“It Takes a Church” Neither pray I for these alone,

but for them also which shall believe on me

through their word; That they all may be one;

as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:

that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

John 17:20-21 “Red rover, red rover, let Ronny come over.” My friends and I braced our arms together, grasping each others wrists like Roman gladiators, awaiting my brothers collision with our barrier. His goal, break through what he saw as the weakest link. Ours, to strengthen the l i nes , ba nd tog e the r , shou t encouragement to one another. We mustered all our strength and awaited the battle. You’ve played this child’s game yourself. Even if you didn’t call it Red Rover, you’ve played. Maybe not as a child, but as an adult, you’ve belonged to a team that pulled

being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” God recognizes the vital importance of unity, and yet it seems the church is the first place we feel most comfortable in attacking others. We will allow dissension and disharmony within our midst far too easily. Christians today seem to have no problem leaving one church for another. There just seems to be no sense of belonging, of community. This is the place where the outside world watches and waits for us to fold. It is this loose strand they so simply tug on and watch the message of God violently unravel. And yet, Jesus prayed that we would be “one,” just like He and God are one. Loving re lat ionships, forg iv ing relationships, banded together at all costs. That’s God’s way. Living a life at peace with one another. Am I saying we should always keep our mouths shut and never disagree? Of course not! But, we can disagree in a manner befitting righteousness. We can reach out with open hands and not clenched fists. We can reprove privately, not reprimand publicly. We can struggle to live in peace, not hack each other to pieces. Unity, togetherness, harmony, peace, support, encouragement, exaltation, brotherly love, kindness. If no where else in the world, these qualities should at least be found in the church of Jesus Christ, and in the hearts of His followers.

Volume LIII SEPTEMBER 2018 Number 9

together to overcome the onslaught of the battle at hand. You have pooled your resources with others, in an effort to belong to something larger than just yourself. In school you were part of the team, part of the band, part of a group of friends. In the workplace, in your neighborhood, in clubs, societies, community endeavors. And what about within our church? How strong is the bond you hold with the folks with which you sing “Blessed Be the Ties That Bind”? Are they immediate family or distant relative, friend or foe? Unity amongst Christians brethren is paramount in the mind of God. He addresses it repeatedly in the Scriptures. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” “But if ye bite and devour one

another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;” “Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love,

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Dear Pastor, Today over 250 broadcast producers, writers, creatives and artists are working on your behalf to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission through media. Over the radio and through the Internet to an audience numbering more than two billion, Lifeword is preaching Jesus in 42 languages to 121 countries. And those numbers are poised to grow exponentially. The launch of the Lifeword Cloud in August is a momentous step for your media ministry. It increases our capacity to add broadcast languages and strengthens our ability to disciple new converts around the world. Soon we will be able to expand the broadcast footprint of Lifeword to hundreds of new languages and people groups…many of which no one is

reaching with the gospel. Producers are hard at work adding new languages to the Cloud every day. Once a year Lifeword reaches out to our BMA churches to ask for a special day of prayer and giving to Lifeword. We call it Lifeword Sunday, and it is slated for October 21. Owned by the churches of BMA America, Lifeword is dependent on churches for financial support. Lifeword Sunday is a crucial piece of our financial plan. Pastor, would you make Lifeword part of your church’s Great Commission strategy? On October 21 churches all across the BMA will make this a special day to partner with Lifeword in reaching the world. Will you help by championing this ministry with your people?

Here’s how to participate in 2018 Lifeword Sunday:

Register your church at lifeword.org/

lifewordsunday or call Lifeword to register at 501.329.6891. (You’ll be entered to win a new IPad Pro!)

Enclosed you will find posters and bulletin insert samples you can use to highlight the day. A short video you can use for Lifeword Sunday is downloadable at lifeword.org or call us for a DVD. It will help your church understand what Lifeword is all about.

Order Lifeword Sunday T-shirts at lifeword.org/lifewordsunday. This helps promote the ministry of Lifeword.

