GBIM Announces 2020 Offerings

General Baptist International exists to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to work to extend the ministries of the General Baptist movement internationally. A key element to that task are our General Baptist missionaries. Missionary safety and well-being automatically become key components in the success of our international outreach.

The 2020 LAUNCH offering (formerly VBS offering) will be used to help provide for the well being of our missionaries in a very tangible way. We will have two sets of missionaries leaving the comforts of home to serve General Baptists internationally in 2020. The Brantley family will be serving the churches of central Mindanao in the Philippines and work out of the Matigsalug Bible Institute (MBI). Robin Lowery will be moving to Honduras to assist with the ministries of Faith Home. Both assignments necessitate the purchase of vehicles for missionaries. The Brantley family will need a good

G B I M A N N O U N C E S 2020 OFFERINGS

4-wheel drive vehicle to traverse the rugged hills and mountains around MBI. In Honduras we have sufficient vehicles for when missionaries need to leave campus, but there is a real need for utility vehicles (like a John Deere Gator) to help missionaries quickly conduct their business around the rather large campus of Faith Home. Two JD Gators have served us well for many years, but it is time to provide some new wheels for Robin as well as the Faith Home Clinic and Faith Home itself.

Our offering goal is $30,000.00 this year and we believe that you can help us provide for the needs of our missionary families. Your church can help by designating your annual VBS missions offering for this project or by hosting a Day of Poverty (www.dayofpoverty.com) with your youth department and designating the funds raised for the LAUNCH offering. You may also want to use your youth group Day of Poverty to meet some need in your local community and sending some for the LAUNCH

ROBIN LOWRY

THE BRANTLEYS

MISSIONARY TO HONDURAS MISSIONARIES TO THE PHILIPPINES

offering. That would be a great way to LAUNCH your youth into missions involvement both at home and around the world. Perhaps your church has sports (or other) camp rather than or plus VBS. You can also involve your sports camp in missions by teaching your children and youth to sponsor projects in and out of the local community. The Ed Stevens Offering will help us provide muchneeded improvements to the Matigsalug Bible Institute. It has been some time since General Baptist have invested in the improvement of the MBI campus, yet MBI still provides many of the pastors for our 400 churches in the Philippines and provides educational opportunities for many tribal workers and pastors who would not otherwise have access to such training. Currently there are 23 students enrolled in MBI.

General Baptist were pioneers of the gospel to various indigenous Manobo groups of central Mindanao. Reverend Angel Digdigan, a General Baptist Bible College graduate, pioneered this work in the mid 1970’s. General Baptist missionaries arrived in the late 1970’s in the form of the Carr and Trivett families to further expand the work and open the Matigsalug Bible Institute. A documentary film “Miracle Among the Matigsalug” was produced in 1986 covering the early history of this mission and is available on the General Baptist International Ministries YouTube channel. This ministry has been of extreme strategic importance to General Baptist and continues to be so.

It will be a great encouragement to our MBI staff, students, and alumni if we can help provide these much needed improvement to campus life.

Ed Stevens Day this year will be on September 20, 2020. Ed Stevens Day is named for one of the most prolific missionaries we have ever had. Through the influence of Ed Stevens we opened missions on Saipan, Tinian, Chi Chi Jima, and the Philippines. Although Ed Stevens died young, while serving General Baptist in the Pacific, his influence remains to this day.

The Ed Stevens offering goal is $50,000.00. Perhaps your church can designate the entire offering on September 20, 2020 to this mission project or perhaps your church can set a goal and work several weeks ahead to harvest a great offering for missions. This would also be a great opportunity to collect a mission offering for both Ed Stevens Day and some worthwhile cause in your community. Your support for the two international offerings will allow us to do together what we cannot do alone. Thank you and God bless you for your generosity.

In 1994 the Mission Volunteer Program (MVP) was started. (Currently the Mission One Program.) Bob Brockett, with much assistance from his wife Ruth, was employed as the first MVP director. The first MVP team, led by Brockett, was March 19-26, 1995.

My wife, Kris, and I had the privilege of traveling to the Brockett’s house in McLeansboro, Illinois, to visit with them and ask some questions about the MVP program throughout the years.

