Good morning on this, the 17th of May. I returned from Springfield, Missouri, last Thursday evening where I had gone to get our missionary interns, the Joyces, approved as missionaries to Burkino Faso, Africa. There were three rounds in the approval process over a two-day period. First the Joyces met with a small group of pastors and missionaries in an evaluation session where any question could be asked or issue raised by any participant of the group. I have been in some of those sessions where the candidates were severely questioned about their beliefs, doctrines, practices and philosophy of ministry, and I have been in other sessions where the process has been much less grueling. Since you can't know what you will face, you have to be fully prepared for the worst-case scenario. Next, the candidates go before the entire body of Baptist Bible Fellowship International leaders and Missions Committee members to give their testimony and statement of their call as missionaries. Finally, they go before the assembly of all of the pastors and missionaries in the plenary session to be approved. Josh and Lani acquitted themselves well through the entire process and I guarantee you would have been very proud of them and their performance through every phase of their approval. They are now fully-approved missionaries and are ready to begin their deputation in early June. I have every confidence that they will be outstanding missionaries. The highest compliment I could give them is to say that if they were not called as missionaries, I would love to have them as permanent members of the Edgewood pastoral staff. Tomorrow's A.M. sermon is entitled, What Makes A Baptist A Baptist and following the evening service, the church will host a farewell reception for the Joyces. I hope I will see you in all of the services tomorrow.
Pastor Mel Brown