A Week in Louisville

I spent last week in Louisville, KY on the campus of Southern Seminary. The week started with the normal routine of interviewing students who are interested in serving as missionaries. But, this was also Global Missions Week on campus, so there were some additional events with the seminary. The week ended with a Missions Expo, which is a new venture for the IMB where prospective missionaries come for a three day conference where they consider the strategic needs for new personnel around the world.

The Strategic Deployment team was responsible for leading the Expo. We gathered one evening for dinner at a local Italian restaurant and broke bread together. In this case that meant breaking loaves of freshly baked bread and dipping it in a mixture of olive oil and cracked pepper, awesome!

One of the deployment consultants has the knack of taking doodles to a new level. I watched him do this several times.

As a part of the Global Missions Week, the hall of the Honeycutt Center was turned into a "Hall of Prayer for the Nations" with flags from around the world and table displaying artifacts and opportunities for ministry. One of the consultants (on the left) is talking to a couple that is interested in the South America.

Another consultant is talking to a student that is interested in the needs in Asia.

The Missions Expo consisted of small group discussions, individual interviews, large group presentations on IMB strategic directions and presentations on the people groups around the world who have no opportunity to hear about Christ. Part of the conference consists of small group discussions.

The final session on Saturday morning started with praise.

One of the IMB leaders challenged the group with the decisions that they need to make.

On Saturday afternoon, the consultants discussed each participant and the skills, gifts and their potential for possibly matching one of the needs we have. The great tragedy is that the IMB cannot possibly send all of those who want to go even though they are gifted, called and dedicated.
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For years I have quoted the scripture passage from Luke 10: 1-2

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

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My thinking has been that the workers are few. We now find ourselves in a situation where we have truly committed, trained capable and experienced people who will not be able to go because we do not have the resources in hand to support them. My prayer is that Southern Baptists will step up to the plate and provide the resources needed to support those who are ready to go to the ends of the earth.