the inspired idea of cooperation

This picture was taken in South Asia on one of our "well team" mission trips this summer. The boy in this picture is the son of one of the men who came to Christ. I believe this boy and his entire family will grow up in a Christian home by the grace of God as a result of the phenomonal work of the IMB personnel and volunteers. In this boys region there were no IMB missionaries and very little Christian witness until after the tsunami. Today there are six house churches.

This boys father is a key leader, a "man of peace" in his neighborhood and has already been instrumental in others coming to Christ. He was nearly stabbed to death shortly after we left. Our missionary there stayed with him around the clock and "convinced" some doctors to take care of him. Our church prayed and Christians around the world prayed and he was healed.

I tell you this because I had a front row seat on something that happens all around the world every single day as a result of missionaries who have left their homes and families here in the states and have relocated (often with small children) in order to serve in places we can't even tell you about. Hundreds of thousands are coming to Christ around th world because of the IMB.

And it is only possible because we cooperate.

That has been the strength of the IMB from the beginning. The money that has funded the organization by which this little boy and his family have made such a life change is the result of cooperating conservative Baptists from around th country putting their mission dollars together.

It is a missions organization that has no equal. I have talked to many full time missionaries with other organizations who agree. The IMB is the creme of the crop.

It is for this missions initiative that Southern Baptists first began their cooperative effort. What makes us unique, and by His grace so effective, is that we do it together. Though different in our application of scripture, we are united around the essential doctrines and our call to the nations. That is a gift and an idea for which all of us must take a stand.