People with an interest in “teaching people to fish” rather than merely providing meals for them are invited to participate in the 2009 annual meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship.
MONROE – People with an interest in “teaching people to fish” rather than merely providing meals for them are invited to participate in the 2009 annual meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship.
The gathering is set for Saturday, Jan. 31, at North Monroe Baptist Church, where Bill Dye is pastor and Gene Hodgkins is church host for the meeting.
“By working together we can bring joy where there is no joy,” said W. Nelson Philpot, president of what is usually known as the Ag Missions Fellowship. “We can bring hope where there is no hope, and we can bring life instead of a premature death and an early grave.”
The Ag Missions annual meeting is to start with registration and refreshments at 9:30 a.m., and the opening prayer at 10 a.m. The Southern Grace choral group is to lead in a time of worship.
Wayne Sheppard is to be the opening speaker. He is partnership missions mobilization strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Billy and Barbara Nutt, and Bryce Blackman, are to report on their recent ag mission trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.
Other highlights of the six-hour annual meeting are to include a presentation by Tim Bowser of Oklahoma State University, who worked with Gene Hodgkins of North Monroe Baptist on an ag missions project in eastern Europe that led to a mass spreading of the gospel.
Kathy Towns, a member of First Baptist Arcadia, is to be next on the program, with an international missions report, followed by an update on the Agricultural Development Foundation. Philpot is to bring his annual report following a DVD presentation of “Solution to Hunger and Extreme Poverty.”
“Poor people, especially children, do not know how to dream of a better life for all they have ever known has been wrenching and excruciating poverty that destroys the human spirit,” Philpot said. “Many of the poor are very young and are silent in their poverty, but their present circumstance need not remain for we can help them experience a better life.
“That’s what this meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship is all about,” he continued. “It’s a gathering of people who care about learning how to care more effectively. If this describes you, please join us at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at North Monroe Baptist Church, 210 Finks Hideaway Road in Monroe.”