ORLANDO – Brilliant trumpet tones filled the convention hall to open the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Send Luncheon, Monday June 8, as the event began by honoring Southern Baptist chaplains.
NAMB hosts its annual luncheon during the SBC Annual Meeting to be an encouragement to pastors and ministry leaders serving in the trenches as well as a reminder of the work that Southern Baptists do together. This year, approximately 6,000 people attended the luncheon.
“I’m blessed to be a Christian and thankful to be a Southern Baptist,” said NAMB president Kevin Ezell to welcome the audience. “That’s what today is all about, celebrating God’s blessings as a convention and as a network of churches.”
During the opening sequence, virtuoso trumpeter Aiden Peterson played a medley of military branch anthems to welcome military chaplains to the platform. More than 50 SBC-endorsed military and public service chaplains stood as Doug Carver, NAMB’s executive director of chaplaincy recognized them for their service.
“We have over 3,000 chaplains serving in every kind of institutional setting, mainly secular settings, all over the world, including those who are deployed into harm’s way in southwest Asia,” Carver said. “I ask you to continue to pray for them.”
NAMB is the largest endorser of chaplains in the United States, and U.S. Air Force Chief of Chaplains, Major General Trent Davis, joined Carver to share about the ongoing work of chaplains and how Southern Baptists can pray for them.
“What I would ask is that our local churches would join in the commitment to pray, to intercede, on behalf of our chaplains,” Davis said. “There is a great need, but there is a great opportunity that we have to share the Gospel in difficult and dark places.”
To further demonstrate the service of SBC chaplains, guests watched a video of Navy Chaplain (LCDR) Jason Porter’s emotional reunion with Chastity, his wife of 28 years. After being deployed for six months on the USS Gerald R. Ford in an active combat zone, Porter returned home. He and Chastity joined the luncheon to describe his war-time deployment.
“I don’t think there’s much that can prepare you for chaos and crisis,” said Porter. “You get into a routine, but in the environment in which we work, it’s very risky – a lot of moving parts on an aircraft carrier.”
Chastity described the difficulty of life at home while her husband was away, how any time the phone calls or messages would stop, she began to obsess over the news.
“The Lord would gently remind me, ‘Chastity, Jason was mine far before he was ever yours, and I’ve got him in the palm of my hand’” she said.
Ezell shared how the couple married shortly after high school and did not go on a trip for their honeymoon and then revealed that a generous donor would send them to Hawaii for a vacation.
Cities Church pastor recognized for faithfulness amid the protest in his church
Ezell then joined Jonathan Parnell on the floor at his family’s table. Parnell pastors Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, the congregation that endured a disruption of its worship service when protestors barged in on Jan. 18 of this year.
Ezell praised Parnell for the love and commitment to the Gospel during the upheaval and asked him to share his experience.
“We were terrified, to be honest,” Parnell said. “We just deeply began to pray silently for God’s protection and for His care. And He answered that prayer. His spirit of glory rested upon us. God cared for us, protected us, and we walked away grateful.”
Ezell told the Parnell family that their Southern Baptist family had their backs. To show that, donors were making it possible for Parnell to take his family to a theme park in Orlando.
Utah pastor, surprise recipients experience Southern Baptists’ generosity
Carl and Sherry Wimmer planted a church in Gunnison, Utah. Carl now pastors First Baptist Church of Duchesne, Utah. The Wimmers grew up in the Church of Latter-day Saits before leaving that faith. Though they weren’t Christians, they still enjoyed contemporary Christian music. Carl shared his testimony how, during a Jeremy Camp concert, he came to saving faith.
During the Wimmers’ ministry, they endured the everyday joys and trials, including two sons with special needs. But they also experienced great loss recently when one of their sons died.
Eight days later, a car accident totaled the family vehicle. Their remaining son suffered a concussion. Carl had to be rushed to a hospital with chest pains the next day where he briefly flatlined before being resuscitated. Southern Baptist generosity enabled NAMB and Utah-Idaho Baptists to help with funeral expenses, medical bills, and other needs the family has faced.
Through it all, God used Carl and blessed his church. In recent months, the church has run out of room, leading some to sit outside while participating in worship. Ezell shared with the Wimmers that NAMB and Utah-Idaho Baptists would be assisting them to expand their building to accommodate the growth of their church.
“Probably no one in here knows where Duchesne, Utah, is, but God does,” said Rob Lee, executive director of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention as he joined the couple on stage. “We know one day, Carl and Sherry are going to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ They are such a blessing to us, an example of what it means to be faithful through the Job times of your ministry and what the Lord has done.”
A few days before the luncheon, Ezell sent an invitation over social media encouraging Southern Baptists to submit the needs of pastors or church members. An anonymous donor gave a significant gift to help NAMB meet needs during the luncheon.
International Mission Board (IMB) president Paul Chitwood and GuideStone Financial Resources president Hance Dilbeck joined Ezell to describe the ways Southern Baptists take care of their own, whether by providing for the medical needs of missionaries or meeting the needs of pastors’ families through GuideStone’s Mission:Dignity.
Chitwood shared the medical needs of five missionaries who are currently stateside dealing with serious medical challenges. Along with providing support for IMB’s missionaries, NAMB selected two recipients who were facing significant health challenges as well as a Florida widow and mother of seven whose husband died last year.
“Not far from here over in Bartow, Florida, we had a bivocational pastor and replanter who was a faithful witness,” said Stephen Rummage, executive director of Florida Baptists. “He was a Gospel leader, and … he worked construction to make ends meet. He had a wife and seven kids, and then last November at the age of 55, he died of a heart attack in the church office.”
Ezell emphasized that the ways NAMB blesses others during the annual Send Luncheon over the years has been a small representation of how Southern Baptists love and support their own throughout the year.
“I am so thankful to be a Southern Baptist,” Ezell said. “What I want you to see is how we love one another, and this network is not just on one day. It’s all year long.”
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