TEXAS STATE MISSIONS REPORT FOR JUNE
General Fund Beginning Balance - $121,180.46
General Fund Offerings - $ 21,459.95
Missionary Salaries - $8,997.00
Designated For LaMarque Mission - $341.53
Adm. Salaries and Expense - $2,214.84
General Fund Ending Balance - $131,428.57
A reminder that September 15th is the deadline for the Secretary/Treasurer’s office to receive endorsements for missionaries or projects for the next MBA fiscal year .
By the time you read this report we will be in the final month of the fiscal year for our state mission work. God has truly blessed through the support from the churches in our great state of Texas. May we all give Him the glory by faithful service in reaching all Texans with the gospel. We are His spokesmen to share the good news of Christ with those who are lost. Our concern should be to establish many new churches across our state and around the world from which the gospel can be preached. New converts can then be taught from the scriptures the all things which Christ has given us to do.
Our burden should be that we do more with the opportunities God has given to us. I want to thank our special study committee for recommending changes that might improve the outreach in our state mission work. They are Brethren Billy Daniels, Roy Culley, Elvin Crocker and Ricky Knight. We have been in contact through e-mail and telephone and have met twice. We appreciate those of you who have shared your concerns with us.
Our first meeting was held in Texarkana in March. It was first decided to meet again in Greenville, TX at Emmanuel MBC on June 1, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. The second order of business was to identify the major problems associated with our State Mission work and the following problems were listed:
- Missionaries remaining on salary too long.
- The current mission policy states that sponsoring churches not allow their mission to organize until it is self supporting in every respect, including paying the pastor’s full time salary. Restrictions concerning when to organize a mission into a church should be removed.
- Missionary qualifications should be addressed. It was stated that we need men on salary who have experience in establishing churches.
- Sponsoring churches’ responsibilities should be addressed. Sponsoring churches should take a more active role in their church planting.
- The need for securing property and buildings ahead of a missionary coming on the field was identified.
Items from the first meeting were addressed in great detail at the June meeting. After lengthy discussion, there was a motion and second to adopt proposed changes and present them to the messengers during the 2004 meeting for study until the 2005 messenger assembly. The motion carried unanimously. There was a motion and second that the Missions Study Committee schedule a meeting before the 2005 State Messenger Meeting and invite the State Missionary Committee (one member from each church) to attend to help finalize the proposed changes to the Mission Policy of the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas. The vote was unanimous.
It is my prayer that all concerned will pray much for this committee and our churches as we seek God’s leadership in all that we do. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." Matthew 9:38
If your church would like a visit from the Secretary/Treasurer of Missions, please let me know.
W. S. TAYLOR
FORT WORTH
Souls Won 0 Baptism 0 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 19 Morning Worship 23 Evening Worship 12
Total Church Offering $3,020.00 Given to Missions $285.00 Paid For Rent $1,600.00
To add to the summer attendance woes, the road in front of our church is being closed for 6 weeks for construction of water and sewer lines to accommodate the new housing additions surrounding us. But, that’s good news, too! The more homes being built, the greater the potential for a strong work in this area. The Lord blessed us with a surprise visit from a couple who flew into Ft. Worth from California last weekend to purchase one of the new homes directly across from us for investment purposes. They saw our church, visited our services and purchased two sq. feet of our new building before they left. God continues to bless! Christ Community Church, a new work, has just purchased property in one of the new subdivisions about ½ mile down the road from us. We continue to see the need to get our new building up, but God hasn’t provided the means yet. Bro. Reed has provided us the completed plans this month so we’re ready. Thanks to you who continue to support our work. We received a total of $1,223.00 from other churches. God bless you.
DAVID HUMBER
ABILENE
Souls Won 0 Baptism 0 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 34 Morning Worship 39 Evening Worship 30
Total Church Offering $3,064.00 Given To Missions $506.40 Paid On Property $888.00
We had the privilege in June to attend the National Messenger Meeting in Arizona. We have several prospects and continue to have guests in almost every service. We have had three weddings since the last week of May. The latest was my oldest daughter Kathrine and her new husband (our new son-in-law), Josh. We are so thankful for them both. I had the honor of being with Eastside MBC in Gary for a week of revival services. I really enjoyed being with them and their good pastor, Bro. Dale Walker. I was raised in Gary so it was like going home in many respects. I appreciate Eastside for giving me this privilege. Please continue to pray for us. Thanks to all who continue to support Texas Avenue Baptist with your prayers and finances.
