Sunday Morning Commissioning Service

The service this morning was inspiring and reminded the local church about why our team is being sent to Nicaragua. While First Baptist Church of Frostproof, FL is now more than 100 years old, pastor Darrol Hood said this is the first time, to his knowledge, the church has sent a team of missionaries into a foreign nation.

First Baptist Church has been active in ministry to the local community, and members have given to international missions through the Cooperative Program and the annual Lottie Moon offering; but, as the pastor reminded us all, Acts 1:7 tells of Jesus' command to take his good news to the ends of the earth.
Darrol spoke of the common concern many Christians have for needs in their own communities, but he warned that such concerns cannot become reasons to ignore needs in other communities and needs among other people. He especially warned of the dangerous tendency of churches to become so focused on feeding their own spiritual development that they forget there is an entire world starving just beyond their table.
Darrol said that the church's work isn't an either/or proposition, as if we could minister to our local communities or reach out to the lost across the globe. He pointed out the Great Commission doesn't teach us to choose between Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, but that, as a church, we should reach out to all of these places.

The service proceeded with each member of the team being presented with a certificate of commissioning. After that, the church prayed over all of us for our safety, the spiritual openness of the people in Nagarote, and ultimately our being used for the glory of God.

During these days of our mission, please pray that our father in heaven would remove the hearts of stone among the lost of Nagarote and replace those stones with hearts of flesh, so that those people would hear and respond to the call of Jesus on their lives. As Darrol also said, it is not our job to convert anyone; none of us can achieve that. But, it is the Holy Spirit that changes hearts and lives. Let's ask him to do just that.

Isaiah 12:4“In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.