled to Mexico the last weeks of December. We thank God for the time we worked here. We are thankful for the churches and individuals who supported us. We are thankful for the help of the Southern Baptist Convention.
• Rubén Ramírez of Gulf Coast Baptist Association and Jackson Co. Baptist Association reports: Iglesia Bautista Calvario and Primera Iglesia Bautista Gautier (FBCG) have a new pastor, Ruben Menjivar!
• Bro. Ruben will be reporting for Fernwood and he is working in Long Beach now on trying to get a new church plant established!

Future Projects: Requesting Volunteers and Assistance

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

• Bill Warren of Jacob’s Well reports: we continue to move forward with our planning for future space and building needs, with some exciting options before us. Please pray for us to have godly wisdom as we seek God’s Will on these matters. We are nearing the time for our building, with March looking like our start time now. We still need volunteers when that project begins!
• Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church reports: we still need teachers for our young people. Please pray for God to send us the laborers we need.
• Charles Smith of DayStar Church reports: (1) we are organizing a Community Bible School and Evangelistic Services in neighboring community in Winston County, July 25-29. (2) We are in partnership with a Brandon dentist to assist a Medical/Dental Team in an evangelistic effort in Nicaragua, September 4-11.
• Shannon Marshall of The Beginnings Church reports: we will need help with our VBS this summer.

Newsworthy Information:

African American Church Plants

• Eddie Jones of First Baptist Church of Jackson, West Campus reports: we gave away shoe boxes of toys for both girls and boys during December. The young people and their parents were very thankful for these gifts.

Anglo or Multicultural Church Plants

• Bill Warren of Jacob’s Well reports: on January 10, 2010, we had our highest total ever for worship attendance, with 107 in our Sunday morning worship services. We baptized 2 on January 10th and have 6 more awaiting baptism on January 31, 2010. We will constitute as a church on Feb. 28th!
• Brian Bridges of West Bay Community Church in Bay St Louis reports: several of our families now have jobs and in 2010 will be in better situations financially! We are making some strategy changes in 2010. We are going to work on relationships. We will also be adding several ‘random acts of kindness’ times throughout the year when teams are in town!
• Joe Gullick of Lighthouse Baptist Church of New Albany reports: thank you to the Union Co. Baptist Association and to the Church Planting Dept. of the MS Baptist Convention Board for helping to get our church up and running!
• John Richardson of Traceway Baptist Church of Clinton reports: thank you so much to Dr. Deuschle, Scheryl and all of the people associated with the Church Planting Department for making the first three (3) years at Traceway a wonderful, exciting experience. We have a long way to go but know that the support you have offered us over the last three years has moved us years ahead of where we would have been otherwise. Thank you!
• Charles Smith of DayStar Church reports: we will have our first Summer Intern to work with us May-August. His primary focus will be outreach, coupled with BackYard Bible Clubs for children in apartment complexes.
• Shannon Marshall of The Beginnings Church in Derby reports: we will begin Connection Groups the week of January 24, 2010. We began adult prayer time and Bible study on Wednesday’s starting December 16, 2009. Took the youth group to the State Youth Evangelism Conference on December 28-29, 2009, with 10 in attendance! Ladies had 25 at their first Ladies Christmas Fellowship! We will present to the church for approval the 2010 Budget on January 17, 2010.

Chinese Work

• Peter Liu of Chinese Christian Church of Greater Jackson reports: 18 people are going to join the Gospel for China Conference in Chicago from Dec. 26-30th. Pastor Peter will speak in Vision 09 Conference for international students in the USA. Two people have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

Hispanic Church Plants

• Cosme Arana of Iglesia Hispana de Clinton reports: in addition to meeting and surpassing our Lottie Moon Christmas offering, we baptized two youth on December 27, 2009! The turnout for Youth bowling night was a blessing!
• Cosme Arana of Iglesia Bautista Puerta de Salvación reports: two youth came to Christ during Sunday School, and two adults turned their lives to Christ on Christmas Eve night!