PRATT: What was going on in your life when you were approached about becoming the MVP director? BROCKETT: I was working in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, for a Heating and Cooling guy and felt impressed that I needed to go to the 1994 General Association (GA) in Nashville, Tennessee. When I arrived at the GA I was approached by Foreign Missions Director Charlie Carr and asked if I would speak at the Men’s Brotherhood meeting at the GA. Ruth and I had been on a few mission trips to Jamaica and Honduras and I was to speak about my experiences. I simply shared from my heart. Shortly after the GA, Charlie approached me about beginning a new program to try to get teams to go to Honduras to build Faith Home. I said, “Yes I would be interested.” He asked me to start in November of 1994.

By Dr. Jim Pratt

PRATT: So you were hired November 1, 1994 and the first team under the MVP went to Honduras March19-26, 2019. Before you were hired, had there been other mission teams go to various international fields but not in an organized fashion? BROCKETT: I had been to Jamaica on a few teams. One of the times it was to help rebuild Faith Home Jamaica after it had been damaged after a hurricane. I put together a team to go. After I arrived in Jamaica, I realized that God put together the exact team we needed. That experience opened my eyes to the importance of being available to go when God calls.

PRATT: Were both you and Ruth hired for the position? BROCKETT: No, Ruth was an added bonus. Charlie and then Jack Eberhardt (former International Missions Director) received two for the price of one. Ruth cooked for many of the teams.

PRATT: Were you able to keep your position working for the Heating and Cooling Company you mentioned or were you full-time as MVP Director? BROCKETT: Ruth and I had a couple of small businesses for 18 years. We had a Sears Catalog Store and a Heating and Air Conditioning business. Sears bought us out and we then sold the Heating and Air Conditioning business. I told Ruth that we needed to get passports just in case God would want to use us. Shortly after that, we went to Jamaica.

PRATT: At the time you were hired, on how many international mission trips had you participated? BROCKETT: From 1985 to 1993 we went on approximately 6 trips to General Baptist works in Jamaica, Honduras, and the Philippines.

PRATT: So when you were hired as MVP director by Charlie Carr, what was the described purpose of the MVP?

BROCKETT: The purpose was to organize the General Baptist denomination into more mission-minded people. I was to organize teams. I spent time looking at other programs to develop guidelines for the development of the teams and the program. One of the things I did was to talk to pastors to find point people in various parts of the denomination that would serve as point people for me. One of the pastors I spent time with was David Kelle and his wife when they were pastoring in Flint, Michigan. The Kelle’s’ would become the first directors at Faith Home. We also visited with Ray Phelps and he was very supportive. He introduced me to two men in his church with one of them being Mark Taylor a dear friend of mine who became involved in helping to build the first buildings at Faith Home in Honduras.

PRATT: How many years did you serve as MVP director?

BROCKETT: I served as MVP director for 6 years. I had two back surgeries during my time as director and Ruth and I also became grandparents.

PRATT: I understand that in those first few years as director, you and Ruth traveled back and forth with every team.

BROCKETT: Yes, that is true. We flew back and forth with every team. We did this for about 2 years. It became too much to do, but thankfully we were able to identify team leaders and hosts that could travel with some of the teams.

PRATT: After you resigned as director, did you quit going on mission trips? BROCKETT: We did not go on trips for about 3 years but then started going back on some teams once every 2-3 years.

PRATT: What is the biggest blessing you received as MVP director?

Brockett: It would have to be being at Faith Home when Allan, Jorge, and Ericka, the first three kids came to Faith Home.

PRATT: Tell me about a blessing you have received as a result of your involvement through the years in the MVP (Mission One) program. BROCKETT: I shared my testimony at the leadership conference at Faith Home and the person that translated for me was Odalin Garcia. Odalin is one of the original children at Faith Home that has grown into a lovely young lady that is doing well. I have been blessed with so many friendships. I have made friendships with people such as David and Martha Kelle, Ray Phelps, Ed and Juanita David, Archie and Virginia Crawford, Mark and Kim Powell and their little girls. I have often pondered in my heart all the blessings I have received as a result of my involvement.

PRATT: What would you say is the biggest reason why someone should be a part of a mission team? BROCKETT: I love to take young people on mission trips. A few years ago, I was able to take most of my family on a mission trip. It was wonderful. I would say that if you really want your life to be forever changed, if you are serious about your walk with God, if you want to encounter God then go on a mission trip.