SBC Life Articles by Laura Fielding

CENTRAL ASIA (BP) -- Christian aid worker Gary Warrior* was sitting on the floor in a Central Asian village with a congregation of about 20 people several years ago, getting ready to share about "the cost of discipleship." Someone made the suggestion to go around the room and share their testimonies. One woman simply said, "Oh, I'm just very blessed and I'm so thankful to be here."

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (BP) -- Mientras crecía en Brasil, Thiago Montanher de Queiroz llegó a conocer a Cristo cuando tenía 10 años y desde un principio sintió que Dios lo estaba llamando a seguirlo en las misiones internacionales. Ya de adulto mientras asistía a un seminario local, Montanher tuvo un profesor de misiones y plantación de iglesias -- misionero de la Junta de Misiones Internacionales -- que lo ayudó a confirmar y animar su llamado.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Missionary doctor Wana Ann Gibson Fort, 91, died Aug. 31 in Baton Rouge, La. Fort and her husband, the late Milton "Giles" Fort Jr., served with the then-called Foreign Mission Board as pioneer missionary doctors at Sanyati Baptist Hospital in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). At this hospital, Fort and her husband helped launch a spiritual awakening through medical missions.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (BP) -- Growing up in Brazil, Thiago Montanher de Queiroz came to know Christ at 10 years old and early on felt God calling’s to follow Him into international missions. As an adult while attending a local seminary, Montanher had a professor of missions and church planting -- an International Mission Board missionary -- who helped confirm and encourage his calling. “[The missionary’s] love for the nations was contagious, and I have never seen anyone so passionate about the Gospel,” Montanher said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Messengers resoundingly affirmed David Platt's June 17 report that noted IMB trustees' recent policy changes are focused on throwing open the funnel of missionary sending so more Southern Baptists called by God can make disciples and multiply churches among those who've never heard the name of Jesus.

COLUMBUS, OHIO (BP) -- In a darkened convention center hall filled with Southern Baptist messengers, individual pinpoints of light illuminated the darkness. Moments earlier, in passionate pleas, IMB President David Platt and NAMB President Kevin Ezell urged Southern Baptist messengers not to be cold toward the vast lostness in the world, but to join in God's global mission as church planters, missionaries and sending churches to take the light of the Gospel to a dark world.

RICHMOND (BP) -- Fifty years ago, a group of 46 college graduates answered God's call to missions through a new effort called the "Missionary Journeyman Program." Started by the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board), the program aimed to send a new generation of young Southern Baptists abroad for two years of mission service.

GROVE CITY, OHIO (BP) -- About 370 Woman's Missionary Union members, leaders and supporters celebrated outgoing National WMU President Debby Akerman, heard from missionaries and even had the chance to kiss a llama during the first day of the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting, June 14-15. The celebration was held at First Baptist Church of Grove City, prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, June 16-17, in Columbus, Ohio.

The Sending Celebration symbolically celebrated commissioning the new missionaries and church planters to share Jesus as the Light of the World.

EAST ASIA (BP) -- Along the side of a mud-packed mountain path, four East Asian believers sit under the shade of tall bamboo with a small, stooped woman in the traditional dress of her minority people group. The sounds of a radio program ring out from an MP3 player stowed in one of their backpacks, and her eyes light up as she listens to Bible stories told in her mother tongue.