North Carolina Baptists are known for their heart. That’s evident to the many peoples that have been ministered to by the North Carolina Baptist Men (NCBM).
“Thousands of people have found out that God cares about them” through the efforts of Baptists from the state, said Richard Brunson, NCBM executive director. “I get to see what He’s doing every day.”
Brunson shared a report Nov. 8 with messengers during the 2011 Baptist State Convention of North Carolina annual meeting in Greensboro. He mentioned a visit a few years ago to a hurricane site coordinator.
One of the people said, “I’ve lived in this town all my life, and I didn’t know there was a Baptist church [here].”
Brunson thought to himself, “She’ll never forget that Baptist church.”
In 2011, N.C. Baptists responded to 19 different disasters, including April 16 tornadoes and Hurricane Irene.
Richard Brunson, Executive Director of N.C. Baptist Men, shared a report Nov. 8 with messengers during the 2011 Baptist State Convention of North Carolina annual meeting in Greensboro. |
Funds to support Baptist Men are collected through the North Carolina Missions Offering.
Brunson estimated that more than 30,000 volunteer days have been worked with 278,000 meals served. More than 3,300 disaster relief projects have been completed, and thousands of showers and loads of laundry completed.
During a session Nov. 7, Brunson introduced messengers to visitors from Armenia (see story, page 10), Haiti and India who would be at the exhibit hall booths during the meeting. These are three of many partnerships that the Baptist Men lead.
Since January 2010, more than 1,200 volunteers have gone to Haiti to help with relief and recovery efforts. Medical volunteers have seen more than 116,000 patients and 1,400 have come to know Christ.
In India, more than 850 wells have been drilled through the work with Transformation India Movement (TIM). Most of the 100 million people living in Bihar, India, among 45,000 villages, do not have access to clean drinking water. Less than half of 1 percent of the population are Christians.
“I believe it is the responsibility of every believer to help them to hear about Jesus at least once,” said Biju Thomas, TIM’s leader.
Because of North Carolina Baptists, Thomas reported that 114 villages have been adopted, and 39 church planters are traveling to remote villages in hopes of planting churches.
Before N.C. Baptists got involved in Armenia, there were 60 churches, seven buildings and 2,000 Baptists. But Asatur Nahapetyan, general secretary of the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches of Armenia and director of the Theological Seminary of Armenia, said the numbers have increased since volunteers have been helping. The country now has 150 churches, 30 buildings and 5,200 Baptists.
Baptist Men debuted its latest medical/dental bus during the annual meeting. The $450,000 vehicle was available outside the Koury Convention Center for tours. The medical/dental ministry is one of many ways Baptist Men find to serve the state and beyond. N.C. Baptists have partnerships with 14 different states along with several countries and several focused ministries like the mission camps, aviation, educators and more.
“People know that N.C. Baptists care about them, but more importantly God cares about them,” Brunson said.