PLANO, Texas (BP)–A picture of an Alaskan Baptist church building in 1997 Southern Baptist home missions emphasis materials sparked a flame of recognition for several members of Prairie Creek Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Well it should. They helped build the log facility of Coffman Cove Baptist Church in Thorne Bay, Alaska.
The Coffman Cove building is just one of numerous church facilities built by Prairie Creek members since they started volunteering their time and talents to Alaskan church construction almost 14 years ago.
The ministry in Alaska is but one of three ongoing direct-missions endeavors supported by the Plano congregation.
Prairie Creek sends volunteers every year to help construct church buildings in Alaska. Volunteers also head south, to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where they undergird ministries and help start churches. And the congregation sends pastor Bob Ross and his wife, Barbara, to Romania to help train ministers for the burgeoning Baptist work in the formerly communist country. Church members also have been involved in mission projects in Africa, Italy, Montana, Scotland and Sicily.
Direct involvement in missions is a Prairie Creek legacy ignited by Ross but kindled by more than 130 members who have participated in the program, said Mack Carter, one of several laypeople who gathered in the pastor’s office to talk about their passion.
“Bob helped it along,” Carter said of the church’s far-reaching missions program. “But once you’ve been involved, you want to go (on mission trips) every time.”
Since the first crew trekked to Juneau, Alaska, in 1983, at least 80 Prairie Creek members have given up their vacations and paid their way to participate in Alaskan church construction.
The Mexican ministry — operated in conjunction with Primera Iglesia in Merida, the capital of Yucatan — has involved at least 55 people since 1990. This ministry primarily is evangelistic. Prairie Creek volunteers have shown the “Jesus” film; preached; witnessed in village squares; sponsored a basketball team that witnessed before, during and after games; and helped with church development. They also have helped construct facilities for a young seminary.
Although some medical personnel have journeyed with the Rosses to Romania, labor prices in Eastern Europe make sending construction crews a low priority. Instead, the need is for training pastors to lead the rapidly expanding Baptist work, and Prairie Creek sends Ross to help teach them.
“We’ve seen miracle after miracle,” Ross said of the church’s missions efforts. “We almost always see over 300 people come to (faith in) Jesus in a week.”
For example, about 70 to 80 young men detained in a Yucatan prison accept Christ as Savior every time Prairie Creek members preach and witness there, he said. Once, an entire 16-member crew of Mexican men hired to pour concrete for a seminary building prayed to become Christians.
The Prairie Creek volunteers are normal church members who give their energy — not necessarily professional skills — to God, and God honors them, Ross said. “We only have four or five blue-collar workers in the church. Most are engineers or executives who normally only do home repairs, but they learn through doing.”
“The only ability you need is availability,” Bob Elliott stressed. “You don’t have to have talent to go on a trip,” Steve Besco added. “I went because it was an opportunity for Christian service. Besides construction, it was an opportunity for God’s love to show through us — and through the people we helped.”
“We all have gifts” that God uses, said Tom Shimon. “I’m not the ‘evangelistic’ type … but it’s neat how you can witness with a hammer, a trowel and a saw. When a church building goes up in six days, people in the community notice.”
And a few times the ministry has lasted beyond the allotted trip, Carter said, explaining, “Sometimes people in our church see a need that wasn’t finished during the regular trip, so they go back to help out.” Other times, needs that weren’t even known when a trip was planned also are met. Such as when Shimon met three blind people in one family, and he eventually arranged for all of them to have surgery to help them see.
Prairie Creek church members who never will set foot in Alaska, the Yucatan or Romania help make the ministries possible, the members who have gone said. “There are people in this church who have a heart for missions and make it possible for others to go,” Elliott said, noting some members help pay up to half the expenses for missions team members to travel.
In addition, a number of Prairie Creek members participate in Texas prison ministries with evangelist Bill Glass, he reported.
“‘To whom much is given, much is expected,'” Elliott said, quoting Scripture. “We’re very blessed here.
“And while some people would say the people we help can’t reciprocate, we know they can. They always bless us.”
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