Every October we focus on the mission efforts we help support outside of our local community. After hearing updates about the various ministries througout the month, the congregation dedicates a Sunday's entire contribution to these mission efforts. Every year the congregation has surpassed the budgeted goal the elders have set to support the various missions. We pray that we can continue to increase our financial support of these evangelistic endeavors.
Indonesia, Winston Bolt
Indonesia is the most populous Muslem country in the world with over 200 million inhabitants. Fortunately the country's Muslem leadership is not overly dogmatic in its approach toward outside influence. Winston Bolt has been working in this country for the last twenty years. In 1998 he helped establish Baatam Preaching School, a fully accredited full time preaching school. The emphasis of this preaching school is to train Indonesian men to preach the word of God to their countrymen. There are six current native speaking mission teams led by men who are graduates of Baatam Preaching School operating on four of the five major islands of Indonesia. Since January 2000 over twenty congregations have been planted and over six hundred souls have been added to the church. The goal for the next five years is to develop self-sustaining congregations throughout the country. This work is overseen by the Morgantown Church of Christ in Morgantown, West Virginia.
India, Brother Hall
India, with a population of 1.12 billion is second only to China as the most populous country on Earth. This mission work has been active in India for 28 years and has trained 15,000 full time preachers. In April, the overseeing congregation, Westhill Church of Christ in Cleburne, Texas reported that since the beginning of 2007 there have been 55,000 gospel meetings, 108,750 baptisms and 516 new congregations had been established! The India mission has five branches of its preaching school, Carl Crosser Memorial Institute of Bible Studies, spread strategically over the country. This mission work not only supports preachers in the field but also supports Christian widows, fulfilling the dictate of pure and undefiled religion (James 1:27). We have supported this work in the past with special collections for bikes, which are used for means of transportation for preachers, and Bibles and we will be doing this again this year.
Cameroon, Paul Kee
This work has been active in the Nso area of northwestern Cameroon since the late 1960's. Paul and his wife, Janet, have been in Cameroon full time since 1976. Over 48 congregations have been established in the last thirty years along with the Kumbo Christian Bible School. Kumbo is recognized as being the only full time preaching school which teaches in both French and English. Paul and his staff are also busy with Bible distribution, widespread Bible lessons, quarterly lectureships, leadership training sessions and their long-term project of translation of the Bible into Lamnso', the national language of Cameroon. This mission work has faced quite severe increases in cost of transportation because many of the congregations are widely spread throughout the provinces of Cameroon's northwest division.
Latin American Missions, Dave Huffman
Dave Huffman works with the Latin American Missions program overseen by the Forrest Park Church of Christ, Valdosta, Georgia. Started in 1958 in Panama, the program is now in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador. The total combined population of these countries is around 150 million, or about half the population of the US. This mature program has many facets including a preaching school, medial missions, vacation Bible school style children's teaching program (which in late 2007 we supported with our "Crayons for Kids" program), church building programs, local evangelistic campaigns and a children's home with 40 children in Panama City, Panama. There are many needs in these countries as many millions of these souls fall well below their respective country's poverty rate.
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