Pray for the millions who need to hear the gospel on October 21 and take a special offering for Lifeword.

Thank you in advance for partnering with Lifeword. We are honored to be part of your Great Commission strategy! Call or email me if I can be a personal help to you in any way. God Bless…thank you! Donny Parrish

Published by the Baptist Missionary Association of Oklahoma

DOUG BREWER, EDITOR AND BUSINESS MANAGER

Phone: 794-6646

Assistant Editor: Michael Mobly

Direct all correspondence, publication material and news items to the office of the editor

Direct all subscription payments to:

Carl Barnes P.O. Box 5171

Ardmore, OK 73403

E-mail: OklaBapt@aol.com

Subscription rates are, any church may pay seven dollars a month, or eighty-four dollars a

year, to receive a digital copy of the paper emailed to one email address in your church.

Greetings From Your Lifeword Team!

Girls Missionary Auxiliary National GMA week is September 16-22. I would like to encourage all GMA groups to participate and promote GMAs this week. We encourage you to spend some time together, work on service project, raise money for the project and recognize your girls. Please share pictures of what you do with your girls on the GMA Facebook page (Turning the World Upside Down) or tag us on Instagram @nationalgma. Thanks for all your work, Assistant National GMA Promoter Lane Flynt

The following is a letter to BMA pastors included in Lifeword Sunday packets sent to all churches the first week of August. Lifeword Executive Director Donny Parrish speaks directly to pastors with words of encouragement and a simple request: Tell your congregation about their media ministry so they understand how it helps them fulfill their Great Commission calling.

Girls at Work

The unbelievable happened in England 14 years ago. George age 75 and his brother Herbert age 72 lived together in a mobile home. Not unusual. One would assume that they had some sort of relationship if they shared a home together. One day the police received a call from Herbert that George had died. They prepared to go to the home expecting to find a body. They couldn’t have been more shocked. There in the bedroom was a skeleton!! An autopsy revealed no foul play, but amazingly it showed that George had been dead for 18 months!! Upon questioning, Herbert admitted he had not been in his brothers room for a few hours. . . well a few days . . . well to be honest, he hadn’t actually been in there for quite a while! How on earth could someone live in a tiny mobile home and not notice their sibling and housemate was dead for a year and a half!? When questioned further, Herbert said he had thought it a “bit odd” when his brother did not come out of his bedroom at all. But he explained it all by adding, “ George likes to keep to himself and to be honest so do I”. I’d imagine you’re thinking exactly the same thing I did, “How on earth could he NOT notice?! Surely he didn’t think that smell was the trash he didn’t take out! Well, I know I would have noticed!” It just seems too unbelievable doesn’t it? Yet many Christians, maybe even some of us, have done the same thing concerning our spiritual lives. In Romans 6:1-2, we are told we are DEAD to sin, therefore we should no long live with it.

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(“Sniff, Sniff,” cont on pg 7)

“I Was Just Thinkin’” By Narita Roady

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Then how, day after day, month after month and even year after year do born- again, children of God continue to live with sin in their lives and seem not to have a clue it is there? Quite possibly, it could be some of the same reasons Hebert didn’t notice George was no longer among the living. Here are a few I could see. Maybe Herbert wasn’t very close to his brother? Just as when one is born into an earthly family, intimate time together will determine the closeness of their relationships. A newborn babe in Christ has a very close relationship with Him, but that relationship must be nurtured and grow. Otherwise, just as in a family, they will grow apart. You have to spend time with the Lord and listen to what He says to hear Him. You cannot be close to Him without regularly reading and hearing the Word preached. How else can we smell the stench of sin in our lives if we are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit constantly helping to show us it is there? For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things

