Today Pastor Jay Watkins of Redland Baptist Church and I did a radio spot to promote the upcoming Community Day event on April 28th, 11-am to 3pm, at the lot across from Sam’s and Wal-Mart in Valdosta. Click on the link below and let me know what you think. 
Valdosta Kids Value #3 “Making Disciples”
Twenty-Two Years of Steadfast Service to the Lord
After looking at other churches Terri Warren and her husband Mike decided to become members of First Baptist Church of Valdosta Georgia in 1979. At the time she was a stay at home mom and the Director of the preschool had stepped down. She approached Mac Weaver about filling in the interim and twenty-two years later she has become a beloved member and essential part of the children’s ministry at FBCV.
When she began she was looking for something that “she could do with the girls†and now she is able to not only have her children go through the FBCV children’s ministry, but also her grandchildren are benefitting from her love and leadership.
When asked “What is it about children’s ministry that you enjoy?†a smile came to her face and she responded, “I enjoy seeing families and parents being content with what is happening at church. I remember being a mom with little ones and how stressful it is.â€Â Terri has a heart for children and their families. She understands the importance of creating a welcoming, safe, and loving environment so that children feel loved and parents feel at ease.
I asked her, “What is one big life lesson that you would pass on to today’s parents?†and she said, “It is very important to be in church and for children to know that there are people who love them and that Jesus loves them.â€
What more could you want from a Preschool Director? Terri is a tireless servant for the Lord, and she can be found at all hours, all days of the week in the Children’s Building serving children and their families. Most of the time she will be comforting a screaming baby, breaking up a toddler tussle, or counseling a group of mom’s through her loving disposition and style.  As with all great leaders, she has a set of responsibilities that she manages, but there are also countless other details that she does outside of those responsibilities that no ever knows about that add special touches to the children’s ministry.
As a new staff person, I look to her experience, leadership, and the many relationships that she has formed with FBCV families, and she has helped me tremendously. She is greatly loved and the church’s ministry is great because of her many years of steadfast devotion.
Terri, on behalf of the parents, grandparents, and the children of today and of many years past, we thank you for your service to the Lord and to His church. I feel so blessed that my children are able to know you and to learn from you, and you have been such a blessing to our family.
So What Did We Learn From All This?
So there it is, the whole drawn out retched account of a mission trip that went wrong. I took the previous blog entries, printed them out and turned them into the church staff. I was unsure if I should even post them, so I waited until they had an opportunity to review them, and to discuss the whole ordeal. There was concern and questions on my part. FBCV has such a strong record of missions and outreach, I did not want to damage that reputation with this story. Also, there may be people who would say, “see, this is why we shouldn’t go, but just send money instead†or “This is why we should focus more on home missions.
After my discussion with the senior pastor and the associate pastor in separate meetings, their response was basically the same. Pastor Phil said, “sometimes when you try to help people you get taken.†And Pastor Mac’s response was, “I feel like we should tell the whole truth.†It is such a contrast between leadership who know the value of the truth, and those that don’t. I believe that this debauched trip teaches us several things and in the long run makes our mission’s efforts even stronger.
When we work together we can accomplish more.
1.  Cooperative Giving. The Southern Baptist Convention has the strongest missions organization (International Missions Board) and sends more missionaries than anyone else (and it’s not even close). If you are a Southern Baptist, you should give to its annual collections of Annie Armstrong (local) and Lottie Moon (foreign). I guess that’s why they call it Cooperative Giving.
By cooperating in our combined giving we are able to do much more than individual churches working on their own. We tend to get caught up in the “red tape†and magnitude of the operation that we forget that at the end of the day there are missionaries on the other side of the planet that are depending upon us.
Also, churches have a tendency to want to have projects that they can put their names on, therefore, they tend to run parallel missions efforts to the IMB. I have learned that if we work with the IMB missionaries and support their strategic efforts (instead of asking them to help us in our efforts) then we will have an increased potential to have a greater impact.
