Pillsbury College Missions Conference (2008)

This past week, Pillsbury College hosted its annual missions conference.  We enjoyed hearing from veteran missionaries and missionaries just getting ready to go to the field.  According to Mr. Dan Morrell, who heads up the Pillsbury Missions Department, we had more missionaries and more mission boards represented than ever before.

The first of our keynote speakers was Rev. Steve Fulks.  According to the Baptist Mid-Missions website, he is the Administrator for Church Relations and Enlistment.  He and his wife Judy were missionaries in Peru from 1985 until 1997.  He spoke from Ezekiel 37 concerning the role of Ezekiel in speaking to the valley of dry bones.  God asked Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones, but it was God who breathed life into those dry bones.  The application was that when we do our part to reach people with the Gospel, God will do His part to bring some of those people to Himself.

Our other keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Batory, who is the Executive Director of Gospel Fellowship Association.  He and his wife Paula served as missionaries to Mexico from 1979 to 1983.  He also assisted Dr. John Vaughn in planting a Hispanic Baptist church in Greenville, SC.  Our daughter Cynthia attended that church for several years.

Dr. Batory spoke about the fact that several of the the apostles were those "who turned the word upside down."  Yet these "Galileans" struggled while they were being mentored by our Lord during his earthly ministry.  After our Lord's resurrection, God sent the Holy Spirit to minister to the needs of the apostles.  It's the same way with the Christian life.  Many of us are just like the "Galileans."  We have struggles in our Christian life, but the Holy Spirit ministers to our needs and helps us achieve spiritual victories.

The theme of our Pillsbury missions conference was to encourage all of us to worship God more.  As a result of that, we will then have the proper motivation in our ministry to others.  All in all, our missions conference was spiritually uplifting.

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College: Clearwaters Bible Conference

Here at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, it is our custom to begin the second semester with the Richard Clearwaters Bible Conference.  This event honors the memory of the man who essentially founded Pillsbury College in 1957.  Our special speaker this year is one of my personal friends, Dr. John Hutcheson.  John is Field Representative for Frontline International Missions in Taylors, SC.  John and I worked together at Bob Jones University in the 1970s.  John was also in the pastorate for 25 years or so before joining Frontline Missions International a few years ago.  John challenged us to make 2008 a more spiritually profitable year than 2007.  He also shared the some of the stories and testimonies of persecuted Christians from all over the world.  Those of us who enjoy religious freedom here in the United States have no real idea of how difficult it is for our Christian brothers and sisters in many countries around the world.  All in all, John helped us to get off to a great start for second semester.

2007 Missions Conference at Pillsbury

The 2007 Missions Conference at Pillsbury College ended earlier today. In the opinion of many of those who were in attendance, it was one of the best conferences that we have had in recent years. Phil Hunt, who has been a missionary in Zambia for about fifteen years, was the keynote speaker. He preached powerfully, with two of his messages being based on Philippians 1:21: "For me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain." Rev. Hunt observed that many Christians act as if the verse says, "For me to live is gain, and to die is Christ." We must realize that our lives are in God's hands and that we must be willing to sacrifice our lives to God's service. We could live for many years, or we could die "prematurely." Either way, God will use us as he sees fit.

Several of the speakers recalled the words of Nate Saint, one of five young men killed in Ecuador by Auca Indians in 1956. In one of Nate Saint's journals, he had made the observation that, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." I would have to say that was the "unofficial" theme of this year's conference. It was a great week at Pillsbury.