missions_waxahachie_10603

Posted: 10/3/03

Waxahachie woman chooses
non-traditional path to missions

By Toby Druin

Editor Emeritus

In the next few weeks, maybe by the end of September, Gay Lynn McCrady hopes to be in a new hospital, swapping the uniform of Children's Medical Center of Dallas for the garb of Evangel Hospital in Jos, Nigeria.

McCrady won't be changing roles. She is an occupational therapist and will be doing much the same job in Nigeria as she has been doing in Dallas. But she will have a new title to go with the new address–missionary.

Gay Lynn McCrady

And she will go along with an emerging trend among Texas Baptists who become missionaries–bypassing traditional Baptist missionary-sending agencies in favor of appointment by a para-church ministry.

The 34-year-old will go to Nigeria as a missionary of SIM, a 110-year-old missionary-sending agency with about 1,600 missionaries in 50 countries. SIM, formerly Sudan Interior Mission, but now known as Serving in Ministry, is an interdenominational ministry that focuses on churches and works with about 15,000 congregations with 9 million members. SIM has been active in Nigeria since 1902, working with 30 language groups in 3,000 congregations in the Evangelical Church of West Africa.

It was SIM's involvement in Africa and the opportunity to serve there through occupational therapy that attracted McCrady to the organization, she said.

“I selected SIM but also considered two other organizations, Africa Inland Mission and CB International,” she explained. “I thought about the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, but I already had this route in mind, and at the same time I was concerned about the IMB emphasis on the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 and the uproars about it and the instability there. I looked at the others and saw them as stable.

“I like SIM's team approach to missions,” she said. “You gather your own support and constantly keep in contact with your support team and keep them informed about how their money and prayers are being effective.”

Missions involvement has been a part of McCrady's life. Her parents, Charles “Bud” and Linda McCrady, members of First Baptist Church of Waxahachie, involved her in missions projects early. Her father has been involved in many of the missions begun by the church, and her mother is the church's ministries coordinator.

“A common thread in my life has been the leadership and example of my parents and the churches I have been in,” McCrady said. “I've always enjoyed going and experiencing other cultures and people and being a witness for Christ.”

Her lifelong involvement has pointed her toward missions, she said, but a 1998 mission trip to Uganda, the church's women's retreat in 1999 and another trip to Uganda in 2000 convinced her that her future was in missions.

A native of Dallas, McCrady grew up in Red Oak. She entered Texas Woman's University not knowing what she wanted to do, she said, but as a youth developed a love for handicapped people. One of her best friends had cerebral palsy.

She gravitated to TWU's occupational therapy program, got her degree there in 1992 and for six-and-a-half years worked at Scott & White Hospital in Temple. While living in Temple, she attended Temple Bible Church and learned about SIM there.

Unlike missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who are supported by funds given to those agencies, missionaries with SIM have to raise their own support.

“SIM figures up how much you need,” McCrady said. “You meet with the person who handles appointees and who guides you through the process. For me, it is $2,200 monthly for support and ministry, and one-time costs of $4,808 for all that is required to get on the mission field, $4,500 for setting up and equipment, $1,500 for cross-cultural training and $5,000 for a vehicle.”

Getting commitments for her support has involved appeals to friends, family and former churches. “I expected it to be difficult at the beginning, but I was amazed at how many came forward offering help,” she said. “The churches I had been a member of were excited about helping me long-term. Many people said they had just been waiting for me to decide what to do.”