The Christian IndexOctober 4, 2017 | Reaching the World Through Mission Georgia | www.christianindex.org

By Joe WestburyManaging Editor

In Prov. 29:18, Scripture teaches that, “Where there is no vision, the people per-ish.” It might be added that without a vision trip, a small Guatemalan seminary would still be struggling to share its biblical vision with its unchurched countrymen.

Last October, Greg Bentley went on a vision trip with Eric Rentz, pastor of Ludowici First Church, and others led by Gary Eudy of “E3 Volunteers.” The group traveled to the Central American nation and Bentley was looking to explore how his two Associations could partner with the local Baptists. The group, which toured much of the country, stopped one night at the seminary in Guatemala City before continuing on the next day.

It didn’t take long to see the need, said Bentley, who serves as director of missions for both Altamaha and New Sunbury Associations.

“The conditions of the buildings were pretty bad. I think the only thing holding it all together were the ter-mites,” Rentz remarked.

And that is how the south-east Georgia churches became involved in international missions, and how they used that knowledge to see the needs around them once they returned home.

In some ways it began three years earlier before Bentley accepted the joint missionary role for two dis-tinct Associations. Jim Elliott was serving in the dual capac-ity at the time, and times were hard. Giving was down and finances were a growing concern.

After much prayer and soul searching, New Sunbury

Association voted to sell its Hinesville building to a Hispanic congregation and invest the proceeds with the Georgia Baptist Foundation. The funds were then ear-marked for missions and min-istry. The Guatemala project, and a special offering that raised $25,000, were the fruit of that decision.

A win-win situationIt was a win-win situa-

tion that allowed both the Hispanic congregation and New Sunbury reach more unchurched for the Kingdom.

“We have a total of 42 churches – 19 in New Sunbury and 23 in Altamaha – and many of them are ded-icated to construction work. They had better be, we seem to be having a regular stream of hurricanes coming through these days,” he says again with a chuckle.

After his tour, Bentley organized a team of 11

volunteers. From Aug. 24 until Sept. 1 the team built eight dormitory rooms with masonry block walls and sheet metal roofs.

Now he is planning a vision tour of his own, enlist-ing Georgia Baptist pastors interested in taking an inter-national trip that is foreign and yet not too far away. The trip, still in the planning stag-es, is tentatively set for the end of January.

Bentley, whose office is in Jesup, is pleased with the commitment of his volunteers and their ongoing work in the U.S. as well. The two Associations have sent con-struction teams of 52 mem-bers to Shelby, NC, and 27 members to Cherokee, NC.

Committed to missions“We are committed to

doing an international mis-sion trip every other year, but a domestic trip every year,” he explains.

While trips at home are important, Bentley believes for some groups an interna-tional trip may be the best first exposure.

“It’s like priming the pump. While I believe the teaching of Acts 1:8, some-times you need to get people out of their home environ-ment to open their eyes to their own community. Once they experience missions on the international field, they return home with fresh new eyes, a new vision, for the needs all around them.

“I don’t think we can remain in our own churches or Associations and think we are doing Kingdom work. We need to do all of the Great Commission, not just part of it,” he adds.

For more information on Bentley’s upcoming vision tour, contact him by phone at (912) 429-0826 or by email at changedlife4ever@gmail.com.

The construction team takes a break in Guatemala City, where the seminary is based, before returning home to Southeast Georgia. GREG BENTLEY/Special

A sale of property and a vision leads to new dorm rooms in Guatemala

The ChrisTian index | October 4, 2017 2

By Jenny GregoryCLEVELAND — While

most students spent their summer relaxing and rest-ing their minds, biology major Elise Lombard spent three months encounter-ing wild black bears at the North American Bear Center (NABC) in Ely, MN.

After being selected for the internship, Lombard packed her bags and headed to northeast Minnesota, where she worked from May until August at the non-profit cen-ter. The mission of the NABC is to maintain long-term sur-vival of bears worldwide by replacing misconceptions with scientific facts about bears, their role in ecosystems, and their relations with humans.

Bear necessitiesAfter arriving at the cen-

ter, the biology major dove headfirst into the many duties associated with the intern-ship. “Being an intern at the NABC,” she said, “they give you all the responsibility of environmental education and animal caretaking.” Daily

“Lucky” and “Holly” relax in one of the many bear enclosures at the North American Bear Center in Ely, MN. TMU/Special

tasks included directing tours, taking part in worldwide broadcasts, and maintenance of reptile and amphibian exhibits.

As part of her conservation

responsibilities, she and other interns were responsible for feeding, moving, and clean-ing the bears. “We needed to bond with them,” she explained, “so they learned to trust us.”

While wild bears tend to be perceived as hostile crea-tures, Lombard explained that the “black bears are actually very gentle animals, contrary to popular belief.”

“Regardless,” she clarified, “while working at the cen-ter, safety procedures were always in place. We always worked in pairs, kept ‘pouch food’ – treats on hand – and double-checked every fence and gate.

“The safety procedures put in place were for the bears, not us,” she added. “We didn’t have a trainer working with us, but a bear curator, Sharon, who has worked with them for ten years. She showed us the ropes and then

observed us for a few weeks until we learned each bear’s personality.”

