Buckner, Fellowship launch international missions partnership_30705

Posted: 3/4/05

Buckner, Fellowship launch international missions partnership

By Russ Dilday & Lance Wallace

Buckner News Service & Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

KANSAS CITY, Mo.–A major initiative designed to transform the lives of children and families domestically and abroad is being launched in 2005 through a partnership involving the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Buckner Baptist Benevolences.

The partnership was signed March 1 during a meeting of CBF state and regional coordinators by CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal and Buckner President Ken Hall.

The agreement, expressed through a memorandum of understanding, pledges the two groups' cooperation in advancing their respective missions while demonstrating God's “love for widows and orphans around the world.”

The memorandum notes several initial focus areas, including “mission work along the border with Mexico and Texas; work on the continent of Africa; and other projects in the United States and internationally as is agreed by both parties.”

Vestal stressed the agreement's importance to the group. “This plan will receive the highest priority we can give it in CBF life,” he said. “I believe with all my heart that God will use this partnership and the work we're about to do to have a dramatic impact on his kingdom.”

The partnership grew out of a previous two-year partnership signed in 2003 by the two groups to engage in mutual missions work. CBF and Buckner have worked together for the past two years in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas through a partnership called “KidsHeart.” That project is designed to improve the lives of children and families living in poverty. The two organizations also have worked together in Kenya for the past three years through the Baptist Children's Center of Nairobi.

Central to the new agreement and discussion preceding the signing is the two organizations' commitment to providing ministry in sub-Saharan Africa at the request of African Baptists.

Leaders said the new partnership plan is intended to provide transformational development in the areas of early childhood initiatives, HIV/AIDS education and intervention, and ministries to children at risk.

Although Buckner and CBF leaders say the project will take various forms to be determined by the needs in each African country, the basic plan calls for community development based on enhancing the lives of children at risk and working with local churches who want to impact the lives of children. Designers of the initiative, working with local churches and other leaders, will use the community center model to provide educational resources to children at risk and address their expressed needs in areas such as nutrition, teaching of basic life skills, health education and preventative measures, as well as compassionate ministries to those suffering from the effects of poverty, AIDS and conflict.

“I think God is dreaming a lot bigger for us,” Vestal said. “If we don't care who gets the credit or let our own egos or fears get in the way, then I don't think we can dream what God can do.”

In addition to new construction projects, the partnership will seek to work with existing ministries throughout the continent that already are working successfully with children. A major goal of the plan, according to leaders, is to develop programs that can be sustained by nationals.

Douglas Waruta, a professor at Nairobi University and a member of the initial planning team for the project, said it is time “to take seriously our mission to children. When children receive love and are given an opportunity, you cannot go wrong.”

Vestal and Hall said the initiative brings together the extensive missions expertise of CBF Global Missions with Buckner's 126 years of ministry to children and families.

Hall also noted that the Fellowship's national influence will help Buckner extend its ability to reach children internationally.

“Buckner is a very regional ministry,” he said. “Most of our ministry is in Texas and the Southwest. We want to engage our gifts on a national scale. Thus, a partnership with an entity like CBF that has a national presence and national reach will help our mission.

“Our two organizations have been strategically positioned by God at this moment to have a dramatic impact on Africa. This is a big continent, and God has given us a big vision to change the destiny of thousands of children.”

Each group also named contacts for the new partnership. Grace Powell Freeman, CBF associate coordinator for missions operations, will represent the Fellowship, while Scott Collins, Buckner vice president for external affairs, will represent Buckner mission efforts.

Freeman can be reached at (770) 220-1600 orgpfreeman@thefellowship.info.

Collins can be reached at (214) 758-8060 or at sacollins@buckner.org.