are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:12-13 Could Hebert have just been too lazy to check on his brother? As I just said, we need to be close to God to detect sin, but a growing number of His children are just too lazy to get into His word and allow Him to do some housecleaning. Then again, they may be in the Word but just too lazy to do anything about changing what He does reveal to them. In Spiritual Cardiology terms this is called a hardened heart, and apathy to the things of God goes right along with it. We can become accustomed to our sin so much that we fail to see we have lost our first Love and we are no longer serving God. We back slide to the point we fail to notice His absence. We get to the point that we aren’t even aware of sin in our life. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight:. . . Psalm 10:4-5 Is it possible Herbert just didn’t care about his brother? The further we move from God, the more sin dulls our senses to the things of the Lord. We loose sensitivity to God’s principals, His promptings, and His plans for us. When this happens, a spiritual stupor over takes us and we quit caring. Right or wrong ceases to matter. We reach a comfort zone of indifference where as long as that place of ease is not affected, we could care less what happens. All sins are tolerated and even go unnoticed, as long as no change or correction is required spiritually.

“Sniff, Sniff, Do You Smell Something?”

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included in the beta-testing stage before the public rollout of the new lifeword.org in August…and one of those is Swaihli. To determine the best languages to use, Lifeword personnel considered the following about existing broadcasts: * Are they produced only by indigenous people? * Is the quality excellent, meaning biblically sound and culturally relevant? *Are there variations in the formats, such as long form and short form, and videos? * Do they use various media outlets, such as online radio, internet broadcasting, and community radio? The Lifeword language of Swahili has been on air since 2015, and its round-table-discussion format has been very effective in reaching Tanzanians with the gospel. For Tanzanian broadcasters and brothers Deus and Renatus Kanunu it is simply a part of their tribal culture where problems are solved through discussions. A resolution is reached when the chief has the last word. The idea was first used by the Garifuna of Central America, who created this culturally relevant broadcast format in 2009: eight pastors sitting at a table and interrupting each other with their opinions. The Garifuna people group originated in Africa (see the June newsletter for their incredible history), so Director of Operations Luis Ortega and Director of Broadcast Equipping and Training Rick Russell thought a similar format might work in the Swahili culture. Planning meetings with Tanzanian pastors in 2014 revealed a similar Swahili custom: The

Garifuna A Lifeword Language and a People Group The People African slaves endured a perilous journey, one that often ended in death often caused by disease. The late 1700s was the peak of trans-Atlantic slave trade and shipwrecks were another cause of those deaths, but the story of the Garifuna people, although tragic, was about life…the kind that is eternal. In 1797, this West African people group was deported to Honduras by the government from a small Caribbean island called Saint Vincent. Some seventy years before, they had been rounded up from the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Congo and Ghana and put onboard two Spanish slave ships bound for plantations in the “New World.” However, their journey ended near the West Indies island of Saint Vincent when they were shipwrecked and had to swim for their lives. Once ashore, survivors blended into the indigenous Carib people group and tried to avoid detection by the British, who controlled the island. But in 1796, the Garifuna surrendered to them, and their captors put them in prison where many died from disease. A year later, they were released to the Honduran government and allowed to settle there and on neighboring islands. The Language Fast forward two centuries to the fall of 1980 when BMA Missionary David Dickson and his family went on holiday to the Atlantic Coast, an hour’s drive from their home. As they enjoyed a day at the beach, they overheard two boys speaking in a dialect they had never heard. As Bro. David conversed with them in Spanish, he learned about a people group called the Garifuna. God placed a burden on his heart about them, and his research on the Garifuna led him to the national library of Belize where he found an English-Garifuna dictionary and copied its pages. His next stop was Guatemala and the Wycliffe Linguistic Institute where he met Lillian Howland, who shared his interest in this people group. In the two years following his meeting with Lillian, she passed on her knowledge of the language and coached him as he learned to read, speak and preach in this strange tongue that had no alphabet, no written record, no Bible. Garifuna is the heart language of these people, and the older ones, who are usually illiterate, had virtually no record of its written form. Young children learn Spanish in school

