What happened in Memphis…

…apparently isn’t staying in Memphis since I’m publishing it here for anyone to read. But some of our memories were just too memorable to keep to ourselves. I know most of you reading this not only didn’t go on this trip but also have no clue who most of these people are, so just bear with me.

We had a great weekend at Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live in Memphis this past weekend. We took 13 ladies plus baby Rylee (Samuel’s future wife), and we truly had a great weekend, in spite of some crazy circumstances. A few of the more memorable moments…

* arriving at the Fed Ex Forum later than we intended (of course), walking as fast as we could the block or so from the van to the doors, then having to continue walking all the way around the building…in the rain…with a baby…and a lady in a wheelchair…and a blind girl…because all of the doors were exit only and we could not find an entrance. We finally found the entrance to the parking garage, and an event worker helped us pull the wheelchair up and around the ramp to get into the building.

* having to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud at Courtney’s whispered comments during the first session. Courtney, you crack me up.

* being struck by the awesome creativity of our Almighty God, when, as we stood waiting for our group to come down from the nosebleeds and thousands of ladies were crowding past, we immediately were able to pick out from the crowd of thousands those few faces that we knew. How creative our God is to make each face distinctly different.

* Pushing Courtney’s wheelchair back to the van, banging her into the signposts, then running her through the puddles in the parking lot.

* Getting to our hotel in Memphis, where 13,000+ women from 32 states are staying in hotels, only to see a woman from Salem as soon as we got into the lobby.

* Finding out that not only did the hotel give us rooms with only one bed and a sofabed when I had reserved two double beds, but the sofabeds did not have pillows and the hotel was out of extra pillows. Nice.

* Finally going to sleep about ??:00 only to have the alarm beep at 5:30 am.

* Being excited to actually arrive at the conference just in time for the doors to open, thinking we would have better seats, but then getting held up by the t-shirts, the camera confiscators, the difficulty of maneuvering a group of thirteen women–including one in a wheelchair and one blind–and a baby through a crowd of thousands, and the lack of accessible elevators for our “special needs” crew, and finally ending up in the exact same section we were in the night before, up so high we almost had altitude sickness.

* Thrilling to my very core as she described the scenes in Revelation 4 and 5 when the Lamb is found worthy to open the scroll and the Plan finally comes to fruition.

* Rejoicing in the faithfulness of God as He describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7.

* Realizing that we had to go back to the hotel–a good 30 minutes away–because Scharlene’s Bible not only got taken in the hotel accidentally and without her knowledge, but it also got left in the hotel accidentally and without her knowledge.

* Taking a good half hour to make it out of the center due to the same slow-ness inducing issues described above, heading back to the van, deciding to do lunch at the mall right across the street, deciding just to drive a block or two over to park closer, and finally getting parked at our destination about another half hour later. Driving around downtown Memphis can be confusing.

* Having more issues finding our way into buildings. In the parking garage we went up two levels looking for the walkway into the mall, then decided maybe it was on the bottom level, went back down to the bottom, and found the elevator group inside the garage, the stairs group out in the alley with the dumpsters behind the garage, and realized we were separated by a locked gate.

* Finally getting reunited around the other side of the garage, finally making it into the mall, reading the restaurants off the directory, making our choices, and heading into the mall to discover that all of those restaurants were actually not in existence. The only choices were Maggie Moo’s, a chocolate factory, and Jillian’s, where we almost decided to go until we realized that one of our group won’t be 21 until next month.

* Deciding to try TGI Friday’s down the street, being told they had an hour wait, sending Tricia to plead our case, and finally getting seated to eat lunch about an hour and a half after the conference ended.

* Hearing the phones ring as husbands started calling to find out how close their wives were to being home and hearing the wives tell them, “Um, we’re still in downtown Memphis and we still have to go back to the hotel before we head home.”

* Finally getting out, getting the Bible, and stopping to gas up the van and potty up, and learning that the women’s bathroom was out of order.

* Getting on the road, starting to make good progress, and then sitting in construction traffic for about an hour.

* Arriving home a little after 9:00, only 2 1/2 hours after the time I had estimated we would be back.

* Spending two days with twelve awesome ladies (and Rylee) with whom I loved getting better acquainted, sharing experiences that only we will think are funny a few months from now, and triumphing over irritating circumstance after irritating circumstance by having a blast in spite of them. Even though it seemed for awhile that our way was being blocked at everything we attempted, we didn’t let it ruin our party, and I feel truly blessed to have been in the presence of those twelve ladies for those two days. Thanks, girls!!

A thousand thanks to my selfless hubby who without hesitation encouraged me to take this weekend away months before he even knew that Grandmama and Poppaw would be able to come help him out, and thanks to Grandmama and Poppaw for helping my crew fill the hours without Mommy. Looking forward to the next Salem Baptist Church Women’s Outing, whenever and wherever it may be!!

To all my fellow Southern Baptists

Last week our church had the privilege of hosting a missionary to Uganda.  Abigail Tracy, 22, ministers to street children in a village outside of Kampala, Uganda.  She and her colleagues have taken 16 children into their family home so far, and as funds allow and more workers come, they could take in as many as 60.  Abby will head back to Uganda June 1, but for now she is in the States finishing her duties as International Coordinator for her organization, African Hearts.

