Her face is etched in Michael’s* mind.
Ten years ago, the Texas-born businessman remembers knocking on the door of a quiet, thatched-roof home in a small Russian town. It was his first mission trip. An elderly woman answered, and Michael offered her a Bible. That’s when his life changed forever.
“She fell on her knees, crying, thanking me,” he said. Her eyes glistening with tears, the woman explained she had lost her husband during World War II and didn’t have money to buy a Bible. For years, she prayed someone would bring her one.
“That will be with me until the day I die,” Michael said. “I never thought in a million years God would use me to touch someone’s life in another country, but he did.”
Michael believes the Lord used the encounter to call him to the mission field. Now he and his wife are headed to Asia.
The couple were among 82 new missionaries appointed by the International Mission Board Nov. 7 in Springfield, Ill., during the annual meeting and 100th anniversary celebration of the Illinois Baptist State Association.
“You are here tonight because you’ve recognized God’s call as a personal call,” IMB president Jerry Rankin told the missionaries before a gathering of more than 1,500 people.
“You’ve felt God’s call in diverse ways – . he took your background – experience and said, ‘I’ve got a place for you.’ ”
Rankin’s point was made evident as the missionaries shared stories of their personal call to missions.
Michael’s wife, Jennifer, said she knew the Lord was leading her to go overseas when she was suddenly overwhelmed by an urge to write a $500 check for a cow. At church one Sunday, Jennifer remembers her pastor talking about the needs of a missionary in India. Cows were valuable to the missionaries there, the pastor explained, but too expensive to buy. He asked the church if they would donate the money for the cow.
“I remember being so excited when I put ‘for a cow’ on the memo line of that check that I felt like I could cry,” Jennifer said.
The 82 missionaries join the ranks of more than 5,300 other Southern Baptist missionaries serving around the world. Rankin pointed out the number represents only .03 percent of all Southern Baptists, less than one out of every 3,000.
“We need to examine our hearts and our willingness to bring our lives into alignment with the heart of God,” he said. “If God is calling you to go, it’s not enough to say, ‘I’ll pray more; I’ll give more generously; I’ll go on an occasional short-term mission trip.’ You don’t argue with God. A lost world is waiting for someone who’s willing to say, ‘I’ll go.’ “
*Last name withheld for security reasons.