and become bilingual, but the only way to reach the older generation with the gospel is to preach in Garifuna and teach them to read, beginning with the Bible. The Gospel In September 1982, Bro. David preached his first sermon in Garifuna and a twelve-year-old boy was saved. His message to the Garifuna was that “Jesus can speak and understand your language, your culture and your needs.” Since that time many Garifuna have surrendered their lives to Christ, been trained and discipled, and have planted churches all over Honduras. Bro. David’s sermons and teachings have been recorded and archived by Lifeword, and they are still being used on current broadcasts now produced completely by Garifuna. Only five languages have been chosen by Lifeword as “starter languages” included in the beta-testing stage before the public rollout of the new lifeword.org in August…and one of those is Garifuna. To determine the best languages to use, Lifeword personnel considered the following about the broadcasts: * Are they produced only by indigenous people? * Is the quality excellent, meaning biblically sound and culturally relevant? *Are there variations in the formats, such as long form and short form, and videos? * Do they use various media outlets, such as o n l i n e r a d i o a n d community radio? The Garifuna broadcasts can answer yes to all of those questions. Thanks to the burden God gave to Bro. David Dickson 36 years ago, many of these people once bound for slavery have a new freedom and new life in Christ. Swahili A Language and a People Group Only five languages have been chosen by Lifeword as “starter languages”

First Languages Rising Up To the “Cloud” LifeWord News

PAGE 5

tribe’s chief meets with family leaders and presents a difficult village issue. If the group cannot come to a consensus after various solutions have been offered, he will make the decision. The chief is the ultimate authority just like God’s Word is for Christians. This method of reaching Garifuna and Swahili speakers is a great example of Lifeword’s philosophy that broadcasts should be created by and for indigenous people. To do that effectively, Lifeword has hundreds of personnel around the world working on translating and contextualizing content that speaks to the hearts of the people groups they represent. Lifeword Programmer Deus Kanunu is that representative for Swahili speakers. As an indigenous speaker, he will create gospel presentations that can be streamed, shared and downloaded to anyone, anywhere who speaks Swahili! August of 2018 is when lifeword.org will go live with the five languages chosen for the testing process: Garifuna, Swahili, Arabic (to be featured in the August newsletter), Spanish and English. As Executive Director Donny Parrish puts it, “For a year, we have been in the building process; after the Cloud is build, we will begin the creative process. Long term we hope to have gospel presentations for 200 of the world’s languages. Following the lead of BMA Missions, our ultimate goal is to help them plant churches.” Only five languages have been chosen by Lifeword as “starter languages” included in the beta-testing stage before the public rollout of the new lifeword.org in August…and one of those is Arabic. To determine the best languages to use, Lifeword personnel considered the following about existing broadcasts: * Are they produced only by indigenous people? * Is the quality excellent, meaning biblically

Lifeword to re-allocate much needed funds for broadcasts to unreached people groups. Missions Director Dr. John David Smith said, “That decision by Lifeword follows a fundamental principle in today’s missions philosophy: When indigenous ministries are capable of standing on their own, we remove our ‘temporary scaffolding’ and let them take complete charge of reaching their own culture with the gospel.” By doing this, indigenous ministries can become more effective, and U.S. funds can be redirected to new fields. Bro. Charlie said, “Creative new Arabic media ministries on the internet are proving the wisdom of this approach. Financial necessity made us work to invent less expensive and more effective methods of reaching out to our own people here in the Middle East, and our people take a great deal of pride in ‘owning’ those new media ministries.” Now the third generation of Costas is involved in the Lifeword Cloud. Joe Costa, grandson of Yusef Costa, has produced a series of videos, and Bro. Charlie is overseeing the transcribing and metatagging of his father Yusef’s sermons. Both formats will be loaded onto the Cloud, continuing the media ministry legacy begun by his grandfather almost 40 years ago. Team Lifeword Information Central AR Area Walk: Wednesday night October 10, 6-8 p.m. at CHS stadium (Please email me your walk or event date and location.) Register your church for Lifeword Sunday October 21st or whatever date is convenient for your church. Contact holly@lifeword.org if you need a speaker for your church, group or event. T-shir ts (avai lable at l i feword.org/lifewordsunday) are $14 for s/s and $20 for l/s Please join us as we praise the Lord for the following: *the launch of the Lifeword Cloud this month. Please join us as we pray for the following: *that Arab Christians will be bold as they proclaim the gospel and that Arab non-Christians will be reached with the truth of God’s unconditional love. (With an estimated 420 million speakers in the world, Arabic is the sixth most spoken language. It is almost impossible to know how many of them are Christians, but there are a large number, since there were Arab Christians six-and-a-half centuries before there were Arab Muslims.) *that people searching for answers about life will find the truth of the gospel at lifeword.org

