As a young girl, as Amy Sanderson* listened to stories of missionaries serving around the world, she told God she would “go” to take the gospel to people who had never heard it. In college, as she studied physical therapy, she began to ask God to expand her horizons to go on mission.
Now Sanderson is one of 31 missionaries who have been appointed by Southern Baptist churches in obedience to God’s call to take His gospel to people all around the world. Southern Baptist messengers rejoiced with the new missionaries during a June 13 service at the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix.
Amy Sanderson* prays alongside friends, families and SBC messengers. Sanderson is a new Southern Baptist missionary sent by Calvary Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, to share the hope of Christ in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“From prayerwalking in West Africa, to fitting wheelchairs and sharing the gospel in Eastern Europe, to Bible stories and dressing wounds in the desert, [God] affirmed His call on my heart to the nations and brought me from a place of timidity to sharing Truth,” said Sanderson, who is sent by Calvary Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, to share the hope of Christ in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Eliza Hudson* was in second grade when a friend told her, “I don’t know Jesus. I’m from Lebanon.”
“I knew then: If they didn’t know, I would go tell them,” Hudson said.
Today, the displacement of Middle Eastern refugees gives Hudson and her husband, William, a new opportunity to engage unreached peoples with Jesus Christ. Their family of three will serve among refugees in Europe.
“I knew then: If they didn’t know, I would go tell them.” —Eliza Hudson
Sam Moon* grew up in a Buddhist family as the fifth-generation eldest son. But even as a child, “the Lord did not stop me from sharing the gospel with my family,” Moon told messengers. “I faced persecution and disadvantage in the work place for last 15 years. The Lord did not stop me from sharing the gospel with my co-workers.”
Sophia Moon said the couple has shared the gospel with many people groups for the last 10 years. As the first Christian missionaries of their entire family, the Moons are willing to obey God’s calling to serve in Central Asia along with their three children.
Kevin and Victoria Singerman share their testimony during a Sending Celebration in Phoenix. Sent by First Baptist Church in Fairborn, Ohio, the Singermans will take the gospel to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Primary reason
IMB President David Platt said he recently was reminded of the astounding need to take the gospel to a lost world. Just a few days earlier, he was waking up in a remote village high in the Himalayas, in the northern part of Nepal, near Tibet.
“For five days, I was walking through village after village, and apart from a few Christians who recently moved to those mountains, there wasn’t one follower of Christ to be found. Not one,” Platt said. “Nine million people spread across 24 people groups in that particular region, and out of those 9 million people, it’s estimated that less than 100 of them are Christians.
“Most of these millions have never heard of Christ. They haven’t even heard His name. You’ll ask, ‘Do you know anything about Jesus?’ and they’ll say, ‘Who’s that?’”
Platt recounted drinking butter tea with one family who had a statue of Buddha on their wall, with silver cups in front of the statue. The family shared how every morning, they wake up about 4:30 a.m., and before they go out to work in the fields, they fill the cups with water, place a candle in them, and light the candle to offer worship to the Buddha. And they just assume that everybody worships the same way, and believes the same things, because it’s the way their ancestors have worshiped for generations.
Southern Baptists pray for 31 new missionaries during a Sending Celebration hosted by the International Mission Board Tuesday, June 13, during the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix.
“I just want to remind us that the reason we came together over 170 years ago, and the reason we’re here in Phoenix this week, is to change the future of little girls and boys and moms and dads like these in Nepal all over the world,” Platt emphasized. “And if no one goes as missionary to them — someone sent out beyond where they live to places where the gospel has not gone — then those people will continue for generation after generation without ever hearing the gospel.”
“Southern Baptists, this is part of, if not the primary reason we came together in the first place: to send out and support missionaries, men and women and their families going out from our churches for the spread of the gospel where it hasn’t gone,” Platt said.
“The stage is set for limitless Southern Baptists to take the gospel to the nations,” he said. “And my question for us tonight is, ‘Will we send them?’”
Want to explore pathways to serve on mission? Get started here.
*Names changed.
Julie McGowan is public relations manager for IMB.