She was able to come on Saturday and stay until Thursday, speaking seven times while she was here.  She is an amazing young woman who has a clear focus on God’s plan for her life and who is steadfastly setting out to see that plan accomplished.  She teared up several times as she talked of her love for “her” kids, and how much she misses them and can’t wait to see them in few weeks.  Her passion and love for them and for God were obvious to anyone who had the privilege of speaking with her.

However….

…leading up to her visit, and during the course of her time here, there were several comments and questions and concerns that, quite frankly, left a bitter taste in my mouth.  You see, Abby Tracy is not Southern Baptist, and African Hearts is not a Southern Baptist organization.  Therefore, there were some who thought that our Southern Baptist church should not even have her come speak at all.  While she was here, during question and answer times, there were a few who had no questions at all about the children, the work, the needs, but instead asked only questions about the denominational involvement, the church affiliation, the pastor’s nationality.

May I submit that the Southern Baptists are not the only missionaries out there that need our prayers and support?  May I submit that there are some excellent organizations that are doing much to further the kingdom that have no association whatsoever with the IMB?  May I dare to submit that there are even non-Southern Baptist missionaries and organizations out there that are probably more biblical than our own mission board?

Please do not misunderstand.  I am a Southern Baptist.  I am of the opinion that the idea and theory behind our International Mission Board and the excellent support that is given to our missionaries through the Cooperative Program is wonderful.  We as Southern Baptists support many godly men and women who are doing wonderful work in the countries around the globe, and we should by all means continue to pray for them and support them financially.  But they are not the only ones out there!!!

During our “desert time” in Indiana, God was so good to allow us to be part of a church that we loved for the doctrine, the people, the practical application of the Word, and the attitude toward global missions.  This was our first real taste of how a non-Southern Baptist church goes about supporting global missions.  Faith Baptist Church has a surprisingly lengthy list of missionaries that they support, some of which have been sent out or commissioned by Faith.  The church supports each one in varying amounts, but they support them individually.  It’s up close and personal, not generically through a board.  The church votes in each case whether to support a certain missionary or not, and once they are supporting them, they have teams for each missionary to keep the church updated on the work of that missionary.  When the missionaries happen to be in the area, they often come by the church and share what God has been doing in their ministry. Many of them even grew up in that church and were then sent out by that church, so they are viewed as part of the family when they are on the field, having church members take trips to go and visit them.   We were there only 18 months and we had the privilege of meeting personally several of these missionaries, even having one in our home that our kids were able to meet.

This kind of up-close-and-personal contact is often missing in Southern Baptist churches.  Our missionaries are well cared for, but it’s not personal and individual.  You might meet a missionary here and there at a missions fair or something, but usually you will never see or hear from them again.  The next visiting missionary will be someone new.  There is no continuity of contact with any one person, in most cases.  We will read about the featured missionary in the bulletin inserts and missions magazines, and we will pray for the missionaries in the birthday calendar, but when do you ever think of them again?  It’s just some name floating around that you are praying for or talking about, and you have no clue what that person’s work is or what their needs are.

Does God hear and use those prayers?  Absolutely.  Is it wrong to pray for missionaries on their birthday even though you’ve never heard of them and have no idea what they do?  Absolutely not.  But let me share with you something that our pastor said in his sermon last night:  Prayer is a weapon.  A general prayer along the lines of “God, help me today,” or “God, be with Mrs. Smith” is not wrong and is still a valid prayer.  But how much more effectively the weapon of prayer is used when we aim it at specific targets, naming specific names and specific requests or needs.  How much more effectively could we pray for our missionaries if we actually knew them personally, or at least continued hearing about them on a regular basis instead of just once in passing?

My children got to spend quite a bit of time with Abby, as we drove her around, had her in our home, and served as her “hosts” while she was here.  They, in that special way children have, grew to love her even in such a short amount of time.  They were able to ask her questions about her street children.  They learned the names of the children, what they like to do, and even learned a praise song in their language.  As we keep in touch with Abby, they will be able to continue praying for these kids.  As we help her sell the necklaces that bring in the funds to run her ministry, they will be able to work for a cause that’s greater than themselves, all the while having a specific picture in their mind of who they are helping.

Many people in our church were excited to do these same things.  Many people have expressed interest in buying a necklace to support these kids, and there has been talk of other ways that our church might continue to partner with Abby Tracy and African Hearts to reach the street children of one Ugandan city.  The negative attitude against a non-Southern Baptist missionary was in no way representative of the whole, but it was there none-the-less, clear enough that Abby began asking lots of questions about why it even mattered whether she was Southern Baptist.  All we could tell her was that, to us, it didn’t.

There is more bouncing around in my head that I would love to say on missions and Southern Baptists, but I’ll have mercy on my readers and save it for another post.  Let me just end this one by saying:

To all my fellow Southern Baptists,

Be faithful to support missions.  Be faithful to pray for missionaries.  Do this through your local church, through the International Mission Board as you see fit.  But please please please do not fall into the arrogant mindset that the IMB sends out the only worthy missionaries doing the only worthy work.  When you hear of another ministry like African Hearts, embrace it.  (Obviously, investigate any missionary or organization to ensure the soundness of the doctrine and methods to which they hold.)  Take advantage of every opportunity that you have to keep biblically sound missionaries and ministries up close and personal in your life and in the lives of your children, whether they are Southern Baptist or not.