sound and culturally relevant? *Are there variations in the formats, such as long form and short form, and videos? *Do they use various media outlets, such as online radio, internet broadcasting, and community radio? After English and Spanish, the third broadcast begun by Lifeword (then called Harvest Gleaner Hour) was Arabic. The broadcast speaker for the Arabic-language Hour of the Harvest was Joseph (Yusef) Costa, then a missionary from First Baptist Church in Blackwood, New Jersey, to the Arab community in Philadelphia. That early broadcast, former Executive Director George Reddin said, “was different from the Arabic programs of that day, because of Bro. Costa’s very polished delivery. Few people could handle the Word as well as Bro. Costa to begin with, and I doubt that there was anyone in the entire Arabic broadcast world at that time who delivered the gospel message as effectively as he did.” His weekly broadcast was called From the Harvest of Bygone Days, and it is still heard regularly in the Middle East and in high Arab population centers in the northeastern USA, Canada and Australia.” When Yusef Costa died in 1989, his son Charles Costa took over the Hour of the Harvest microphone and continues his father’s work to this day. In 2000, realizing that the Arabic world now had more than forty hours per week of quality gospel programming aimed at Arab believers, Lifeword shortened its broadcast from a fifteen-minute Bible teaching format to a more contemporary one-minute dialog format aimed at Arabia’s lost population of about 200 million. During the Gulf War, the new short format

allowed Charles Costa to quickly prepare special messages to the Iraqi people. “We were able to assure them that the war was not an action aimed at the Iraqi people, but was designed to help topple the cruel regime that had held them in fear and bondage for decades.” By late 2009, the BMA’s Arabic ministry in the Middle East had expanded and strengthened to the point that its media ministry could be sustained entirely by BMA churches there, allowing

When I was in high school, in my freshman year the seniors were permitted to administer an “initiation” to the freshmen. Later, Stratford High School discontinued the freshmen initiation. I served four years in the Marines, got out, and began attending college. Although the colleges themselves no longer practiced “freshmen initiations”, their fraternities were still practicing it. Since they were more sophisticated than high school kids, they then called it “Hazing”. But regardless of what it was called, it was still a stupid juvenile practice. When I joined the Los Angeles Police Department, my first duty station was University Division. It was named “University” because the University of Southern California (USC) was located within the boundaries. One section, 28th Street, was known as “Fraternity Row” because their numerous fraternity houses were located there. Since USC was the most expensive school in California to attend, all the wealthy people in California sent their spoiled children there. Of course many of the fraternity members thought they were above the law and thought it high sport to throw things at any police car who dared drive down Fraternity Row. They actually believed that 28th Street belonged to them. Anyone not living on Fraternity Row, even the police, were considered by them to be a trespasser. One evening, September 17, 1959, we received a call, “Ambulance Injury” on 28th Street. When we arrived, the fire rescue team and ambulance crew were working over a young man on a stretcher, later determined to be Richard Swanson, the 21 yr. old son of a prominent doctor.

