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A Word form your Missions Office By HEITH MITCHELL BMA of Texas Missions Director Your Texas Missions will humbly take on the important responsibility of The Baptist Progress should you approve the proposed constitutional changes in the executive committee meeting May 20, 2025. We know how important this ministry is to our BMA family and every ministry that comprises our partnerships. We know that it must continue. We believe in the importance of the physical paper that we are all used to and love. We also understand the necessity to pursue multiple different avenues to connect with different ages and different cultures. We can see a path for partnership that could dramatically reduce the costs of The Baptist Progress and allow for several staff to work together in this ministry. We do not believe that we are equipped to do better than the fine job that Bro. Jerry Fulton has done for decades. We do believe the Lord is orchestrating this change. We believe that God faithfully equips us when we follow His lead by faith. In Christ, I expect big things from a future agency known as The Baptist Progress. To each BMA of Texas Missions giving partner, we want to assure you that your investments in missions will remain missions investments. You are faithful, and giving has increased by over 14 percent this year. We are humbly grateful and want to steward those funds faithfully as intended. We believe a Baptist Progress agency budget should sustain itself through shared costs and reductions that would come from no longer operating as a department. Of course, this would depend on continued partnerships with BMA churches and ministries. As the director of BMA Texas Missions, I have also been assigned the role as executive director of the BMA of Texas, a duty assigned to me by each of you in the BMA of Texas Constitution. In that role, it is my responsibility to promote the BMA of Texas and each of our important ministry departments. I know that BMA of Texas churches are also BMA of America churches and also value each of the ministries that make up BMA of America. We are all better off in a healthy, thriving, informed BMA. In Christ, I trust that the future will mean progress for BMA Baptists. Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done.
A word from your missionaries:  Brad Holcomb– Redemption Hill Ft. Worth [email protected] Alex is a non-Christian friend I met at a climbing gym. He and I connected over climbing, but soon he began to share with me his recent struggles with suicidal thoughts. I shared the Gospel with him and invited him to church, and he came. He has been coming for a few months now and is getting closer and closer to putting his faith in Jesus. He and I have been walking through a book called Multiply by Francis Chan each week. Prayer Needs: Please pray for our family as we prepare for baby number 5  Isaias Martinez - Conroe Mission [email protected] Thank you so much to our beloved BMA churches and Texas Missions for your support and blessing to be able to share as part of a wonderful family in faith. Prayer Needs: Please pray for our summer program.  Chris Mindi– Anchor, Austin Mission in Leander [email protected] Praise God, Anchor Austin mission in the central Texas area is growing in a healthy way, teaching God's Word, discipling committed individuals, developing leaders and building environments to meet more people and evangelize. We just celebrated our one-year anniversary of gathering for public worship on Sundays. Continue to pray for us at Anchor Austin that we would take the gospel and seed the good news wherever we go and build more people for God's glory and His Kingdom. Prayer Needs: For the upcoming annual retreat that God will renew our commitment and refresh us with His spirit in encouraging us to be faithful in the mission.  Haitao He– Free Salvation Bible Mission - Corpus Christi [email protected] One of our church members shared that his wife got pregnant again. While they are very happy, he is also worried about the future. The other two children and his long working hours require a lot of attention so he will need extra help and strength to face the challenge when the baby comes. We pray for this family and learn together to trust in the Lord and try to support each other. Prayer Needs: Pray for the love among our church to support each other's needs in difficult times.  Luis H. Perez - Igelsia Bautista Gracia Soberana - Kyle [email protected] Thank God. I can see the progress and spiritual growth of some brothers. I was absent for about fifteen days due to the death of my parents, and they took care of everything they were asked to do on Wednesday prayer night, Sunday school and Sunday preaching.  Jose Torres– Iglesia Nueva Vide en Cristo - Tyler [email protected] Thank you for your prayers, the resources coming from the missions department and all financial support. We were blessed to host a Sunday School conference this month brought to us by Editorial Bautista. This gave our congregation the opportunity to serve and also receive great teaching. We have also been blessed to have the wisdom and experience of retired missionaries in our congregation. This has kept us on our toes about details on what we are all about. I truly feel that as a result we had someone surrender their life to Christ during our worship service this month. We also enjoyed a great Easter service. Greater things are yet to come for Iglesia Nueva Vida en Cristo of Tyler. Blessings to all. Prayer Needs: I ask prayers for three events in our area association that we will be hosting in the coming months: a Sunday school workshop in a few days, our East Texas church meeting in June and a women's meeting in September. We are very excited about this blessing but we need prayer that the name of the Lord will be exalted in these events.  