Interns understood that these wild bears were unpre-dictable. “For example,” she said, “males are separated due to dominance. And if one bear doesn’t want to coop-erate that day, you have to improvise the best solution for the other bears.”

Lombard and the other interns helped with daily chores and educated visitors about the importance of bear preservation.

With eight bear species around the world listed as vulnerable, threatened, or endangered, the bear center associates work to conserve bear habitats, rehabilitate injured and orphaned bears back to the wild, and imple-ment methods to reduce conflict between humans and bears.

Opening doors for the future

Lombard’s experience allowed her “to become more comfortable speaking in front of crowds, take on leadership roles, and learn awareness for animal behavior and how to interpret it.”

As Lombard completes her senior year at TMU and prepares for her future, she considers the North American Bear Center as a possible career opportunity.

“While I enjoyed the envi-ronmental education aspect,” Lombard concluded, “I also realize that I absolutely love working outside with these animals, taking care of them and learning animal behav-ior.”

Jenny Gregory is the content manager for Truett McConnell University.

TMU Student Participates in Black Bear Conservation during Summer Internship

TMU senior Elise Lombard works with “Lucky” the bear during daily training activities. TMU/Special

The ChrisTian index | October 4, 2017 3

The recent history of trying to get a religious liberty bill

passed in Georgia reads like a Greek tragedy or some Alford Hitchcock iconic thriller with a bad ending.

Our forefathers would be appalled that some of our legislators balked at the idea of passing a religious liberty bill. In addition, the Governor’s veto of the bill passed by legislators in March 2016 is the kind of bluster that prompted the nation’s founders to leave Europe in the first place.

The citizens of Georgia will have an opportunity to go to the polls next year to elect new legislators and a governor. Donald Trump’s election as president last year has changed the political landscape of the country. His promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington res-onated with the American people. Ergo, candidates who fail to see the groundswell of

J. Gerald HarrisEditor

OPEN DOOR

voters in Georgia who want to “drain the swamp” in Atlanta are living in a fantasy world.

Mike Griffin, Georgia Baptists’ Public Affairs Representative at the Georgia State Capitol, recently got verification that all four Republican gubernatori-al candidates have signed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act pledge.

The signing came after the Georgia GOP decided against imposing a litmus test on “religious liberty” legislation for the Republican candi-dates for governor. The party adopted a resolution that supported the controversial measure without including a pledge for gubernatorial can-didates to back it.

However, realizing the importance of the pledge to the majority of Georgians, the four candidates signed it of their own accord. The pledge reads: “If elected Governor, I will support

the Legislature in its efforts to pass an uncompromised, state-level RFRA that mir-rors the federal RFRA. I will sign such a bill if it passes, protecting First Amendment rights, particularly the Free Exercise of Religion.”

The four candidates who have signed the pledge are Brian Kemp, Hunter Hill, Casey Cagle, and Michael Williams. These men are in step with the 30 states that have passed measures or enacted statutes that protect religious liberty, including all states contiguous to Georgia.

We have yet to hear if the Democrat gubernatorial candidates will sign a similar pledge, but we can hope and pray they will do so.

The opposition to RFRA legislation claim that reli-gious liberty will undermine nondiscrimination laws, but the failure to pass HB 757 in 2016 has already resulted in discrimination against people of faith.

Eric Stirgus, reporting for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote that Chike Uzuegbunam, a stu-dent at Gwinnett College, distributed fliers sharing his Christian faith and spoke with other students one day last summer near the library on the Lawrenceville campus.As a response school offi-cials told Uzuegbunam he couldn’t continue to do what he was doing in that area.

The First Amendment of The U.S. Constitution pro-tects freedom of speech, but now there are school offi-cials and others who want to restrict when and where peo-ple can share their faith.

I have always believed that if God didn’t call

me to serve Him overseas, but He placed my life in Georgia, He placed me here for a reason. I believe that reason is that He needed me to be a missionary to Georgia.

I believe the same is true of you. If God didn’t call you to serve Him in some other nation across the world, but planted your life in Georgia, then by God’s design, you are to serve Him as a missionary to Georgia.

I hope you will join me in being all-in as a servant of Christ in Georgia. This is an amazing state, but it is a state which is mostly lost and needs to know Jesus Christ.

You have the opportunity to make a spiritual impact on your state through support-ing the ministry of Georgia Baptists from Rossville to

St. Mary’s, from Clayton to Bainbridge. How can you do that?

You can do that through the Mission Georgia Offering. In fact, our theme this year is “Generosity.” I want to encourage you to be generous as you join with other Georgia Baptists in supporting our ministry efforts in Georgia. Some very exciting things are happening in our state and you can have a direct impact on how effective we are at reaching Georgia for Christ.

More than one-third of our Cooperative Program budget is spent on reaching and ministering to young people. That commitment of resources is well-placed as many decisions for Christ are being made by our young people. Last year, over 800 decisions for Christ were made among 9,900 plus

attendees through evange-lism-focused youth events like Move and SuperWow. At the same time, 4,233 students were regularly involved in Baptist Collegiate Ministries on approximately 50 campuses throughout the state. As a result, there were 255 student salvations and 1,381 total conversions through this ministry last year. A total of 45,403 stu-dents were impacted.