The fraternity brothers didn’t tell us or the ambulance workers about the hazing ritual, instead attributed Swanson's respiratory distress to a "nervous spasm". The young man was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival. It was then the truth came out that the Kappa Sigma pledges were told to swallow a quarter-pound piece of raw liver without chewing. The meat lodged in Swanson's throat and he began choking. He died two hours later. Had we been told immediately that the young man was choking on liver, the ambulance crew at the scene probably could have saved him. How foolish! During my time with the L.A. Police Department, I saw and dealt with many

cases of deaths resulting from foolishness, but Richard Swanson’s death was one of the most tragic. He had a full life ahead of him. This year (2018), he would have been 80 years old had he not been murdered 59 years ago. He was preparing to be a doctor. Who knows what he might have accomplished in the remainder of his life? A young man’s life ended as a result of stupidity. I am grieved each time I think of Richard Swanson, but my greatest regret in this matter is that I have no idea of his relationship with Jesus Christ when he departed this life on September 17, 1959. Regardless of the position and wealth of his parents, his enrollment in the prestigious USC, and being a pledge for the elite Kappa Sigma fraternity, and even the tragic way he died, none fulfilled the requirement of his personal relationship to Jesus Christ. Only that relationship is the one and only reason that Richard would be in Heaven today. If he didn’t know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, none of the above things replace Jesus as “the way, the truth and the life” into Heaven.

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“That Reminds Me” By Jesse Spurlock

"A Deadly Hazing Event"

Mark Your Calendars

Baptist Missionary Association of Oklahoma

67th Annual Meeting October 8-9

Southgate Baptist Moore, OK

Churches will be receiving a letter

with schedule and hotel information soon

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This is a sad, sad condition for a child of God, and scripture is full of warnings for us to take note of. “ . . .for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” John 12:35 “. . . but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” Proverbs 28:14 Last of all, was Herbert so selfish that he just didn’t notice what had happened? Too many people have the tendency to accept the free gift of salvation and then turn to the Lord and say, “Thanks for the ticket to heaven Lord, now I want to get on with MY life.” Relieved of the burden of conviction we turn back to our selfish ways. “Ol’ Number One” hops back on the throne of our heart, bumping the Holy Spirit out. How quickly we forget the price Christ paid for us. Our old sinful ways are like a worn house shoe - comfortable, familiar, and so easy to slip into again. Satan is ever present luring us with the lie that our

only way to be happy is through worldly pleasure and fleshly lusts. It is quite amazing how fast we forget who we are now and Who we belong too. Our iniquity becomes excusable, acceptable, and finally a way of life. Our driving force becomes self-fulfillment at any price. We become blinded to any sin in our life. “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Hebrews 2:1 We sit here in judgment of poor Herberts’ over sight of his missing brother, wondering how he ever have endured the stench. Who knows, he may have lost all sense of smell. Yet, there is a good chance most of us are sitting in a stench of dead sins that reaches all the way to heaven. Could we have lost our sense of how revolting and disgusting sin is? Open your eyes, ears, and heart to the Lord, now have your spirit take a deep breath . . . what do you smell?

“Do You Smell Something,” cont from pg 3

and convenience. As individuals bypass the institutions, like church, some negative consequences can result.

This also takes place at the church level. Traditionally, for

example, in the association that I am a part of, there is a natural tension that exists between the local church and the missions agency (office) that represents those churches. Do we emphasize the local church as THE dominate entity in God’s global mission? Absolutely! Does that mean that the missions agency has no purpose? I would answer, absolutely not! This is not an either/or proposition. This is a both/and reality. Where can we find balance between the increasing wave of direct individual

