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Retired electricians plug in at Midwestern

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–Ranging in ages from 65 to 72 and sharing more than 265 years of electrical experience, a group of electricians are traveling the world making a difference for Christ and learning firsthand what missions is all about. At Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, they finished an upgrade to the electrical circuits of the historical Vivion Farm house located on the Kansas City, Mo., campus.

“Over the last 20 years, we have been all over the world. We met your president, Phil Roberts, when we were in Brussels, Belgium,” Hulyn Kight, the lead man for the crew, said. “We have been to six continents. Just some of the countries where we have worked are Poland, Romania, Australia and El Salvador.”

Accompanying Kight on the mid-September stop at Midwestern were Richard Prater, J.P. Reid, Ira Hood, Thomas Loveless, Tom Medlock and Buddy Byars. Prater attends Northside Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., and Kight and the others attend Fellowship Baptist Church there. Kight noted that a former member of Fellowship Baptist, Nathan Taylor, is a student at Midwestern who also works for the seminary’s maintenance department. With the exception of Medlock, all of the team members are retired.

Kight said he initially became involved in volunteer mission work at a tent revival at Fellowship Baptist. “A pastor came up to set up the tent and said he was taking a group to Haiti, and he asked me if I would like to go. I said yes and went. Later, when Bob Claytor became our pastor, I asked him if he would like to go on a mission trip to Jamaica, and he went.”

Even though Claytor has moved on to be the assistant professor of pastoral ministries at Taccoa Falls College in Taccoa, Ga., he still is active in helping Kight find opportunities for service, including the Vivion Farm house project at Midwestern Seminary.

In addition to his contacts with Claytor, Kight said he finds out about other needs directly from career missionaries who are serving on the mission field.

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“After this many years of working in different areas of the world we have become acquainted with quite a few missionaries. When they have a need they let us know and we see what we can do to help,” Kight said. “We get more out of this than the people we help. We are more informed and concerned about the needs of the missionaries. When I was a child, I thought missionaries were very special people. Now I get to work alongside them.”

Kight and his friends pay all of their own expenses when they travel, although food and lodging usually are provided when they reach their various destinations.

“I would love for people to be more aware of the need that exists on the mission field and get involved themselves,” Kight said. “They are missing a great blessing by just giving to missions and not going on missions.”
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: HIGH-VOLTAGE VOLUNTEERS and LIVE-WIRE VOLUNTEERS.