Not only do we minister among college students, we call upon them to commit to go on mission as servants of Christ. Through Collegiate Missions, 173 BCM summer missionaries ministered to 36,414 people resulting in 1,190 salvations and 199 calls to full-time missions and ministry. During the 2016 youth MERGE mis-sions camp, 312 students spent 7,488 hours in com-

munity projects given to the city of Toccoa. Twenty-two decisions for Christ were made as students came to know Christ and shared Christ with others.

If you want to make a solid investment in reach-ing people for Christ and in support of those who are going out on mission for Christ, there is no finer way to do that than through the Mission Georgia Offering. I encourage your generos-ity today as you join other Georgia Baptists to make this a great harvest year for mission work in our state.

J. Robert WhiteExecutive Director

EDITORIAL

ACROSS 1. Publicist, slang 6. “The Pharisees began

to ___ him vehement-ly” (Luke 11:53)

10. Trick 14. Northern Egyptian

city 15. Person, place or

thing 16. California univ. 17. Noah built one (Gen. 8:20) 18. “As the ___ of Noah

were” (Matt 24:37) 19. “Sun and ___”

(Ps. 148:3) 20. KJV’s roe 21. “They shall ___ thee

until thou perish” (Deut. 28:22)

23. What manna would do if kept overnight (Ex. 16:20)

24. “God is ___” (2 Cor. 9:8)

26. African country 28. Walk quietly 31. Noah remained in

the ark this long after the dove’s return (Gen. 8:12)

32. Ninevah to 4 Down (dir.)

33. “That the ___ of Noah” (Isa. 54:9)

36. Evils 40. Passed (slang) 42. Precedes alias 43. Orderly 44. Rice wine 45. Pancakes in Paris 48. By means of 49. “Noah found grace

in the ___ of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8)

51. Leif Erikson, e.g. 53. Merchant, as in

Gen. 37:28 56. Quote

57. Movie 2001’s talking computer

58. Nap raiser 61. European moun-

tains 65. Shine 67. Sinai or Goshen,

e.g. 68. Ermine 69. “Noah was ___

hundred” when he became a dad (Gen. 5:32)

70. “Ye are forgers of ___” (Job 13:4)

71. Bulgarian capital 72. Mary is believed to

have been one when she gave birth to Jesus

73. Nebuchadnezzar was not this when he ate grass (Dan. 4:33)

74. Palm Sunday cel-ebrates Jesus’ ___ into Jerusalem

DOWN 1. University (abbr.) 2. The valley of

Shaveh was the king of Sodom’s (Gen. 14:17)

3. One of the gener-ous widow’s (Luke 21:2)

4. Ark’s stopping place (Gen. 8:4)

5. “Ye do err, not knowing the scrip-tures, ___ the power of God” (Matt. 22:29)

6. Soldiers came with ___ force to arrest Jesus (Luke 22:52)

7. “Let the sea ___ (1 Chron. 16:32)

8. Gals’ partner 9. Christ’s sacrifice

___ our forgiveness 10. Sticky stuff 11. Nut

This special edition of The Christian Index is distributed online bi-weekly at www.christianindex.org to provide additional content to readers who prefer a print version of the publication. To read additional stories of how God is working through Georgia Baptists, visit the website daily for stories that inspire and inform.

The Christian Index is a publication of the Georgia Baptist Convention, 6405 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth, GA 30097. Our editorial office can be reached at (770) 936-5590. J. Gerald Harris serves as Editor.

12. “A ___ of waters” (Gen 6:17)

13. Soft drink brand 21. Just As I Am,

Without One ___” 22. Baaaad critter on

the ark 25. “I do set my ___

in the cloud” (Gen. 9:13)

27. Similar 28. What Celestial

Seasonings makes 29. South American

Indian 30. The ark’s win-

dow in Gen. 6:16 afforded Noah one

31. Noah’s robe: AKA 33. Birds with webbed

feet 34. Noah does this to

the ark (Gen. 6:14) 35. Stretch to make do 37. Jacob’s son

(Gen. 34:25)

38. “Had ___ in the grave four days already” (John 11:17)

39. Deer 41. “All flesh ___”

(Gen. 7:21) 45. Grains 46. “___ from his

youth” (Gen. 8:21) 47. “It is vain for you

to rise up early, to ___ up late” (Ps. 127:2)

50. “He stayed ___ other seven days; and sent forth the dove” (Gen. 8:12)

52. Batman actor 53. Joseph accused

his brothers of this (Gen. 44:11-15)

54. Synthetic fabric 55. “Noah only

remained ___” (Gen. 7:23)

56. “Day and night shall not ___” (Gen 8:22)

59. Opera Solo 60. “For thee have

I ___ righteous before me” (Gen. 7:1)

62. Eutychus fell from the third one (Acts. 20:9)

63. There was a ___ of each animal on the ark

64. “___ upon his God” Isa. 50:10)

66. Number of God’s command-ments

68. Jerusalem to Bethany (dir.)