By Dr. John David Smith This month we go in a new direction for the blog. I want to talk about the balance between local church involvement in missions and the need for the missions agency (in our context this refers to the BMA Missions office). In the U.S., we live in one of the most individualistic countries in the history of the world. On a positive note, this can drive an increase in individual participation in God’s global mission and participation at the local church level. On the negative side, this same wave might produce anti-institutionalism. For example, the local pastor knows all too well that he is having to encourage congregants to maintain a commitment to actual, physical attendance in the worship services as opposed to online options and other expressions of individualism

church participation in global missions and also not work strictly on an ad hoc basis? The local church needs to be highly engaged; however, it needs to be informed, focused, and synergistic. One missions writer stated that the increasing number of local churches directly involved in missions has both been good and bad. It is good when churches have an increased awareness and activity in missions, it is bad when they are ill-prepared and simply go about committing every mistake that the missions agencies made and learned from in the past….and there were many. One of the results of churches doing their own thing is what can be called the “lone ranger effect.” I have seen this following scenario played out many times: an American church visits an international mission field, and they are enamored with a young, vibrant national missionary who is “on the ball.” This national missionary is really bearing fruit in ministry. The Americans are naturally drawn to this young man, and the first response is to judge his situation as if he were working in the United States. The Americans then think that they can “help” him by doing a lot of things for him. In reality, his simplicity is something that we need to mimic in the U.S.; our ministerial consumerism is not something that we need to impose on him. Fast forward about five years, that same young man many times has a very altered reality, and now instead of “being on the ball” in ministry, he spends a lot of his time cultivating his donor list and trying to please and include them in his daily activity. Of course, any of us in his situation would do the same. He disconnects himself from the community of churches in his own country in order to focus on the outsiders, plus he doesn’t really feel the need for the locals. Now we have a lone ranger who is not accountable to the outsiders, nor is he accountable to the community of churches in his own country.

Missions in the Local Church vs Missions Agency

UPCOMING EVENTS Morning Star District Meeting September 8 Southern Hills Supulpa Central District Meeting September 11 Southgate Moore BMAO Annual Meeting October 8-9 Southgate Moore

The Baptist Medical Missions International, commonly called the BMMI, recently completed a Medical Mission outreach in four Ashaninka communities along the Tambo River in the rainforest of Peru. The Ashaninka or Ashaninca are an indigenous people group living in the rainforest of Peru. The Ashaninka are determined to continue their life style, Therefore Pastor Paul Tinoco, who lives in Tarma, Peru, has to obtain permission from the Ashaninka Chief of the community for a BMMI Medical team to visit their community. The Tambo River is a part of a larger complex of rivers in the Amazon Basin and has a length of 159 KM or 99 miles. Recently the government of Peru decided to build a dam on the Tambo River to supply electricity to Brazil. The decision has been overturned, but the Ashaninka are very suspicious of outsiders visiting

their land for this reason. The medical team was well received by the residents of each Ashaninka community visited. The team arrived in Lima, Peru about 11:00pm and rested in a hotel until morning and then traveled to Tarma, Peru, elevation 10,018 feet. The highway climbs from Lima at sea level to a pass in the Andes Mountains of approximately 15,000 feet then descends down into Tarma. After a good night rest, the team traveled by van for six hours to Satipo and then transferred to a boat at Puerto Ocopa for a seven hour boat ride down the Tambo River to Atalaya, Peru. This would be our home for the next week. Atalaya is a town in the Ucayali Region of Peru. It is located where the Tambo River and the Urubamba River converge to form the Ucayali River which is a major tributary of the Amazon River.

BMMI team entering an Ashaninka Village

Tambo River is on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. Each day we traveled 2-3 hours up the Tambo River to have a medical clinic and outreach in an Ashaninka Community and after working about four hours we would travel back down the river to Atalaya for the evening. During the week 200 people asked Jesus Christ to be their Savior. Praise the Lord!! Praise the Lord that a Mission can be established in Atalaya. The team then prepared to retrace their route back to the United States. If you would like to learn more about being part of the BMMI Ministry, please call us at

501 455 4977 or send us an e-mail at

bmmi@bmaam.com

BMMI Mission Trip in Peru