Rudy Villareal– Hometown Church Mission in Helotes [email protected] Pray for more opportunities to share the Gospel, that our VBS has a great outreach, and we are able to share the gospel with families Prayer Needs: Pray that those who we have connections with will become more committed and for our planning for VBS.  Kyle Cheatham– Grace Church Jarrell Mission [email protected] A woman in our church who was saved and baptized with us last year volunteered to plant some flowers in the planters in front of our church. We meet in a shopping center, and so this has been empty since we moved in. It was her idea, and she did a wonderful job. Further, people from the shops on either side of us have gone out of their way to comment on how nice they are and even offered to water them for us. One of those was someone who has been hard to reach in the past. I had no idea it would be a bridge-builder like that. Prayer Needs: Please pray for us as we follow up with the visitors that God has been bringing to us. That we share the gospel clearly, help them know if we are a good fit and help those who are to come all in with us.  Chris Driver– West Texas Multiplication Network/ Texas Missionary Care [email protected] How hey from west Texas! Another smacking month at Oasis! The highlight was our Easter services! Our Good Friday communion service was one of our highest attended services since we started…until our first ever Easter Sunrise Service where we saw almost 60 people get up early and come worship our risen Lord! God continues to open doors in places we weren’t expecting. Please pray about a possible partnership with the Levelland Christian School. We are so blessed to be able to serve the Lord and the churches of the BMA of Texas! Thank you for all you do for us!!. Prayer Needs: Connection with Levelland Christian school and sundown golf course  Tim Alba– The Bridge Mission in Seagoville [email protected] Our Church has grown in the past few months. Our average attendance has been up to 60 people every Sunday. Our events have reached around 80. We have seen both spiritual growth and the attendance grow in our church. We had 8 baptisms and 1 salvation last month. Prayer Needs: Please pray for a member of ours named Carmen. She is struggling with cancer. Please pray for healing. Thank you.  Jose Gil - Proyecto Misionero "Lidia" – Spring [email protected] My wife and I welcomed Paz, a friend who was detained by the ICE last month. He is back home, after weeks of waiting in prayer. It was a blessing time and we celebrated God's mercy together with his family. Prayer Needs: Endurance and a firm faith. Gratitude for having God's peace in our family.  Abner Nunez– San Antonio Mission [email protected] We're living through somewhat difficult times for immigrants in this country. Sometimes they don't want to open the door when you knock because they think it's ICE. But this also provides an opportunity to work in homes through Bible study, as many families decide to stay in their homes longer. Prayer Needs: Job opportunity for BMA missionaries to supplement the aid received.  Monthly meeting of Bible Study groups in a hotel  Brad Cauley– Cedar Park Mission [email protected] We held our first combined service with our morning group and our evening group the Sunday after Easter. We shared a meal before worshiping under the evening sky, hearing a message, sharing communion, and baptizing three people (Gabe 11, Sophia 10, and Bob 79). Bob prayed to receive Christ just four weeks ago, after joining our group in August. I love how the Lord works! This baptism can be traced back to the death of Caden, my student and the 15 year old son of our friends who host the Sunday evening group (Rob and Kristi). After Caden's funeral, where Rob and Kristi glorified Jesus so powerfully through their grieving, a neighbor ran up to Rob's truck in tears saying he didn't know God like Rob knows God. That led to our Sunday evening group's launch. As Mark grew in the Lord, he was changed! One Sunday he hosted the group, inviting his family and friends to a party before group, hoping many of them would stay. That evening his sister shared how grateful she was for the Bible study because her brother was a new man. It was Mark who brought Bob to group, so Bob could hear the good news about Jesus for the first time and after months of being loved and hearing the word, he received Christ and was baptized. The week leading up to baptism our own Gabriel prayed to receive Christ, not out of fear as he said he did two years ago, but out of desire to have relationship with Him. When we asked if he wanted to be baptized at our worship night, his eyes lit up and asked if he could be baptized with Bob. The next day as I spoke with Bob about the baptism and the conversation i had with Gabe, Bob's eyes lit up and he asked if they could be baptized together. The day of the baptism, Mark's daughter, Sophia, asked if she could be baptized as well. After Kristi spoke with her to make sure she understood the gospel, she was excited to be baptized with Bob and Gabe. What a gift to be baptized with the man Gabe saw come to group, wrestle with Christ, receive Christ, and now commit to following Him with his life. The three were baptized together, Bob in the middle, holding each child's hand on either side. What a gift for a man who never married and never had children. What a gracious God! Prayer Needs: Please pray for our new group that will be launching soon, for our new believers to grow deeply in the Lord, for our favor with the community and neighbors as we build relationships, and for our ministry opportunities with local missions to refugees and internationals. Comments are closed.
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