Articles by Guest Author

A full house gathered on July 30, for the annual Texas Baptist Missions Foundation (TBMF) Luncheon, held in Arlington, Texas, as a part of the 133rd Annual Meeting of Texas Baptists. This year, the luncheon honored three outstanding servants whose commitment to the Kingdom of God has impacted thousands around the state of Texas and beyond.

By Abby Hopkins

“Mom, we have a turkey for Thanksgiving!”

A young boy exclaimed this and looked at his mother in awe as he discovered his family would receive a turkey from ABC Primera Baptist Church Food Pantry.

Erika Guerrero, Primera’s missions chairperson, was able to hand the turkey to this family on her first day volunteering. Since then, she has joined the work and watched as God has provided turkeys every Thanksgiving, serving as a reminder of the purpose of the food pantry.

ABC Primera is a ministry that seeks to alleviate hunger by feeding the elderly, single parents, homeless, and ill in Bastrop and models a dependence on God for every need. The ministry is supported through the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering.

“We always have enough to pay; it always works out,” said Primera Pastor of Harold Welch. “We see that’s the hand of God.”

One night before worship, I asked for the Lord to reveal something to me, whether it be the message or just a word that stood out. One song that we sang was “At the Cross.”

Somewhere in my church life I got the idea that children’s ministry is on the back burner, and all the focus should be on adults and youth...I have been terribly wrong.

When we talk about doing missions, surely many of us think of going somewhere far from home, preaching the Gospel to a lot of people or having a place with a big crowd surrounding us and telling them about Jesus.

In having to dig up repressed emotions and scabbed wounds, Father has shown me it’s best to not leave them that way. He’s had to take me on a journey in order to bring those emotions to surface and teach me to fully trust, to live fully redeemed and complete in Him.

By Jaclyn R. Bonner

In a country where severe food insecurity increased by 30 percent last year, affecting 7.7 million people, imagine reducing chronic malnutrition among the most vulnerable -- pregnant women, children under 5 years old, and the elderly -- and creating food security for rural communities in one of the world’s least developed countries.*

These solutions do not come easily. Problems are complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the second largest country in Africa and ranked seventh on the 2017 Fragile States Index.* Despite the nation’s instability and broken structures, the local church and leaders in the region have a vision for their people.

Deep in the heart of fertile Eastern DRC, 430 churches from three provinces are coming together to bolster a sustainable farming endeavor -- permaculture. Permaculture is an agricultural practice designed to break the cycle of poverty by diversifying crops, increasing control over production, and generating more income.

Once I realized God was doing this on purpose, I tried to discern the best course of action to continue sharing with Ned effectively.

Who am I? What is my purpose? Where do I come from? When will I feel satisfied? How can I know truth? These were the kind of questions I asked myself the year before my first year of college, not knowing that all these questions were about to be answered by someone greater than I, the One whose existence I dedicated myself to disproof. How naive was I?

I shared with some students about how my parents encouraged me to find truth, which that lead to me to following Jesus. It led to some good conversation about truth and choosing to follow Jesus and I thought, "Alright God. Thank you for letting me talk about my parents and their value of truth in our family."