On The Journey Conversations

The Cooperative Program Stage provides an opportunity for messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting to hear firsthand reports about a variety of SBC missions and ministries. Listen to a panel discuss making disciples of Jesus who live on mission at the CP Stage in the exhibit hall of the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention. You will be inspired by their testimonies. Joining Sandy on the CP stage are Mark Bethea, senior pastor for First Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL; Liz Encinia, executive director-treasurer for Kentucky WMU; Chris Martin, executive director for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention; and Tamiko Jones, executive director-treasurer for WMU of Texas.For information on getting missions discipleship started in your church, visit https://wmu.com/missions-discipleship.

Today’s conversation is with Mark Stevens who serves with the International Mission Board. In March of 2003, terrorists placed a bomb at a small airport in the Philippines. The explosion took the lives of 23 people including our missionary, Bill Hyde. Bill’s widow, Lyn Hyde, placed flowers and a sign at the airport that said, “Filipinos are worth dying for.” That courageous gesture galvanized Southern Baptists in the Philippines. Filipinos began saying they wanted to be missionaries to unreached people groups. Mark talks about his experience that day and the miraculous things he has seen God do since that tragic event.

We don’t live in a fixed time in history. We are always pressing forward to the future God has for us. The stories of our past help propel us. The vision that motivated women 134 years ago is the same today because it is God’s vision to make disciples of Jesus who live on mission. Every generation must find their place in God’s plan. In this podcast, Sandy Wisdom-Martin will share the circumstances which gave birth to WMU and celebrate milestones through the decades.

Author Julie Busler says, “Depression doesn’t always look like lying in bed crying all day.” From an outsider’s point of view, Julie’s life would have seemed picture perfect, even remarkable to those who knew she had experienced the death of her mother and the suicide of her father. Unresolved issues, significant trauma, and her own mental health struggles led Julie down the path of considering suicide as well. Follow the journey of this courageous woman to the mission field, as a patient in a psychiatric hospital abroad, and home again.

Missie Branch, director of graduate life and assistant dean of students to women at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary shares how to get beyond your own space to make relationships with people that are different than you. Look for opportunities to have conversations outside your bubble. Missie says, “When I was a kid, my mama was on the corner with her tracts. She had her speech; she loved the people in her community and so she wanted to see our community captured by the gospel.” We need that same passion for the lost of our community today. Overcome fear and be intentional about sharing the hope within you.

Join Sandy as she visits with Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board as well as Connie Dixon, president of Woman’s Missionary Union. Discover who influenced them for missions. Hear their passion for the nations. Celebrate what God is doing even in the midst of a global pandemic. Learn how to be an advocate for the global work of Southern Baptists.

In the last episode, Harper* discussed how missions discipleship throughout her life nurtured a desire to follow God’s call and how that led to her serving in international missions. Now hear the rest of her story, including blessings along the way and candid insights about the types of challenges many missionaries experience while serving. Learn how you can better pray for these faithful Christ followers and be challenged in your own faith journey as she shares from her heart.*name changed

Harper* describes herself as introverted, someone who enjoys being home, and comfortable in her small home town. Yet she followed God’s call to serve as a missionary on the other side of the world. Hear her journey—from her introduction to missions as a child in Girls in Action, then later as a member of Acteens, both WMU missions groups for girls—to a church with a focus on discipleship and reaching the nations for Christ. You will be inspired by how God used faithful mentors and parents coupled with a lifetime of missions discipleship experiences to prepare this faithful servant for Kingdom work.*name changed

Many sources offer insight to the benefits of being grateful, such as improved sleep, feeling hopeful, reducing stress and increasing resilience. But an attitude of gratitude is more than self-help, it is an intentional mindset to focus on God—His goodness and His grace—and be thankful each day. Like the apostle Paul when he was imprisoned, we are to be grateful despite our circumstances or life’s challenges. Listen in as Kelly King, women’s ministry specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources, and Sandy discuss how to cultivate a grateful heart.

Ron Harvell felt called to serve in foreign missions at the age of 17. In college, he met his future bride and continued to prepare by seeking out courses on cross-cultural ministry and church planting. But halfway through, to their surprise, the Lord redirected their minds and hearts to chaplaincy. After retiring as a one-star general in the Air Force and serving all around the world, Ron reflects that God allowed he and his wife Marsha to essentially be foreign missionaries with their people group being the Air Force. Be inspired by this Christ follower who risked everything to follow God.