Our giving does not preclude us from going. We give to support missions and much of this giving goes to support the salaries and needs of the missionaries, but we are not paying them to do missions for us. Instead, they are laying the groundwork, developing a strategy, and building relationships with the locals, and we follow (“goâ€) with encouragement, support, prayer, and “boots on the ground.†They lead and we give the muscle.
2. Â Institutional Memory. The lesson that I learned was not the first time that this scenario has played itself out. Instead of every church having to relearn lessons we could work with the IMB and its missionaries where we will be able to bypass these mistakes and life lessons and move on with an experienced organization and staff.
3.  Cooperating Churches. I do believe that God calls churches, who have a unique and distinct personality, to reach out to specific people groups and regions around the world. But just as when nationally SBC churches cooperatively give toward missions they are able to reach vast amounts of people around the globe with the gospel, so local churches who combine their resources and people toward missions can do more as well. I have greatly enjoyed working with different churches in the Valdosta area on the mission trips that I have been on. It’s been amazing to watch God work as he brought certain people together to accomplish his will for a given period of time.
Touching the Untouchables
In Hindi Indian society there are varying levels of strictness of their religion (as in all religions). But in all castes there is a despising and alienation of the “untouchable.” The “untouchables” are the lowest caste and there are many societal rules that are imposed upon them. Many are beaten, paraded naked through the streets, raped, and even killed for offenses as minor as plucking flowers (see article link below) or doing jobs other than what they are allowed to do. Most of their jobs are extremely menial such as cleaning sewage with their bare hands or hauling rocks in fields.
With over 80% of the country being Hindi and it’s belief in Karma and reincarnation there is the belief that if you are born into the lower castes, or have a disease to become an untouchable then you must deserve being mistreated because of your sin in a past life. Those in upper castes regulate these lower untouchables to keep them in their place and to ensure that extremely cheap labor and menial jobs are done by these people. One of the lowest of the low is the life of a leper.
Today we had the privilege of touching the untouchables. When we got into our cars to visit a leper colony I was expecting to be traveling an hour or so out of the city, or at least to some distant area of the city. But we were in our cars less than ten minutes. The colony was under a large bridge that ran through the middle of the city. Indian homes, shops, and thousands of people surrounded the leper’s shanty. Could they really sleep knowing that people were suffering so greatly and being so close?
When we arrived most of the occupants had already left to beg for the day. Begging is the only “occupation” those with leprosy are allowed to do. Most of those left were small children, and those not physically capable of begging. Their homes are nothing more than rock floors, ropes strung between trees with rags for walls. Their bathrooms are small pieces of property covered with trash where the entire colony goes. I cannot even begin to describe the smell, but it was awful. Children go about without clothes and the adult’s clothes are nothing more than rags pieced together. Those lucky enough to have some sort of structure to live in are crude and small.
There is a cure for leprosy, so the fact that it not given to these people is even more horrific. Three antibiotics given for about a year period and costing less than $300 would change these people’s lives forever. There is a 0.1% chance that once they are treated that they will not recover from leprosy. The Hindi followers place so little value on the untouchables lives that they won’t even give them the cure. So millions of people suffer “the living death.” Unlike HIV or STDs, no one knows how leprosy is contracted or how it is passed from person to person.
One of my assignments on this mission trip was to identify an “unreached people group.”[1] Currently in many Indian cities there are leper colonies that have no IMB contact and there are no works taking place in these colonies. When we went in and shook their hands, made eye contact, and smiled, we became rock stars in the colony. Everyone came out of their “houses” to see us, and joined us for an impromptu worship service and time of prayer. They wanted to have pictures taken of their deformed rotting Frankenstein bodies perhaps in a hope that those that saw them may help them. It is my suggestion that if anyone would be open to the gospel and in need of our help in India then it would the untouchables with leprosy.
For further information on “untouchables” click here.
[1] An “unreached” or “least-reached” people is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group.
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