Burdened! What Now?

In 2008 my family and I moved to Magnolia, AR to serve as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. At the forefront of what I brought with me to Magnolia was a desire to pastor a missionary sending church. This was something God put in my heart, but I didn’t know if it would be a desire of our church. In 2009, I shared with Calvary concerning my burden to send a missionary. They prayed and one month later voted unanimously to send someone to a field of labor. The church was in perfect unity about this endeavor. We were all excited and anticipated God doing something amazing. We were ready to move forward. What happened next was totally unexpected.

Keep in mind that Calvary had never been a sending church. None of us really knew what would be expected. All we had was excitement, desire, and a burden to see this through. We wanted to do this, but we didn’t really know what to do. We prayed and formed a mission committee. Those both seemed like the right things to do. Our church prayed that God would raise up a man and send him our way. Remember, this is in 2009. We were ready, but we were not prepared. God had a plan for us to wait.

Our church prayed for four years that God would raise up a man for us to send. We didn’t care if he came from our church or from somewhere totally unexpected. We weren’t lacking for zeal, however, God had some details concerning faith that He wanted to work out. In one of our first mission committee meetings the con- versation turned to finances. The main question was, “how will we ever be able to afford this?” It seemed as though finances dominated the discussion each time we met. I wrestled with discouragement often through this process. Why would God not give us a man to send? Why do we only talk about money every time we meet? The answer to the latter question is the answer to the former question. God knew that we were more focused on finances that fulfilling this burden.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We met with the mission committee one Sunday afternoon and the topic of finances came up again. A man stood and said, “if we wait until we can afford to do mission work, we’ll never do mission work.” He went on to explain by us- ing the analogy of marriage and raising a family. If we wait until we can afford to get married, we never will. If we wait un- til we can afford to raise children, we will never get there. The same is true for missions. If we are only waiting for the bottom line to add up, then we have a lack of faith and focus. That meeting was a pivotal moment for Calvary. Our committee changed their perspective. This led to our church as a whole strengthening in faith and focus. We had majored on the minors for a long time. God was giving us time to work all of that out. God was long suffering with us. Once He got our focus on Him, God did something amazing.

After four years of praying, questioning, refocusing, and learning, God brought us two families with a burden for Indiana. Missionaries Scott Bourland, Kevin Pruitt, and their families were ready to be sent together to Bloomington, IN. We were praying for one, but God was preparing two. Throughout the preparation process God had helped us understand that the work of missions is His work. We are simply privileged to be included. He makes the decisions on who, where, when, and how. That’s not for us to fret over. Our church met the Bourland and Pruitt’s and voted unanimously to partner with them and send them to Indiana.

Mission work is a learning process. We learned that mission work requires much faith. It requires a total dependency on God. We also learned that God could do far more if we gave Him our worries and doubts. He already knew every soul that would be saved. He knew about property that would be purchased and buildings that would be built. He already planned for salaries to be paid and utilities to be covered. There was much that we didn’t know, however, there wasn’t one thing that God didn’t know.

Today, we praise God that the Journey Baptist Church in Bloomington, IN is an organized work. Bro. Kevin Pruitt is the pastor of Journey. They are thriving in every way and already praying about sending out missionaries themselves. Bro. Bourland and his wife, Missy, are sent by Calvary to Hope, IN now as missionaries to a new field. Grace Baptist Church is growing there. God is saving souls and doing amazing things at Grace.

God made all of this possible. Calvary didn’t do anything extraordinary. We simply did what Christ commanded us to do, and He did the rest. Since sending missionaries out, we have witnessed the blessings and provisions of God like never before. We truly serve an awesome God. We are so thankful that he allows us to be a part of mission work. Every time a soul is saved in Bloomington or Hope we re- member what Paul said to the Philippian church in Philippians 4:17, “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” Our church can’t be everywhere to witness to everyone, however, we can send men to the lost world. Each time they win one to Jesus, that is fruit to our account.

Micah Carter

For more information about our missions or to make a donation please click the link below.

https://www.abaptist.org/missions