LARRY FRYE
DENTON
Souls Won 0 Baptism 0 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 34 Morning Worship 36 Evening Worship 14
Total Church Offering $2,714.00 Given To Missions $711.40
I had a great time in Tucson. It was good to see all of you preachers. I appreciate all that you lead your churches to do for us in Denton. I know that without your great leadership I would not be receiving the help that I do. Thank you so very much for your encouragement also. It sure means a lot to me. The greatest part about the trip was when I got to lead two young teenagers to the Lord on Wednesday. They were raking leaves. The Lord had prepared them and put them in my path. They were both very excited about their new found Friend, and to know for sure that they were going to be with Him in heaven. I can’t get over how great the Lord is when I see His magnificent plan being carried out without us even realizing it. The only reason I was outside at that moment is because I had to check out early. My plane left at 4:00 p.m. that day. I would have otherwise been sitting in the meeting with everyone else. So because of the circumstances, two young men got saved. Isn’t our Lord great!
Longview MBC is officially our new sponsoring church. We are excited to be working with them. I know the Lord is in this change. Our goals are to pay off the land and water line the first year; to finance and build a building the second year and to organize the church the third year. I am looking forward to that. I pray that all our supporting churches will continue with us for this period. Please send any support to Jalena Branch, Longview MBC, 800 E. Loop 281, Longview, TX 75605.
We are having a bar-b-q on July 3rd for the neighborhood. This is just to get to know the people in our neighborhood. I believe we will get some great contacts from this. We are having a marriage enrichment seminar on July 23rd and 24th. Bro. Larry Fincher will be conducting this. We have passed out 1000 door hangers for these events. I believe these will both be great outreaches. Please pray for this. Thank you so much for your continued support. You are making a difference in the lives of the people in Denton. May the Lord bless your generosity.
ROY FIKAC
ROUND ROCK
Souls Won 0 Baptism 0 Letter 1 Statement 1
Sunday School 36 Morning Worship 67 Evening Worship 44
Total Church Offering $5,056.75 Gave to Missions $1,015.84 Paid On Property $2,400.00
Received 2 new members in the month of June. Received uncountable blessings during a week of Vacation Bible School. Jason Crouch was joined in marriage to Kristy Hall. Thoughts of organization are always on our minds. Worse case scenario, will go from half salary to quarter salary this year regardless of what things look like on paper. If the Lord delays HIS coming will make final report to you in November 2005. In other words, this year will be our last year to come for salary for the mission in Round Rock. We so much appreciate you sticking with us during all this time. The work here has not been easy. May the Lord reward your faithfulness to this work. If you have any questions I can be reached at 512-248-8693. Sponsored by Modoc MBC of Athens.
DENNIS PACE
PILOT POINT
Souls Won 1 Baptism 0 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 11 Morning Worship 11 Evening Worship 6
Total Church Offering $2,470.45 Given To Missions $313.17 Paid For Rent $575.00
Dear Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, What a wonderful month this has been. We were able to take 4 of our girls to youth camp this year and in spite of the power outages because of the two major storms that hit us, the cold food, the fallen trees, and the abrupt decision to leave at midnight on Thursday, everyone wants to come back next year. Many were saved and we can thank the Lord for that. One of our Discovery boys has accepted Christ as his Savior and is anxiously waiting to be baptized. Efforts are being made to get the portable baptistery from Bro. Frye. We still need your support in paying off our note of $5,329.25 and supporting our mission. Please prayerfully consider helping. I know you will receive a blessing if you do. For those who already send support, thank you so very much and may God bless you all. Love always in Jesus Christ our Lord.
JOEL CLAY
LAMARQUE
Souls Won 18 Baptism 2 Letter 16 Statement 0
Sunday School 50 Morning Worship 100
Total Church Offering $7,006.24 Given to Missions $681.25 Paid For Rent $525.00
Greetings to all our brothers and sisters in Christ. June was an exciting and rewarding month for the LaMarque Mission. There were eighteen souls added to our mission and two of those being new converts coming for baptism. Hallelujah! We enjoyed our first ever week of vacation Bible school at Hopewell. I am excited to report that we averaged 74 per night for all 5 nights during which two souls were led to Christ. It was a great week even though the picnic we had scheduled for the Saturday following VBS was rained out. The kids had a great time and so did the adults. We purchased a 15 passenger van to support our transportation ministry and we got it just in time for VBS. We were able to keep the payments below $300.00 monthly. Praise God! Please help us pray for a larger place to worship. We are quickly outgrowing our current facilities and desperately need more room. We are having to park on the lawn because we have only 15 parking spaces. It gets treacherous when it rains. We desperately need more room and more parking spaces. We extend our appreciation to Florida Avenue MBC, Woodville MBC Ladies’ Auxiliary, Calvary MBC in Baytown, Unity MBC, and Baker Drive Baptist Church for your support. I am available for deputation work and would love to come and share with you and your congregation.