At a tea time at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zambia, a group of women mourn a miscarriage in prayer. The group, which includes an IMB missionary and pastors’ wives from various locations, forms an understanding and warm bond.
Michelle Chitwood tilted her head and slowly looked around the courtyard. The wife of the President of the International Mission Board (IMB) wanted to take in every aspect of the tea of these pastors’ wives in Lusaka, Zambia.
At one table, four heads bowed in prayer. A few hours ago, these women – from Michigan, Missouri and Zambia – were strangers, but now they were holding hands and pouring out their hearts to God about the difficulties of planting new churches in their communities. Two tables away, an IMB missionary and pastors’ wives from Zambia and Michigan were grieving over a miscarriage. At another table, older women giggled as their prayers turned into funny mishaps from their combined 90 years of ministry.
These interactions led Chitwood and Lynette Ezell, wife of the president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), to co-host a short mission trip to Zambia for the wives of Baptist civil servants and NAMB missionaries.
“Together we are truly stronger,” Chitwood said, noting the many similarities between the ministries even though the women are typically thousands of miles apart. “Spiritual lostness is the biggest problem in North America. It’s the biggest problem in Zambia. It’s the biggest problem of any nation.”
“When we work together, I think it creates unity,” Chitwood said of the partnership with NAMB. She explained how reaching out to people from a different culture and building relationships will help churches across the U.S. strengthen their commitment to missions.
“It makes you more aware of your lostness and helps you be a better advocate for our missionaries,” Chitwood said.
The team from Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri and Virginia worked with existing ministries and developed a vision for how their own Southern Baptist churches could develop a closer partnership with the IMB.
Tara Fowler, wife of the executive director of the Missouri Baptist Church, was excited to work with IMB missionaries and Zambian believers. She used the skills she learned as an elementary school principal to lead children in games, teach them Bible stories and speak at a parent-teacher council meeting.
“This trip showed me a side of missionary life that I had never seen before,” Fowler said.
She experienced most of the components of the mission assignment – entry, evangelism, discipleship, healthy church building, leadership development, and partnership exit – in just one week. These six tasks are part of the biblical work of every IMB missionary who takes the gospel to a people group and then continues to work among them until a healthy body of local believers is ready to carry out the task of the Great Commission.
The women’s team worked with a Zambian church member who used soccer to bring the gospel to a community living on the edge of the city’s garbage dumps. They shared the gospel in a hospital ward to someone who had never heard of God’s mercy. They taught teachers and parents. They empowered a young Zambian pastor and his church to reach their impoverished community through Christ-centered service projects. They even witnessed an aspect of “partnership exit” when the IMB transferred the title of the local Baptist seminary to the Zambian Baptist Fellowship.
This wide range of ministries was a perfect introduction to the IMB for Mollie Diaz and Marisa Roberson. As NAMB missionaries with their husbands in Michigan, their focus is on the USA. This trip allowed them to see how small churches like their own play a role in reaching the nations.
“I knew about the IMB before, but now the blinders are off and I see the impact,” Roberson said of the experience. “I see the teenager staying out of trouble and learning about God on the soccer field. I see a group of Zambian church women praying with sick people in a hospital. And most importantly, I see the role my church plays in all of this.”
Through donations to the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® and Annie Armstrong Offering®, churches provide financial resources to help the gospel spread around the world. By sending missionaries and short-term mission trips, churches provide the foundation for that message to spread and take root. And as Diaz and Roberson emphasized, God’s work is accomplished when churches partner and pray for one another, as they did in Michigan and Zambia.
Ezell hoped that the women focused on work in the United States would discover that very vision as they rolled up their sleeves and worked side by side with IMB missionaries.
“We need each other to take the gospel to every land,” Ezell said, explaining her passion for both ministries. “Southern Baptist churches have a heart for the lost, no matter where they are – next door, in another state or country. The Lord is calling us to work together.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Sue Sprenkle writes for the IMB.)
