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SBC DIGEST: Watch IMB Sending Celebration; Kentucky pastor’s worldwide legacy


Sending Celebration to be livestreamed

By BP Staff

The International Mission Board will livestream its missionary Sending Celebration Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

The ceremony will feature the stories of some of the dozens of new missionaries preparing to be sent to points all around the world.

Viewers can watch on the IMB website, in the IMB Advance app or on Facebook.

See here for more information.


Pastor’s legacy extends around the world

By Mark Maynard/Kentucky Today

Allen F. Harrod, a Kentucky Baptist pastor who guided churches in Kentucky and elsewhere for six decades, died Thursday, Jan. 19. He was 83.

Harrod was intentional with the Gospel and led many to the Lord, including the family of Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board. Harrod, a pastor in Jellico, Tenn., at the time, encountered the Chitwood family while making visits in the community.

“I’m so grateful for Dr. Allen Harrod’s knock on our door when I was a boy and how he shared the Gospel with us that day and baptized my brothers and me at our church, FBC Jellico, Tennessee,” Chitwood said. “His impact on my life and family would be impossible to measure. Many years later, when I was serving as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, I asked Dr. Harrod to preach the convention sermon at our annual meeting, which he did, and was again a great encouragement to me and all present.”

David Tarkenton, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Orange Park, Fla., where Harrod was pastor for 14 years. Tarkington was hired by Harrod and was on his staff for many years.

In a Youtube tribute video, Tarkenton said: “I had a great pastor and mentor in Dr. Harrod. As I look back on how Dr. Harrod impacted this church, he led us through two immense building programs, leading us through some of the most challenging things a pastor can do.”

Harrod had a love for international missions and he led teams to Russia, Belgium, England and especially Cuba, where he opened doors and struck relationships that helped Florida Baptists minister there.

“If not for the groundwork Dr. Harrod put in place, I don’t believe a lot of that would be happening,” Tarkenton said.

Read the full story here.

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