Drawing from 30 years of personal experience in missions, Carol Ghattas helps guide cross-cultural workers and others through a variety of obstacles one can face in ministry. While she has seen the Lord at work in amazing ways as He’s opened doors, she also has seen doors close and how that can result in times of discouragement and questioning God’s call. Listen to this episode for first-hand accounts of navigating closed doors and how you can also do so with grace. Carol is author of When Doors Close: Changing Course in Missions Without Losing Your Way.

Of the 50,000 or so churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, roughly two-thirds have fewer than 75 in attendance on an average Sunday. Most of these smaller attendance churches are led by bivocational pastors who have additional work to supplement their income. While ministry for a bivocational pastor and his wife has great rewards, it can also be lonely and exhausting as they work tirelessly in ministry. In this episode, Joe Wright, executive director of the Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN), provides a personal and inside glimpse into the challenges of bivocational pastors—many who are church planters or replanters—and ways you can encourage and pray for them and their families.

Evelyn Tully’s passion for missions began as a very young child. She vividly recalls a world map hanging on the wall and finding the location where missionaries were serving as she prayed for them daily using the missionary prayer calendar. From her early days of being active in Girls Auxiliary to a career in WMU in which she served in many roles, her heart for mentoring girls and teens and connecting with women of the world has fostered lasting relationships and transformed lives. Listen in as Evelyn shares reflections on leadership, influence, and God’s call.

Three of WMU’s Compassion Ministries are celebrating 25 years of ministry! Through Christian Women’s Job Corps, women across the US and beyond gain job skills and self-confidence as they engage in Bible study and are paired with a mentor. WorldCrafts, a fair-trade ministry, offers hope to impoverished artisans around the world. And through Pure Water, Pure Love, water filters are provided to missions personnel and missions teams and wells and water filtration systems transform communities with access to clean, safe water. Listen in as Lena Plunk of national WMU tells how God is transforming lives through these ministries and you can be a part. Learn more and join in the celebration at wmu.com/cm25.

How do you figure out what God wants in your life? How do you discern His will? In this episode, entrepreneur John Herring, CEO of Iron Stream Media, talks about how to determine God’s next best thing for you. He shares fours steps to work through when considering new opportunities or situations to enable to you discern God’s direction.

Little did Anna’s grandfather know when he followed God’s call to short-term medical missions that his love for all peoples of all nations would continue for generations to come. Anna Daub, a self-described lifelong learner, is currently pursuing a PhD in applied theology with a concentration in missions. She also works in the Office of Global Theological Initiatives for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and teaches classes. Hear how her family’s legacy continues today through her commitment to get theological education to women in areas such as Latin America and Africa and along the way, catch some great insights for how to share your faith right where God has planted you.

Debbie was just 17 when she knew for sure that God was calling her to work in another culture in another country. Desiring to be obedient to God’s call, she said yes, but as the time grew near to go, there was a significant problem – Debbie would have to overcome her extreme fear of flying, as well as some other fears. Hear how this Christ follower—who currently serves as executive director of Arkansas WMU—not only overcame her fear and shared the gospel faithfully for years in Africa, but also met many other Christians there who served the Lord with great joy despite challenges and hardships. Note: Due to safety concerns, some names mentioned in this conversation have been removed.

Diane was serving in Baptist collegiate ministry when she accompanied four students on a missions trip to Haiti, an experience that changed her life. There, they helped minister to 65 orphaned children whose parents were killed by a hurricane. When Diane returned to the US, she realized there were countless opportunities to serve children in her immediate area and answered God’s call to serve in foster care. Listen in as Diane shares her personal journey as well as practical ways individuals and churches can support foster care ministries, encourage those who provide care, and be a part of helping the more than 400,000 children in foster care in the US.

It was decades ago, but Becky Bruns can still vividly recall the feelings of grief and loss when it came time for a baby boy to leave their home. Even though the Bruns were providing interim care and never intended to be an adoptive family, she said this infant leaving their home was overwhelming. It was also the beginning of now more than 25 years of Becky’s journey ministering to both couples yearning to adopt a child and expectant mothers as they explore what is in their child’s best interest. Hear more about the life-changing ministry of adoption and how Becky and the team at Arkansas Baptist Children's Home and Family Ministries are seeking to innovate the process.

In this episode Sandy continues her reflection on the power of words from Episode 43, in particular, how we are to respond as Christians when words spoken to us sting. Maybe they were harsh or critical. Maybe they were spoken in a moment of anger or frustration. Regardless of the circumstances, they hurt. What’s our response to be? Listen in as Sandy shares some practical insight from godly women, along with how extending grace and forgiveness—just as Jesus has to us—is the answer.