Shiloh Lane

SAMAR, PHILIPPINES (BP)--The motor roars from the back of the boat as the vessel speeds along the Oras River, a body of water cutting through the island of Samar in the Philippines. Nearly 30 people sit on the boat's wooden slats, holding their possessions. A bagged chicken wiggles and clucks on the floorboards. The motor whirrs too loudly for conversation, so the passengers sit in silence, watching children play by thatched huts on the banks. Esther Tallbott* sits three seats from the back of the boat. She clutches a pen, underlining sentences in John Piper's "Stand," a collection of essays on endurance. This moment sums up Tallbott's last two years as a journeyman missionary for the International Mission Board -- thatched huts, whirring boats and endurance. The 25-year-old single woman spends several days a week riding down the river to reach villages so deep in the jungle that no roads reach them. Sometimes she knows people in the villages, but most often, she doesn't. She steps up on a dock with her Filipino ministry partner, Charity Malinao, and asks where they can hang their hammocks. Then the two share the Gospel with the kind family who takes them in for the night. As they play with the children and hang out with their hosts, the ministry partners gently bring biblical truths to bear on the mixture of Catholic and animistic traditions the villagers hold. "My greatest joy has been to see baby believers who don't know they are baby believers start to walk around ... to see the Gospel set people free like it's set me free," the journeyman says.

SOUTHEAST ASIA (BP)–Robert “Bob” William Morgan Jr., a Christian worker overseas for more than 23 years, died of a heart attack July 14 while cycling during a visit to Singapore. He was 64. At the time of his death, Morgan and his wife Regina (“Jean”) were stationed on a remote island in East Indonesia where […]

SOUTHEAST ASIA (BP)--In a prison gym in Southeast Asia, a woman wearing a navy-colored head covering holds up a picture frame. Six little faces stare through the glass. "These are my children," she says. A grin of pride spreads across her face. She hasn't seen them since her arrest more than a year and a half ago. Dira Amar* lives in a cream-colored cell with 22 other women. She sleeps on a thin mattress atop a concrete slab and keeps her possessions in two cabinets above her bed. Outside her cell, there's a bench, a tiny garden and fishpond. Amar has rested here to read her Bible between 1 and 3 a.m. for the past year, when the inmates have finally gone to sleep and the prison grows still. "I want it to be quiet and calm, with no one to disturb me because I want it to be only me and God," she says. "Only at that time I feel peace." Amar didn't know Christ a year and a half ago. She worked as an event coordinator for a local newspaper, helping organize events for the company and community. People admired her. She was a successful career woman in a Muslim nation while rearing six children. She had a home and her family had plenty to eat.

THAILAND (BP)--In the mountains of northern Thailand, a woman with a squirming baby strapped to her back approaches the village water tank. She fills a cup with the unsanitary fluid and drinks it down quickly even though she knows it might make her sick. In the hot sun, even impure water feels refreshing.

THAILAND (BP)--The sound of children laughing fades while the din of car horns and sirens rises through car speakers and transistor radios across northern Thailand. A person sneezes, another child giggles and then Bahndit Darwin begins to speak.

INDONESIA (BP)–J.D. Greear has a mischievous sense of humor. He used that sense of humor as a witnessing tool 11 years ago when, as a short-term worker, he walked the streets of Indonesia sharing the love of Christ. And he used it in a return trip to Indonesia this fall. Greear, lead pastor of The […]

INDONESIA (BP)--Tears slid down the curve of her brown cheek; her shoulders tensed in emotion. She cried without reservation as a man placed one hand on her head and raised the other. His prayer for her was drowned out by praise music.

HANOI, VIETNAM (BP)--When Bobby Welch first came to Vietnam more than 40 years ago, it was as a soldier. Now he comes as an ambassador for Christ. Rather than coming to fight, he comes to make friends.       Three years ago after retiring from First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., Welch stepped into the role of Strategist for Global Evangelical Relations for the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. His ambassadorial position has taken him across the world to strengthen the relationship between Southern Baptists and fellow believers as well as governments in other nations.